Addressing the regional investment gap for cleantech in Europe
The European Union requires an estimated boost of €700bn per year in clean, smart, local energy systems to deliver on the energy transition. For this to happen, investment is needed for energy projects of all sizes and maturity stages, from early stage demonstrations to full-scale deployment across Europe.
Though the EU is increasing its share of global cleantech investment, an investment "valley of death" at regional level remains a stubborn challenge. Between one-off pilot demonstrators and large-scale renewable investment projects such off-shore wind parks, there is limited financial support or demonstrated partnership models for scaling mid-stage projects across Europe.
Cleantech investments with ticket sizes of €10-100m are failing to attract capital beyond public subsidies. This leaves technologically mature innovations stuck in the ‘pilot trap’, unable to scale to regional or city level.
BRAVE brings together 13 frontrunners to build new regional investment ecosystems
Backed by the European Union, 13 organisations have formed the BRAVE partnership to develop 7 regional public-private investment ecosystems across Northern Europe to break out of the cleantech pilot trap. Partners will trial new ways to scale cleantech solutions - with a focus on increasing ‘business readiness’ in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, and Sweden, and Germany
With support from professional finance experts, BRAVE partners will define their scale-up challenges, identify effective models for public-private partnerships, and design novel business and investment models between public authorities and private energy investors that can de-risk in Europe’s local energy sector.
In the next four years, BRAVE partners have committed to:
- Deliver seven regional ecosystems in diverse energy domains, including low-carbon public mobility, residential solar, energy communities and industrial hydrogen hubs
- Mobilise a combined €150m in regional energy investments, crowding in public and private finance into the ‘missing middle’ of energy finance
- Develop replicable business models and public-private partnership frameworks to accelerate cleantech uptake across Europe
COPPER is an Interreg North Sea project co-funded by the European Union.
Project start: July 2024