Project Development Assistance (PDA) will support project promoters in preparing and launching investment pipelines of sustainable energy projects, i.e. energy efficiency and/or renewable energy projects. This topic aims to provide and build technical, economic and legal skills and expertise for project developers needed for the successful project development and implementation. Activities can include project bundling, technical studies, energy audits, assessing financing options, legal advice, tendering procedure preparation, outreach and engagement etc.

Proposals for this topic can be submitted by public or private project promoters such as public authorities or their groupings, public/private infrastructure operators and bodies, energy agencies, energy service companies, retail chains, large property owners, services or industry.

PDA projects must lead to the actual launch of sustainable energy investments within the project duration, demonstrating a leverage factor of at least 15 compared to the technical assistance grant (or at least 10 for projects targeting exclusively investments in residential buildings). In this context, proposals need to identify the initially envisaged investment pipeline.

Proposals should target one or more of the following sectors:

Buildings:

• Existing residential buildings, including the rental sector, social housing, or district-level renovation approaches
• Existing non-residential buildings, such as public buildings, hospitals, academies, defence facilities or commercial buildings

Proposals including support for construction of new buildings are not within the scope.

Local energy and other infrastructures:

• Decarbonisation and modernisation of existing district heating/cooling networks, including the extension of existing networks provided that the extended networks are fully based on low-temperature renewable energy or waste heat
• Digitalisation and modernisation of existing local electricity grids focussing on energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy deployment, electrification of energy demand, including in industry, and deployment of energy flexibility solutions
• Decarbonisation and energy efficiency improvements in existing public infrastructure such as water/wastewater services

Proposals addressing local energy infrastructures are in the scope of the topic only if they clearly demonstrate the necessity of intervention to foster energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy deployment in line with the objectives of the LIFE Clean Energy Transition sub-programme.

Industry:

• Industry, businesses and services, including SMEs or industrial clusters, clearly advancing beyond business-as-usual approaches in terms of organisational and financial innovation.

Renewables:

• Decentralised renewable electricity production and other renewable energy production directly replacing solid and/or fossil fuel use in targeted end-use sectors, clearly advancing beyond business-as-usual approaches in terms of organisational and financial innovation. Proposals aiming to implement innovative technological solutions, i.e. solutions not already fully commercially available on the market, are not within the scope.

Proposals should demonstrate a clear showcase dimension in delivering innovative solutions for accelerating sustainable energy investments across Europe, as regards

• Organisational innovation regarding the mobilisation and/or structuring of the investment programme, such as setting up facilitation structures, project development units, one-stop-shops, aggregation and bundling/pooling approaches, or efficient procurement procedures for large-scale portfolios of (mixed) assets; and/or
• Financial engineering tailored to the specific project context, with a particular focus on leveraging private investment including blending public with private financing or improved combination of existing funds, whenever appropriate. This could include Energy Performance Contracting (EPC), dedicated financial instruments, on-bill and on-tax payment schemes, community-based financing schemes etc.

Proposals should aim for high ambition levels, including e.g., as relevant and appropriate in the project context, with regard to the investments and/or leverage envisaged, innovation, the sector(s) and location(s) addressed, and/or the level of energy savings and decarbonisation targeted (inter alia by focusing on energy efficiency interventions such as deep renovation, nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB) or zero-emission buildings (ZEB), including building-integrated renewables, positive energy buildings or districts and/or highly energy efficient infrastructure).

Proposals should convince regarding the potential to actually launch the investments during the project duration. In this context, proposals should clearly identify the starting point of their activities and investments and, if applicable, clarify how they are building on and are additional to related past or ongoing activities. Moreover, proposals should provide an adequate overview of the initially envisaged investment pipeline, and specify the needs to be addressed, including e.g. a related market/barrier analysis, the financial and organisational approaches/options to be further investigated and operationalised during the project duration and the engagement of key stakeholders, ex-ante and/or during the project duration (including financial stakeholders).

Proposals may be submitted by a single applicant or by applicants from a single eligible country.