SER - Social Energy Renovations

In Europe, the non-profit sector employs 28 million full-time workers engaged in education, research, housing, counselling, workforce training and other social activities. The sector remains underserved by the financial industry, making it challenging to obtain funding to undertake clean energy investments. To address this issue, SER brings together 8 organizations from 4 EU countries to maximise social impact by boosting clean energy investments in the non-profit sector. SER intends to consolidate and implement an innovative operational hub (the SER-HUB) that will offer full technical and financial assistance to NPOs in deploying clean energy projects, including the design and set-up of a de-risking mechanism (guarantee structure) to support the projects. The goal of SER is to foster sustainable (energy efficiency and renewable energy) renovations in the non-profit sector in Italy by removing financing and technical barriers, and then exploring their replication in Bulgaria and France. Through this scheme, social enterprises gain access to affordable sustainable renovations, coupled with technical assistance, and a comprehensive impact assessment.

SER is positioned to strengthen social enterprises and generate more than 200M in clean energy investments over the course of 5 years after the project, translating into nearly 3,000 jobs, 893 tons of CO2 emissions saved and massive social impact involving energy poverty mitigation, improving social equality, health, wellbeing, productivity, financial literacy, and overall social cohesion. The initial focus is on Italy, with further replication foreseen in Bulgaria and France, and exploratory efforts in Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. SER Consortium represents an ideal mix of partners including a specialized lender, a financing and de-risking advisory, social impact experts, an energy agency and local replicators in Bulgaria and France. SER strengthens the non-profit sector – a key driver in achieving a just and fair clean energy transition and a post-COVID-19 recovery.

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  Countries impacted:
  

  Italy

  Bulgaria

  France
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  Geographical scale:
  

  International
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  Energy poverty phase:
  

  Planning

  Implementation
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  Intervention type:
  

  Capacity building and training

  Policy Support

  Financial mechanisms

  Transparency and information sharing
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  Partners involved:
  

  GLOBAL NEW ENERGY FINANCE SL
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  Type of funding:
  

  European funds from the H2020 programme of the European Union
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  Website:
  Case website
• SDGs addressed: