The European Technology and Innovation Platform for Photovoltaics (ETIP PV) gathers all the relevant stakeholders of the PV sector, with arrangements for cooperative discussions with member states, associated countries, and the Commission services allowing stakeholders to meet, agree on their common interests, analyse the issues facing them in progressing R&I, interact with other groups, and determine their contribution to, and input for, the SET Plan. ETIP PV has supported SET Plan activities focused on raising the profile of PV or on helping policymakers to craft legislation or tailor research programmes to optimally support it. In 2018 onwards ETIP PV will continue to support the execution/realisation of the SET Plan Implementation Plan prepared by the SET Plan Temporary Working Group for PV (TWG PV). The ETIP PV – SEC II action aims to assist the mission of the ETIP PV. The proposal addresses the coordination of the ETIP PV' activities, especially towards the progress of the strategic R&I PV Implementation Plan.

The overall objective of the project is to support the European biogas/biomethane industry by preparing markets for the export of sustainable biogas/biomethane technologies from Europe to developing and emerging countries. This will be achieved by the development and application of innovative digital and non-digital support tools and actions, by knowledge transfer and capacity building as well as by the preparation of demo cases up to the investment stage. This will increase the share of renewable energies, both in Europe and in importing countries. More specifically, the DiBiCoo proposal aims to support the European biogas industry in diversifying its sales market and therefore increasing the deployment of biogas technologies in emerging markets across Latin America, Africa and south east Asia, helping mitigate GHG emissions and increasing the share of global renewable energy generation. The project aims to synthesise and develop country-specific technologies and solutions in the import markets. The target countries (importing countries) selected for the DiBiCoo proposal are Argentina, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, and South Africa. These countries have been selected because of the high market potential for biogas projects in the country, along with favourable regulatory environment and support schemes in each of these countries. The already existing cooperation between some of the consortium members in these countries is seen as an additional asset for the successful implementation of the DiBiCoo project. All target countries lack capacities for optimal deployment of biogas technologies from domestic sources. The potential for the common learning and the sharing of knowledge and experience between actors in these countries and in the EU is very high, which can be triggered and facilitated by the project partners based on their joint networks, knowhow and experience.

Europe´s electricity sector is in the midst of major transformation moving from public monopolies to competitive private companies in liberalized markets. The liberalization is expected to increase competition and thus increase cost-efficiency in energy production, transmission and distribution with the result of decreasing electricity prices. The efforts of Member State governments to create a more competitive and sustainable electricity sector are currently clouded by a major economic downturn in Europe´s economic activity. Such economic hardship often triggers reluctance to change which is becoming visible in particular in the electricity sector, where measures to protect jobs and national industry start to compete with market liberalization. The affordability of sustainable electricity is questioned. There is a strong need for innovative business models for Renewable Energy Source (RES) electricity generation in the long and mid-term because support schemes will fade out in the long term pushing renewables on the market at no marginal costs which then in particular for strongly correlated generation as wind and PV leads to price deterioration during production hours. Already today many Member States have drastically reduced measures to further support the development of the RES sector, so that new investment is not possible without tapping new revenues with new business. The aim of the BestRES project is to identify best practices business models for renewable electricity generation in Europe and to improve these further taking into account new opportunities and synergies coming along with changing market designs in line with the EU target model. Business models investigated in this project shall make use of the aggregation of various renewable sources, storage and flexible demand. The improved business models will be implemented during the project in real-life environments, depending on the market conditions, to proof the soundness of the developed concept.

Energy efficiency, Renewable Energy Sources, Energy Storage/Batteries, Hydrogen, Efficient Buildings, climate neutrality, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonization of industries & coal regions are in the heart of European Policies for the new programming period (ie. Green Deal, EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan, Twin Industrial Transition etc.). Many financial instruments have been setup to support these objectives that have a common denominator in sustainable energy. EU alliances across the value chains (ie. EBA), IPCEIs (ie. Descarbonization & Hydrogen, Batteries) and Research & Policy Platforms (ie. Coal Regions in Transition), are dedicated to facilitate the advancement of R&I in the field through the collective effort of EU members, and enable the transformation of EU regions to climate neutral, thriving economies. This context finds a lot of countries striving to comply, especially challenging those that traditionally have economies heavily dependent on fossil fuel mining and exploitation; a major shift has to be done in a short amount of time, putting at risk the balances in the local economies and making years-long expertise and well-established skills become obsolete. COALition intends to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystems in coal-depended areas through the creation of regional excellence hubs and the definition of a joint strategic agenda for sustainable energy so as to facilitate their transition in a just and inclusive way. The regions have been carefully selected (Western Macedonia - GR, Centru - RO, Southeastern - BG) among the under transition EU states that are also characterized as widening, in an attempt to maximize the long-term impact of the joint R&I strategy that will be developed within the project, as those territories are about to amass large amounts of funding and COALition aims to create multiplier effects in the given investments by attracting and mobilizing external investments.

We are currently seeing a deceleration of renewable energy growth in Europe. This is partly attributed to the challenges for financing renewable energy projects. Reduced access to conventional financing options over the past few years has triggered innovative financing schemes to emerge, with crowdfunding attracting a lot of attention. CrowdFundRES recognises the vast potential of crowdfunding for financing renewable energy projects. The project has been developed for and in cooperation with the three target groups: 1) Renewable energy project developers whose access to financing is getting more challenging 2) The part of the public that has an interest in investing even very small amounts of their savings in renewable energy projects 3) Crowdfunding platforms who act as intermediaries facilitating the financial transaction between the public and the project developers. The overall objective of the proposed project is to contribute to the acceleration of the renewable energy growth in Europe by unleashing the potential of crowdfunding for financing renewable energy projects. In order to achieve this, the work has been structured for achieving the following objectives: 1. Gain a deep understanding of the public’s perception of crowdfunding 2. Analyse the challenges faced by the application of crowdfunding for renewable energy projects in Europe 3. Develop guidelines that support easier, more effective and wider accepted practices in crowdfunding renewable energy projects 4. Apply the guidelines and review them based on practical experience 5. Improve the market and regulatory framework 6. Promote the crowdfunding concept and its advantages among those who could contribute or raise funds