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Main Site: TOEV (Thessaly, Greece)
Replicator Region: Asturias, Spain
This pilot addresses the vulnerabilities of open irrigation and drainage networks, which play a crucial role in managing surface water, controlling floods, and supporting agricultural productivity. These networks are increasingly challenged by extreme weather conditions, leading to high maintenance costs and operational inefficiencies. The SOLVATE pilot proposes an innovative solution that enhances both climate resilience and financial sustainability by integrating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems directly over these canal networks.
Objectives
- Demonstrate a multi-purpose infrastructure model that combines water conservation with renewable energy generation.
- Increase the bankability of rural water management systems without relying solely on public funding.
- Reduce evaporation from open canals by over 65%, helping preserve water during critical periods.
- Create new revenue streams for water authorities through energy production and reduced operational costs.
What Will Be Implemented
The pilot will be implemented in Thessaly, Greece, across a 250 km network of open irrigation canals managed by TOEV. The region, known for its cotton production and hot, dry summers, faces significant water management challenges.
The project will install solar PV panels over the canals and develop a System Dynamics Model (SDM) to simulate the interactions between energy demand, renewable energy production, water conservation, and operational costs. This model will be calibrated using historical data spanning 30–40 years and will be used to assess different investment, policy, and technology scenarios.
Use Cases
Use Case 1 – Bankability by Design with Co-Benefits
This use case focuses on defining bankable investment scenarios that combine renewable energy and water conservation. Stakeholders will contribute to identifying and prioritising these scenarios, which will be assessed using the SDM.
Use Case 2 – Predictive Bankability for Energy and Water Conservation
This use case aims to anticipate changes in the pilot’s bankability, including operational risks and external factors. The SDM will help simulate trade-offs and identify optimal strategies that balance technical, economic, and environmental considerations.
Replication Potential
The pilot will be replicated in Asturias, Spain, a region with diverse agricultural practices and an ongoing shift toward renewable energy. Its varied topography and climate present challenges for water management, making it an ideal testing ground for adaptive solutions like SOLVATE.
Expected Benefits
- Energy and Water Resilience: Reduced evaporation, improved water quality, and better overall system efficiency
- Economic Growth: Job creation, energy cost savings, and new income from electricity sales.
- System Reliability: Greater resilience to power grid disruptions through decentralised solar generation.
- Community Investment: Support for local energy communities, involving stakeholders in renewable energy initiatives.
- Environmental and Social Impact: Reduced carbon emissions and enhanced rural quality of life through affordable and stable energy access.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Annual energy output of 1 MWh per kilometre of canal
- Evaporation reduction from 800 mm/m²/year to 300 mm/m²/year under solar PV
- Additional annual revenue of €50,000 to €100,000 for water authorities
- Less than 5% system downtime during grid outages
- Reduction of 0.5 to 1 ton of CO₂ per MWh of solar energy generated
- 10% improvement in land-use efficiency while maintaining irrigation capacity
2
Main Site: BW (with data from multiple sites across Italy and Spain)
Replicator Region: Ventimiglia, Italy
Many of Europe’s first solar PV installations, built during the feed-in tariff boom, are now over 10 years old and showing signs of aging. Asset owners are increasingly turning to revamping and repowering strategies to extend the lifetime of their infrastructure. However, these upgrades often involve high capital costs, limited technical support for outdated equipment, and uncertain financial returns—raising questions around bankability.
This pilot aims to demonstrate how a structured and progressive revamping approach can address these challenges while improving performance, reducing environmental impact, and contributing to the EU’s energy transition goals.
Objectives
- Improve the energy yield and performance of existing PV assets through phased revamping and repowering.
- Reduce capital risk by spreading investment over time and adopting flexible financial models.
- Minimise land use by optimising existing infrastructure.
- Apply ClimInvest tools to assess and enhance project bankability and ESG alignment.
What Will Be Implemented
The pilot will focus on operational solar PV assets in different regions and climates: Veneto, Piedmont (Italy), and Andalusia (Spain). These assets will undergo staged upgrades using the latest high-efficiency modules and inverters. Real-time monitoring and analytics will be enabled through 3E’s SynaptiQ platform.
Two key use cases will guide the pilot:
Use Cases
Use Case 1 – Boosting Bankability
This use case will assess the return on investment (ROI) for various revamping scenarios using detailed technical and market data. It will evaluate system performance, costs, revenue potential, component lifecycles, and evolving maintenance needs to determine the most financially viable approaches.
Use Case 2 – ESG Portfolio Integration
The second use case will explore how revamping projects can fit within Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment portfolios. It will produce ESG reports for selected scenarios, enhancing their appeal to sustainability-oriented investors and complementing the bankability assessment.
Replication Potential
The pilot will be replicated in Ventimiglia, Italy, in collaboration with CDV. The replication scenario will be tailored to the local geographic and financial context, with support from BW and 3E as potential financing providers. The ClimINVEST Marketplace tools will be used to guide this process and generate a new bankability and ESG report.
Expected Benefits
- Increased Asset Efficiency: Continuous improvement of energy yield over time
- No Additional Land Use: Upgrades to existing infrastructure without expanding footprint
- Flexible Financing: Spread-out investments reduce upfront financial pressure
- Circular Economy Impact: E-waste reduction and reuse of decommissioned components
- Enhanced ESG Alignment: Improved access to impact-driven funding
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Minimum 50% improvement in energy efficiency of upgraded systems
- At least 50% improvement in project bankability, based on investor assessments
- Five or more business and financing models explored and simulated
- Five or more ESG reports produced for different implementation scenarios
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Long-term energy yield assessments (EYA) are essential to secure financing for wind energy projects. However, standard industry practice relies heavily on historical wind data, which is increasingly unreliable due to the effects of climate change. This outdated approach leads to growing uncertainty around expected energy production and poses significant risks to investors.
The wind energy sector currently faces several key challenges, including a lack of best practices for integrating climate projections, the localised impact of extreme weather events, and difficulties in assessing the root causes of underperformance. This pilot aims to reduce these risks by integrating climate data and operational monitoring into pre-construction EYAs, thereby improving predictability and bankability.
Objectives
- Integrate climate projections and on-site operational data into EYAs for wind energy projects
- Reduce risk and uncertainty associated with climate-related performance variability
- Improve return on investment (ROI) by lowering project interest rates through better risk assessment
- Create a scalable blueprint for adapting EYA practices across the sector
What Will Be Implemented
The pilot will enhance the bankability of wind projects by embedding climate prediction data into the early stages of project development. In addition to standard EYA inputs, data from advanced monitoring software will be used to differentiate between environmental conditions and turbine performance.
By tracking real-time conditions and updating assessments over time, the pilot will enable better decisions around lifetime extension, repowering, and resilience planning. It will also identify how different climate trajectories could affect wind output and operational stability.
Two use cases will guide implementation:
Use Cases
Use Case 1 – Increasing Bankability through Risk Reduction and Predictions
This use case will integrate climate projections into risk assessments, involving investors and finance experts to evaluate how uncertainty reduction can lower interest rates. Updated ROI calculations will demonstrate how the integration of climate data directly enhances project bankability.
Use Case 2 – Blueprint for Integrating Climate Change Impacts into EYAs
This use case will deliver a practical guide for the sector, detailing how to incorporate climate models (including Regional Climate Models), meteorological data, and hydrological insights into EYA processes. The blueprint will also document stakeholder engagement approaches such as co-creation workshops.
Replication Potential
The pilot will be replicated in collaboration with CDV, where the updated EYA methodology and project blueprint will be applied to local wind energy developments. The replication will take into account CDV’s specific geographic and socio-economic characteristics and will result in a new bankability report.
Replication activities will make use of ClimINVEST Marketplace tools to facilitate deployment and attract financing, demonstrating how the approach can be adapted to a broader range of locations and investment contexts.
Expected Benefits
- Risk Reduction: Better project predictability through improved understanding of local weather and climate impacts
- Investment Confidence: Lower interest rates as a result of reduced uncertainty in energy projections
- Long-Term Performance Management: Ability to monitor and respond to performance degradation caused by extreme weather events
- Blueprint for Sector-Wide Adoption: Clear guidance for adapting energy yield assessments to climate realities
- Stakeholder Engagement: Stronger alignment between project developers, investors, and policymakers through shared risk models
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- At least 50% improvement in ROI due to risk reduction
- At least one fully documented blueprint for integrating climate change into EYA processes
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Retrofitting legacy buildings is a key strategy for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Despite the availability of EU and national funding—through mechanisms such as the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), and various country-level schemes—barriers such as high upfront costs, long payback periods, and credit risk perceptions continue to limit private investment in such programs.
This pilot aims to improve the bankability of building retrofitting efforts by applying innovative planning and financing strategies, supported by NOVO’s smart digital platform, to unlock new funding opportunities and deliver long-term environmental, economic, and social benefits.
Objectives
- Make old building retrofitting programs more attractive for private investors
- Improve planning and targeting of retrofits through better data and stakeholder engagement
- Reduce risks and upfront costs through public-private collaboration and innovative financing
- Quantify environmental and financial benefits to support long-term ROI
What Will Be Implemented
The pilot will use NOVO’s smart repairs platform and its retrofit module to collect, analyse, and visualise energy performance data from residential buildings in the city of AM. Key features include EPC generation, tailored retrofit plans, and community-scale investment planning. The approach combines technical assessments with financial and behavioural data to enhance the economic viability of the retrofits.
Group purchasing strategies and online consultation tools will be used to engage property owners, reduce costs, and enable continuous stakeholder input throughout the process.
Two use cases will be implemented:
Use Cases
Use Case 1 – Improving Bankability by Design for Old Building Retrofitting
This use case applies the ClimINVEST Bankability-by-Design (BbD) approach to identify and prioritise the most investment-ready properties. It considers the buildings’ current energy efficiency, compatibility with retrofit technologies, occupants’ needs, and available incentives. Alternative financial models will also be evaluated to determine the most feasible investment scenarios.
Use Case 2 – Continuous Monitoring and Adjustment of Bankability
This use case focuses on tracking real-time data and stakeholder feedback to identify risks or issues that may impact bankability. Using NOVO’s integrated digital tools—including chatbots, surveys, and social media outreach
Replication Potential
The pilot will be replicated in collaboration with CDV, where the updated EYA methodology and project blueprint will be applied to local wind energy developments. The replication will take into account CDV’s specific geographic and socio-economic characteristics and will result in a new bankability report.
Replication activities will make use of ClimINVEST Marketplace tools to facilitate deployment and attract financing, demonstrating how the approach can be adapted to a broader range of locations and investment contexts.
Expected Benefits
- Environmental Benefits: Increased energy efficiency, emissions reduction, and resource conservation
- Economic Benefits: Lower energy bills, increased property values, and job creation in construction and related sectors
- Social Benefits: Better indoor living conditions and improved occupant comfort
- Cultural Benefits: Preservation and energy upgrading of heritage buildings where applicable
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- At least 8 business and financing scenarios evaluated
- At least 100 stakeholders engaged through consultation activities
- At least 20% improvement in bankability (measured through ROI/S-ROI)