NESOI Plus – Island Outermost Regions

The EU's green transition is unfolding unevenly, particularly in peripheral and remote regions, such as mountain areas, inner peripheries, islands and the Outermost Regions. The latter often face significant challenges related to low economic growth, shrinking populations, and geographic isolation, making them more vulnerable to being left behind in the green and digital revolutions. The European Commission’s Communication published in May 2022 titled “Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s Outermost Regions”, sat a number of areas of priority for the outermost regions, among which the access to adequate and affordable electricity and the development of renewable energy. In this context, energy communities appear as an important opportunity for the decarbonation of outermost regions and a tool to accelerate the energy transition in these territories.

NESOI+ main goal is to create sustainable projects’ pipelines consistent with with the local context, in order to facilitate their access to finance and speed up their implementation.

The specific objectives of the project are the following:

-Establish a one-stop-shop for islands, providing specialized services for the creation of energy communities

-Support 30 energy communities in the Outermost Regions to deploy solid and sustainable investment concepts, by providing specialised support on technical, economic and business models matters

-Ease access to finance, and speed up the execution of projects

-Increase the knowledge and skills of local communities’ key players to develop sound initiatives, considering the specific local context (legal framework, barriers, opportunities)

-Enable a supportive and greater network of EU Islands engaged in fostering Energy communities, by involving local and regional authorities (LRAs) in peer-to-peer activities

-Foster islands energy community initiatives’ enlargement/growth.

NESOI+ will establish a dedicated one-stop-shop to support the development of energy communities on islands, providing technical assistance and specialized expertise aimed at strengthening local capacities. By piloting these services in the Outermost Regions of the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Martinique, NESOI+ will foster the dissemination of energy communities by supporting a minimum of 30 initiatives and by structuring robust and effective investment pipelines. The process will commence with the development of an Investment Concept aligned with the requirements of investors and financial institutions. Then, based on public procedures constraints and projects specific characteristics, NESOI+ partners will meet potential investors presenting the pipeline and defining the most appropriate financial conditions. As an integral component of the initiative, the one-stop-shop will also serve as a platform for the exchange of best practices, provision of reference materials and tools, delivery of training activities, and facilitation of collaboration opportunities across the entire energy community project value chain.