About ACCE

Community energy projects are facing specific barriers, which need to be addressed through dedicated financing programmes and products.

The Access to Capital for Community Energy (ACCE) project aims to investigate, develop and scale innovative and collective financing tools for energy communities in Europe. Building on existing knowledge and working to meet the need for capital to finance European community energy, this EU-funded project marks a new step in the successful energy cooperative work.

ACCE partners will look into the creation of successful funding concepts at European level: Community Energy Financing Schemes (CEFS). Moreover, thanks to a diverse consortium, they will bring together national and regional funds to support the growth of local projects.

The final goal is to build a “bicycle highway” of community financing – a financing infrastructure dedicated to accelerating the development and scaling of community energy projects.

Acce logo RZ

Key objectives

The key objectives of the ACCE project are:

  • To develop five CEFS in five target countries (Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Romania and Spain) to set up energy communities at national or regional level.
  • To enlarge and expand two existing CEFS (in scope and capital) in the Netherlands and France.
  • To set up a European intermediary to facilitate access to EU capital and funds by national CEFS.
  • To commit 20 million euros to new and existing CEFS.
  • To trigger 90 million euros of citizen investments through the creation of CEFS (referring to the amount of private capital invested in projects triggered by ACCE).

What is a CEFS ?

We consider a Community Energy Financing Scheme (CEFS) to be a financing scheme that funds community-based energy transition projects (sustainable energy, mobility, efficiency…) to overcome financial barriers that the community cannot overcome itself. The primary purpose of those projects is to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits rather than financial profits.

For example, in France, the cooperative Energie Partagée manages a fund dedicated to investing in community energy projects. The fund collects citizens’ savings, in the form of shares, to invest in renewable energy projects (solar panels, wind turbines, biogas and hydropower) together with public bodies and the private sector.

News

Brussels, 31 January 2023 - ACCE (Access to Capital for Community Energy) is a European project that aims to create standard, barrier-free financing schemes for energy communities across Europe, and improve existing schemes using examples from the cooperative movement.

To do this, we first need to map existing financing instruments. Please use the following questionnaire to share any information you have on Community Energy Financing Schemes (CEFS). This will help us standardise models and identify success factors and existing barriers to each.

The questionnaire is available in six languages.

Questionnaire copy

Share your information in this survey before 10 February. It will take around 20 minutes.

Thank you very much!

If you have any questions about the questionnaire or the ACCE project, please contact Stanislas d’Herbemont (stan.herbemont@rescoop.eu).

Brussels, 20 January 2023 - The ACCE project is looking for a contractor to provide advisory and support services to REScoop.eu and the ACCE consortium partners. In particular, the service includes the development of community energy financing schemes in five target countries (Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Spain and Romania) and the documentation for the inventory and development of such schemes.

This service contract is expected to start on the 1st of March 2023 and last until the 30th of October 2025, when the project finishes.

The timeline for tenders is as follows:

  • 20 January 2023 - Opening of the tender process
  • 17 February 2023 - Deadline for receipt of tenders
  • 20 February 2023 - Selection of the winning tender
  • 27 February 2023 - Signing of the contract
  • 1 March 2023 - Start of the service provision

Tenders should be sent by e-mail to Stanislas d’Herbemont (stan.herbemont@rescoop.eu). Please mention “CALL FOR TENDER – ACCE” in the subject of the e-mail.

Further documentation can be found here.

Brussels, 11 November 2022 - Today the kick-off meeting of the ACCE project took place in Brussels at Phare du Kanaal, in the neighbourhood of Molenbeek. Project partners got together to plan ahead for the activities of the next three years. The two-day event started with a presentation from ACCE's project officer at CINEA, who set up the tone for the project.

The consortium, composed of seven cooperatives from seven different countries, will work on building financing tools that will benefit the community energy movement at large. These cooperatives, supported by REScoop.eu as the coordinator, will create CEFS in five countries where they haven't been developed yet.

The project consortium will benefit from the experience of two existing CEFS in the Netherlands and France. Energie Partagée and Energie Samen will guide partners in building the “bicycle highway” - a metaphor for a complete financial infrastructure dedicated to providing financial and capacity-building support for the development of energy communities at the national level. This infrastructure will be crucial to accelerate the creation of energy communities – as was the case in the Netherlands between 2019 and 2021 when the number of projects carried out by energy communities grew by 16%.

Contact

For additional information about the ACCE project, please contact Stanislas d’Herbemont (stan.herbemont@rescoop.eu).

Project partners

The ACCE project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union.

Disclaimer: The ACCE website reflects the views of the project partnership and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

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