Unleashing the potential of Crowdfunding for Financing Renewable Energy Projects

Duration: 2015 – 2018 ● Client: European Commission (H2020) ● WIP Role: Coordination, Financing, Market uptake ● www.crowdfundres.eu

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 and brings together the three following target groups:

Renewable energy project developers whose access to financing is getting more challenging
The part of the public that has an interest in investing even very small amounts of their savings in renewable energy projects
Crowdfunding platforms who act as intermediaries facilitating the financial transaction between the public and the project developers.

Objectives:
The overall objective of CrowdFundRES 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:

• Gain a deep understanding of the public’s perception of crowdfunding
• Analyse the challenges faced by the application of crowdfunding for renewable energy projects in Europe
• Develop guidelines that support easier, more effective and wider accepted practices in crowdfunding renewable energy projects
• Apply the guidelines and review them based on practical experience
• Improve the market and regulatory framework, promote the crowdfunding concept and its advantages among those who could contribute or raise funds.