SMARTSPEND Workshop: A Fresh Insight on Clean Energy Financing

The ‘Financing Clean Energy Transition in the Context of EU Recovery’ Online Workshop organised by EASE for the SMARTSPEND project took place on the 30 September 2020. Patrick Clerens, Secretary General at EASE and Greg Arrowsmith, SMARTSPEND’s Scientific Coordinator (EUREC) moderated the two sessions of the workshop, which hosted 200 participants among representative from the European institutions, different European industries and sector associations.

Patrick Child, Deputy Director-General at DG for Research and Innovation and Director of Clean Planet opened the event, highlighting the importance of initiatives such as SMARTSPEND to create awareness about funding possibilities for clean energy innovation instituted as a result of the European Green Deal and the EU coronavirus recovery budget.

On Session 1, experts on EU-level finance for innovation described the tools to foster a green European recovery. The EIB volunteered its Innovation Finance Advisory service as the way in to its panoply of financial products function. Nuno Quental of DG Research offered to direct seekers of finance to appropriate instruments. Next year the EC’s Innovation and Networks Executive Agency will take on that role[1].

Session 2 focused on presenting SMARTSPEND’s analysis on the EU financing offer and funding models in the context of the EU recovery. Luca Pira, Zabala Innovation Consulting, presented SMARTSPEND’s latest reports on ‘Funding Instruments for energy innovation’ and on ‘Funding needs for the implementation of the SET Plan’. Afterwards, six experts from different industry sectors from the clean energy field discussed about possible improvements of the EU financing offer to meet their sectors needs to enable a green recovery. Participants had the chance to interact in this panel through the use of Slido, stimulating the responses from speakers.

SMARTSPEND is a 3-year EU-funded project running until November 2021, that aims to find new ways to coordinate and increase investments in clean energy. It supports the execution of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) of the European Commission by fostering the efficiency in allocation of public and private funding for clean energy technologies; and by better informing stakeholders on clean energy financing offer.

Stay informed about SMARTSPEND by following the hashtag #SMARTSPEND_EU on Twitter and LinkedIn and by subscribing to the project newsletter via this link.

[1] Statement by Dirk Beckers, director of INEA: 2:30:35-2:31:41 at CLIMA’s Financing Innovative Clean Tech Conference 25 September