Enabling and benefitting from climate protection

ALLIES was a transnational project funded by EUKI, the Europäische Klimaschutzinitiative (EUKI - www.euki.de), a programme of the German Government. The project started on 1-1-2018 and was successfully completed on 30-6-2020. The experiences from the project as well as tips for interested parties and imitators are summarized in a practical guidance,which you can find here: https://allies-project.eu/data/documents/ALLIES_whitebook_final.pdf

Partners in Hungary, Poland and Germany establish new types of measures and organizations to activate investments in cost-effective energy efficiency projects. The key approach: involving citizens, local businesses on  regional level as investors and facilitators for energy efficiency projects in enterprises and municipal premises. Investments generate steady returns for reinvestment and provide citizens with tools to contribute to climate change mitigation as well as local economic and environmental sustainability.

ALLIES represents a funding niche for energy efficiency beyond self-financing, bank credit and public finance. The advantages of this model includes that investments in energy efficiency can be implemented on a balance sheet-neutral basis. No equity is needed and bank credits are not necessary, which does not worsen the rating. Available private equity can be used for other purposes and beneficiaries can benefit form energy cost savings right from the start. In addition, the image of a company improves as an energy and climate-conscious organization.

 

   

The ALLIES concept builds on the REEG model of regional energy efficiency cooperatives as it has been developed for Germany by B.A.U.M. with governmental support. There are more than a thousand energy cooperatives in Germany to operate renewable energy installations, but they rarely focus on energy savings. Applying the REEG concept, their scope can easily be widened to include energy efficiency. In ALLIES, partners in the implementing countries Hungary and Poland are about to exploit the German experiences and find appropriate means and financing structures for their respective countries.