NESOI
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Dates
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Role of CIRCE
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Description and objectives
Many islands are committed to energy transition; however, most of them do not have the necessary experience to launch concrete investments, access financing and implement projects.
NESOI aims to fill this gap through a practical approach to obtain the expected financial leverage for effective implementation of island energy transition plans. Starting with a comprehensive survey that captures the needs of EU islands, NESOI provides a platform where islands can access direct and indirect support:
- Provided through a tailor-made digital platform, the indirect support consists of training material, best case examples, tools for technical and economic best practices and a cooperation space for islands, investors and technology developers;
- Based on transparent technical, social, economic and environmental criteria, NESOI selects projects for direct customized support from the consortium's experts and external ones for local aspects thanks to a cascading mechanism. NESOI supports projects at different stages of development, from the early stages that require high-level technical and economic assistance, to the more advanced ones that ask for specific and detailed contributions in various fields (technical, legal, financial), proposing a reality check mentality, to make islands focus on solid projects with the potential to attract investors.
NESOI implements training and coaching activities to ensure awareness and capacity of public authority staff to develop investable projects with the objective of empowering Local Communities in the pursuit of energy transition success. Extensive communication activities at EU level and linkages with other initiatives such as BRIDGE and the Cities Fund are also foreseen.
NESOI partners are strongly connected to investors, island communities and the energy innovation ecosystem, and intend to develop a sustainable business model for the NESOI platform.
Value proposition
- Develop a set of tools and methodologies to guide islands in structuring their energy transition plans from different perspectives (technological, legal, financial, business model, citizen participation).
- Design and manage a digital platform to recruit candidate islands, share best practices, showcase successful projects and innovative technologies adapted to the islands.
- Define criteria to select and prioritize islands for NESOI support.
- Provide expert resources on physical platforms to selected islands to support the structuring of implementable energy transition projects.
- Manage a lean financial support scheme to allocate funds to selected islands for local and procedural support.
- Define a robust business model to exploit the NESOI facility after the EU funding period and replicate the investment concepts.
- Provide training and capacity building support to island public authorities to train and empower their staff to develop investable energy transition projects.
- Develop and implement a large-scale communication and dissemination plan to promote the facility at EU level and cooperate with other initiatives at EU level.
Project partners
CIRCE, CERTH, RINA, ZABALA, E-ON, DELOITTE, WOLF THEISS, SINLOC, R2M, HAEE