COMPILE Toolkit: Financing Guide

Energy communities require funding to get their projects off the ground. Different financing models are available to them, and each model comes with benefits and constraints. The most important thing to consider when financing your projects is that the financing model you choose will automatically impact the ownership of your community energy project.

This guide offers an overview of models that energy communities may consider to finance their activities and projects and presents the relationship between ownership and financing.

The first part of the guide introduces the criteria to consider when choosing financing tools in relationship with ownership. The second part describes some financing sources: equity financing (offering ownership of your project to another party who steps into the capital), debt financing (reimbursement of the money that you will receive and that the funder will charge a fee (interest) on that), subsidies and grants, crowdfunding and guarantees. The report closes with a reflection on the implementation of energy community definitions in the EU legislation and the implications of community ownership.

Readers can follow this guide to go through the construction of the financing plan for their energy community.

This guide is part of the COMPILE Toolkit, a series of reports and dashboards to help you build your energy community. You can also explore its Stakeholders Engagement Guide and Best Practice Guide.