Project Development Assistance for sustainable energy investments

Expected Impact

Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities, and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts. This demonstration should include a detailed analysis of the starting point and a set of well-substantiated assumptions, and establish clear causality links between the results and the expected impact.

PDA proposals should result in the actual launch of an energy efficiency and/or renewable energy investment programme, as well as the delivery of an innovative organisational approach and/or financing solution for sustainable energy investment projects.

Proposals should demonstrate that every million EUR of EU support will result in at least EUR 15 million of investments in sustainable energy launched during the project duration (or at least EUR 10 million for projects targeting exclusively investments in residential buildings). The evidence in form of signed work or investment contracts, or a similar convincing proof, needs to be clearly identified in the proposal, and must be submitted as part of the deliverables of the project. In case a similar convincing proof is proposed, it should be clearly explained in the specific investment context; a general (contractual) access to finance alone is not considered a sufficiently convincing proof for the actual investment launch. Proposals should also contribute to increased skills and capacity to deliver further sustainable energy investments.

Proposals should quantify their results and impacts using the indicators provided for the topic, when they are relevant for the proposed activities. The results and impacts should be quantified for the end of the project and for 5 years after the end of the project. The quantitative indicators for this topic include:

• Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) launched and evidenced by the end of the project
• Ratio of sustainable energy investments launched to EU support requested (leverage factor)
• Number of staff with increased skills within project organisations
• Number of organisations with increased capacity to deliver sustainable energy investments and/or tailored organisational structures
• Number of jobs directly and indirectly created.

Proposals should also provide indicators which are specific to their proposed activities.

All proposals submitted under this topic should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE Clean Energy Transition sub-programme:

• Primary energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year)
• Final energy savings triggered by the project (in GWh/year)
• Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year)
• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (in tCO2-eq/year)
• Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro)

Funding rate

Other Action Grants (OAGs) — 95%

Objective

Project Development Assistance (PDA) offers technical assistance to convert sustainable energy project ideas into actual investments. It supports public and private project developers in every step of the way to deliver sustainable energy investments of ambition and scale.

Significant investments in sustainable energy need to be mobilised to achieve the EU’s energy and climate targets, and to support EU competitiveness and energy independence. In order to meet the required level of investments, it is necessary to progressively maximise the mobilisation of private capital, using public funds as a catalyst. PDA projects contribute significantly to the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Renewable Energy Directive, and the Clean Industrial Deal[1] and Affordable Energy Action Plan[2], and will help pave the way for a decarbonised and clean energy system. PDA actions significantly contribute to accelerating the clean energy transition, including energy independence, by supporting the phase out of EU fossil fuel imports from Russia in line with the REPowerEU roadmap[3] and the Green Deal Investment Plan[4], and to EU competitiveness by stimulating market demand for Net-Zero technologies and assisting in their uptake.

Overall, PDA projects are expected to increase the cost-effectiveness of EU and national public budgetary resources by developing ready-to-finance projects, which are, inter alia, bankable and/or mobilise private investments (as appropriate in the specific project context).

A range of innovative solutions with regard to financing and investment mobilisation were developed in PDA projects under LIFE CET and Horizon 2020 which helped to accelerate investment, shift market boundaries, overcome legal and structural barriers, improve organisational structures and demonstrate practical application of inspiring solutions, replicable in other cities and regions throughout the EU. These projects could serve as a reference for further PDA projects.

PDA projects can also aim to implement investment concepts developed under the European City Facility[5], or under the LIFE CET support to heating and cooling networks and industrial clusters, amongst other.

The EU is facing important increases in energy prices, driven by market volatility and exacerbated by its dependence on imported fossil fuels. A key priority for the EU is to strengthen the resilience of its energy system vis-a-vis geopolitical crises impacting the global energy market. Therefore, applicants under this topic are invited, where possible, to develop and implement long-term structural sustainable and energy efficiency measures to enhance EU energy system resilience against future crises, in coherence with short-term energy relief measures needed to respond to the current shock on the global energy markets.

Scope

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.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in a range of EUR 1 to 1.5 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

For proposals focused on supporting the clean energy transition of European industries and businesses, please consider applying under the topic LIFE-2026-CET-INDUSTRY.

For proposals focused on supporting the development of integrated services for clean energy transition in private buildings, please consider applying under the topic LIFE-2026-CET-OSS.

[1] https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/clean-industrial-deal_en

[2] COM/2025/79 final

[3] COM(2025) 440 final/2

[4] The European Green Deal Investment Plan and Just Transition Mechanism explained

[5] https://www.eucityfacility.eu/