Publications
Citation: Doukas, Η. (2018). On the appraisal of “Triple-A” energy efficiency investments, Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 13:7, 320-327, DOI: 10.1080/15567249.2018.1494763.
Description: Traditional investment institutions lack the technical understanding of the essence of energy efficiency investments. This often creates a lack of trust to such investments, which acts as a barrier to including energy efficiency projects in the investment portfolio, even though such investments are often robust and have a guaranteed return. Mainstreaming energy efficiency finance remains still a challenge. This paper proposes a decision support framework for identifying “Triple-A” energy efficiency investments, aiming to reduce the respective time and effort required at the early stage of the project conceptualization as well as increase transparency and efficiency of decision making. The “Triple-A” investments are the ones that successfully pass the proposed three-step approach, namely Assess – Agree – Assign. By elaborating a meta-analysis on the De-risking Energy Efficiency Platform available data, first insights from the adoption of such an approach are derived. Moreover, future directions are presented and discussed.
Citation: Karakosta, C., Papapostolou, A., Vasileiou, G., Psarras, J. (2021). Financial Schemes for Energy Efficiency Projects: Lessons Learnt from In-Country Demonstrations. Energy Services Fundamentals and Financing. Edited by: David Borge-Diez and Enrique Rosales-Asensio. USA: Academic Press, Elsevier, ISBN: 9780128205921, https://doi.org/10.1016/C2018-0-04950-6, pp 55-78
Description: Traditional investment institutions face a lack of understanding regarding the technical aspects of energy efficiency investments. Indeed, due to the heterogeneity of such investments and to the immaturity of the market the entry into this business is unattractive for many financial institutions, although energy efficiency projects can often present a guaranteed return. The aim of this paper is to propose a methodological framework on energy efficiency investments and robust financing programs/models in targeted case study countries that will act as first-of-a-kind demonstration for the banks, institutional investors and asset managers, with the use of approaches based on knowledge transfer and capacity building among key actors. The experience gathered from in-country demonstration will also facilitate and accelerate the replicability, while findings could then be used to lead to concrete recommendations towards a successfully energy efficiency financing.
Citation: Triple-A, LAUNCH, AmBIENCe, NOVICE, QUEST and U-CERT (2020), Seven Horizon2020 projects advise EU leaders how to prepare buildings for the energy transition.https://zenodo.org/record/4291900.
Description: The transition to a forward-looking climate neutral economy, announced in the European Green Deal, demands an action plan where public and private sector investments are channeled towards climate-friendly technologies and business models. To support this transition, Triple-A, together with 6 H2020 projects – SENSEI, LAUNCH, AmBIENCe, NOVICE, QUEST and U-CERT have drafted recommendations in a letter to policymakers, based on all projects’ findings and objectives, investigating ways to enable the mass adoption of energy efficiency measures and smart technologies supporting the uptake of more renewable energy sources. This is being done through the development of tools and methodologies that include enabling ESCOs to develop demand response functionalities, improving and standardizing measurement and verification methods, de-risking and attracting private investments, creating new business models and expanding markets, as well as transforming energy efficiency and demand response into energy resources for TSOs and DSOs. The policy recommendations are gathered under 4 generic themes: electricity market reform, financing methods, technical streamlining and energy performance certification. They are derived through an in-depth understanding of the social, technical, economic, and environmental dimensions of the energy transition, as viewed from the academic, business and policy perspectives of the contributing projects, all funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. While these recommendations are well supported by research, they need to be complemented by the democratic and effective engagement of all actors involved in the value chain to realize the intended results.
Citation: Papapostolou, A., Karakosta, C., Mylona, Z., Psarras, J. (2020). Financing Sustainable Energy Efficiency Projects: The Role of Stakeholders. Book of Proceedings of the XIV Balkan Conference on Operational Research, Operational Research in the Era of Digital Transformation and Business Analytics, 30 September - 3 October 2020, Thessaloniki, Greece, (pp. 116-120), ISBN – 978-618-85079-0-6.
Description: Energy efficiency finance is considered of outmost importance for the achievement of the European Union’s (EU) energy and climate objectives for 2030 and beyond. However, it remains a challenge how to identify which investments could foster sustainable growth, while also having the capacity to meet their commitments from the first stages of investments generation. In the meanwhile, stakeholder engagement is becoming an important component aiming to enlighten the gap of all policy and decision support processes. The aim of this study is to develop a concrete methodological approach that aims at involving highly relevant stakeholders, gathering their input and/ or training them in terms of energy efficiency financing. The key actors are identified among all the relevant stakeholder groups, while their roles, interest, motives and power are analysed. The main challenge to be addressed towards this direction is how to ensure the necessary consultation with financial institutional bodies and market operators at national and EU level, which is fundamental for achieving a successful finance of energy efficiency projects. Finally, the study could serve as an analytical guide on the development of a stakeholder engagement plan that could effectively exploit the broad scope of the financial instruments and various experiences of the market actors including their required knowledge and skills towards the energy efficiency investments financing.
Citation: Papapostolou, A., Mexis, F. D., Sarmas, E., Karakosta, C., Psarras, J. (2020). Web-based Application for Screening Energy Efficiency Investments: A MCDA Approach. 11th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications (IISA), 15-17 July 2020, Piraeus, Greece, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1109/IISA50023.2020.9284403.
Description: Energy Efficiency (EE) has been identified as one of the most cost-effective means aiming at reducing energy consumption while maintaining an equivalent level of economic activity. Mainstreaming EE financing is considered a key priority to avert climate change. The lack of evidence on the performance, commonly agreed procedures and standards for EE investments, particularly during the first stages of investment generation and pre-selection/pre-evaluation, are the key problems hampering EE investment financing. It is also true that often project developers do not have the expertise or resources to make a convincing financing case for investors. In order to boost EE investments, this paper proposes a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology intending to support financing institutions to identify attractive EE project ideas in the early development phase of project initiation and planning. The study implements the ELECTRE TRI method to benchmark EE project ideas in a standardized, investor recognizable credit rating form. A respective web-based tool facilitating the methodology and the screening of EE projects is also developed, supporting financing bodies and EE funds to rapidly detect and aggregate projects that meet the necessary criteria to be financed.
Citation: Loureiro T., Gil M., Desmaris R., Andaloro A., Karakosta C., Plesser S.(2020). De-Risking Energy Efficiency Investments through Innovation. Proceedings 2020, 65, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2020065003
Description: Three Horizon 2020 projects, EEnvest, Triple-A and QUEST, are exploring innovative approaches to de-risking energy efficiency investments, focusing on how to render those investments attractive to the financial sector. EEnvest aims to develop a platform in order to contribute to the risk reduction for building energy efficiency investments, Triple-A focuses on enhancing at an early stage the investment value chain of energy efficiency projects and, finally, QUEST wants to improve the quality of management investments in energy efficiency.
Citation: Mexis F. D, Papapostolou A., Karakosta C., Doukas H. (2020). Fostering Energy Efficiency Investments at an Early Stage: A Standardized Toolbox. Book of Abstracts, 7th International Conference on Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change (ESCC 2020), 24-26 August, Skiathos, Greece. Available at: http://escc.uth.gr/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ESCC-2020_Book-of-Abstracts.pdf
Description: Energy efficiency (EE) is considered one of the major pathways to reduce carbon emissions. In this context, the ambitious energy policy targets for 2030 and 2050 create the need for upscaling the energy efficiency finance. The challenge lies in identifying and mainstreaming EE investments, fostering sustainable growth, already from the first stages of investments generation and pre-selection/ pre-evaluation. In order to make EE investments more transparent, predictable and attractive for financiers and project developers, this study introduces a three-step toolbox focused on the pre-screening process, where no standardization exists, supporting the identification of attractive project ideas. Within the first tool, which has a a Go / No-Go character, the project ideas are evaluated according their perceived risk profile taking into account the country, sector and project category. The second tool incorporates various existing or new risk, financial and other key performance indicators (KPIs), in order to identify and benchmark the most financially efficient projects that passed the first tool, using a multicriteria classification method. Finally, at the third tool, beneficiaries of EE investments that seek financing instruments to support their project ideas are combined with financing bodies that search for a profitable portfolio of optimal projects to finance. This toolbox is expected to facilitate both project developers and financing institutions in selecting the most suitable, efficient and cost-effective project ideas according to their strategy and rules.
Citation: Papapostolou A., Karakosta C., Mexis F. D., Psarras J. (2020). Benchmarking Energy Efficiency Projects: A Multicriteria Approach. Book of Abstracts, 7th International Conference on Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change (ESCC 2020), 24-26 August, Skiathos, Greece. Available at: http://escc.uth.gr/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ESCC-2020_Book-of-Abstracts.pdf
Description: Nowadays, European Union (EU) considers Energy Efficiency (ΕE) as one of its main pillars in order to reduce pollution and energy imports. The recently released Technical Expert Group (TEG) report on EU Taxonomy is a guide to green development, in continuance to EU’s focus on reducing carbon emissions, scale down energy consumption and secure European energy autarky. However, to the best of our knowledge hardly any standardized or integrated method supporting investors and financing institutes to identify highly efficient economic activities at an early stage that can unambiguously be considered environmentally green exist. In addition, investment benchmarking contributes in pointing out cost-effective and highly efficient EE project proposals, making them more attractive to investors by following a standardized procedure. In the above context, this paper presents a multi-criteria approach based on the Electre Tri method, which aims to benchmark EE investment ideas incorporating financial, environmental and risk criteria. The EE investments are classified into three classes: Triple-A, Reserved or Rejected, reflecting their capacity to achieve environmental and financial goals, while stakeholders engagement will play a crucial role in this proposed approach. The profiles of the benchmarking classes and the criteria thresholds will be formed through a stakeholder consultation process, in order to be harmonized with the requirements and the specifications of investors, financing institutes and green financing instruments. The benchmarks obtained by the multicriteria method could facilitate decision makers in reducing uncertainty involved with EE investments, and support investors and financing institutes to target their capital towards green financing.
Citation: Mexis F.D., Papapostolou A., Karakosta C., Sarmas E., Koutsandreas D., Doukas H. (2021). Leveraging Energy Efficiency Investments: An Innovative Web-based Benchmarking Tool, Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems Journal, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 237-248. https://doi.org/10.25046/aj060526.
Description: Energy Efficiency (EE) plays a key role in decreasing energy consumption at a European level, while it is considered as one of the most cost-efficient means to achieve carbon reduction and reinforce energy sufficiency and security. EE financing is imperative to implement measures that will lead to achieving the desired carbon neutrality and, thus, avert climate change. The majority of EE investments ideas are abandoned during the first stages of investment generation as there is not enough interest by the involved actors to support the maturing of the idea. The present paper aims to boost EE investments by developing a web-based Tool that evaluates project ideas, connecting them with real financing proposals. All the above are being realised through standardised procedures, establishing a concrete typology of five (5) EE sectors, a well-structured risk assessment methodology of five (5) risk categories and (9) risk factors, and a benchmarking procedure that takes into account four (4) broadly used economic criteria and eleven (11) verified sustainability indicators. All the parameters are calculated using the candidate project data and EU official statistics, formulated into four (4) main criteria that are fed into a MultiCriteria Decision Analysis that performs the project’s benchmarking. The presented methodology is being practically tested through the development of three (3) innovative Tools (Assess, Agree, Assign) and a stakeholder consultation process with around 200 participants. The Tools filter and benchmark candidate project ideas, based on the standardised benchmarking and the EU Taxonomy sustainability principles, while connecting the most promising project ideas with state-of-the-art financing methods, such as the Green Loans, the Green Bonds and the Energy Efficiency Auctions. By this token, the developed Tools provenly provide added value to the respective stakeholders, offering standardisation in EE project benchmarking and financing, building trust between investors and projects developers.
Citation: Karakosta C., Mylona Z., Karásek J., Papapostolou A., Geiseler E. (2021). Tackling covid-19 crisis through energy efficiency investments: Decision support tools for economic recovery, Energy Strategy Reviews, Volume 38, 2021, 100764, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2021.100764.
Description: The covid-19 pandemic has unleashed unprecedented shocks across all aspects of society. Especially, the energy sector is in no exception, with concerns being raised about how governments and private sector will recover from the economic recession but continue working towards clean energy transition. Firm commitments and targeted energy efficiency (EE) investments are required. This study's aim is twofold; firstly, a review on the energy sector crisis with the critical role of EE investments and the investigation of available Decision Support (DS) tools to boost such recovery. The methodology followed by a review on strategically selected countries to capture their energy recovery needs and strategies. Results showed that EE investments will assist in countering pandemic recession, therefore, innovative DS tools and standardisation methods are required. However, hardly any tool exists identifying sustainable investments with strong potential to meet their commitments. The Triple-A Horizon 2020 standardised tools are considered to play critical role enabling EE projects to get financed towards assessing the EE investments' risks.
Citation: Mexis, F.D.; Papapostolou, A.; Karakosta, C.; Psarras, J. Financing Sustainable Energy Efficiency Projects: The Triple-A Case. Environ. Sci. Proc. 2021, 11, 22. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011022
Description: Investing in energy efficiency (EE) could play a crucial role in transitioning to a future economy, where sustainable growth will be the centre of attention. To reach such EE investments, a mobilisation of capital through the targeted use of funds, innovative schemes and standardisation tools for the respective key actors is required. The European Union Horizon 2020 Triple-A project could assist in securing EE investments that could meet their financial commitments. This manuscript provides a standardised methodology and tools to assess the involved risks and benchmarks the proposed investment ideas, helping investors and policymakers choose the most profitable solution. This manuscript summarises the methodology established, tools developed, and results that emerged from Triple-A’s venture to mainstream EE financing.
Citation: Loureiro, T.; Pozza, C.; Mexis, F.D.; Olivero, S.; Csiky, C.d.; Bogi, A. Integration of Finance in Energy Efficiency. Environ. Sci. Proc. 2021, 11, 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011007
Description: A number of H2020 funded projects (EEnvest, Triple-A, Quest, LAUNCH, and CitizEE) are developing innovative solutions to de-risk investments in energy efficiency projects, and they have formed a cluster, joining forces on a common workshop at Sustainable Places 2021.
Citation: Koutsandreas, D., Kleanthis, N., Flamos, A., Karakosta, C., Doukas, H. (2022). Risks and mitigation strategies in energy efficiency financing: A systematic literature review, Energy Reports, Vol. 8, pp. 1789-1802, ISSN 2352-4847, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.01.006
Description: The ever-growing need for boosting energy efficiency implementation towards achieving the targets set at a European level till 2050, has made the upscaling of energy efficiency investments an imperative. This endeavor requires the analysis and evaluation of energy efficiency investments with respect to all the related technical aspects and uncertainty factors. Nonetheless, up to date, despite the existence of a critical body of literature that delves into this field, a significant gap exists as regards the transparent and rigorous study of energy efficiency investment risks from a holistic point of view and the time that are triggered during energy efficiency projects’ life cycle, while stakeholders’ perspective is usually not taken into consideration. In this context, this paper tries to identify the whole spectrum of risks and uncertainties that can arise in energy efficiency financing and to classify them with respect to the project phase that are probably to be triggered. Moreover, it aims to identify the proposed risk mitigation strategies to deal with the risks arisen and reduce their impact. In this effort, the study follows a systematic literature review to synthetize the respective literature, while the view of key players in energy efficiency financing is incorporated into the analysis through relevant projects’ outcomes. Our results indicate that the risks in energy efficiency financing can be classified over eight general categories, with the ones referring to the regulatory framework of the country of implementation and the technical aspects of energy efficiency projects being the most referenced ones.
Citation: Mexis F. D., Papapostolou A., Karakosta C., Doukas H. (2021). Assessing the Necessity for Investments in Energy Efficiency through the Sustainable Development Goals, Book of Abstracts of the 31st European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2021), 11-14 July 2021, Athens, Greece. Available at: https://www.euro-online.org/conf/admin/tmp/program-euro31.pdf
Description: Investing in energy efficiency is one of the main priorities of European Union’s energy and climate policy offering a variety of benefits, including reduced energy costs, reduced carbon emissions, improved security of supply and improved employment conditions. These benefits can-not always be easily measured, while they are rarely considered when assessing the feasibility of energy efficiency projects. Towards this direction, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) require strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs, while tackling climate change. Thus, it is considered a high-priority to link energy efficiency with SDG since the broad promotion and implementation of energy efficiency measures could significantly improve several SDG indices at a country level. In the context of the presented study, primary energy efficiency sectors and measures have been identified for eight European case study countries, namely Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Spain. In addition, SDG indices, associated directly or indirectly with the implementation of energy efficiency measures have been assigned to relevant sectors. The emerging typology has concluded in an overall ranking among the case study countries by calculating the SDG indices associated with each relevant sector, which depicts the needs of the country on energy efficiency investments.
Citation: Papapostolou A., Karakosta C., Koutsandreas D., Mexis, F. D., and Doukas H. (2021), Promoting Energy Efficiency Investments in Building Sector: A Stakeholder Consultation Approach, Book of Abstracts of the 31st European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2021), 11-14 July 2021, Athens, Greece. Available at: https://www.euro-online.org/conf/admin/tmp/program-euro31.pdf.
Description: Energy efficiency (EE) is an integral part of global energy policy, since it is not only widely recognised as an effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also ensures long term security of energy supply. Towards this direction, EE investments have a direct effect on reducing energy consumption, while also improving industrial competitiveness and driving economic growth. Nevertheless, despite the demonstrated economic potential and environmental benefits, EE investments are still below policy targets set. In order to successfully identify potential risks and boost the finance of attractive EE project ideas, relevant key actors should be addressed and engaged, while the type of effort and messages to be used for each target group should be analytically examined. The aim of this study is to analyse through a targeted questionnaire the behaviour mainly of project developers, financiers, investors regarding EE investments in buildings, identify relevant risks and evaluate the added value of such investments’ implementation. One of the conclusions emerged is that financial and economic risks were rated as the most critical ones affecting the successful financing of EE investments in the building sector.
Citation: Koutsandreas D., Kleanthis N., Karakosta C., Flamos A. (2021), Fostering energy efficiency investments through risk assessment, Book of Abstracts of the 31st European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2021), 11-14 July 2021, Athens, Greece. Available at: https://www.euro-online.org/conf/admin/tmp/program-euro31.pdf.
Description: It is evident that energy efficiency (EE) investments are inherently risky. A growing body of literature has identified that this is due to the multitude of uncertainties associated with the future cash flows of EE projects, such as the price of energy and technology risk. There-fore, their risk evaluation becomes a complex procedure, while also some risk factors present a lot of difficulties to be assessed, such as missing information and subjectivity. Financial institutions avoid eval-uating the presence and potential severity of EE risks in detail and especially for small scale projects, due to the entailed high transaction costs. As a consequence, EE projects tend to never get financed despite the fact that some of them have good properties and being profitable. Many studies exist that evaluate the impact of individual risk factors to the successful implementation of EE projects, such as the rebound effect, however, a considerable gap exists in the literature as regards the holistic risk evaluation of EE projects. This study tries to bridge this gap by proposing an analytical framework for evaluating the total risk of EE projects to fail meeting their predicted performance. In this respect, all the risk factors and uncertainties that can negatively affect the profitability of EE projects are identified and analysed, while a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques is utilised. The methodology is applied to the main EE sectors and several Member States.
Citation: Kleanthis N., Koutsandreas D., Karakosta C., Doukas H., Flamos A. (2021), A multi-methods framework for profitability assessment of energy efficiency investments under uncertainty, Book of Abstracts of the 31st European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2021), 11-14 July 2021, Athens, Greece. Available at: https://www.euro-online.org/conf/admin/tmp/program-euro31.pdf.
Description: Mainstreaming energy efficiency (EE) investments requires to persuade investors regarding their profitability potential. However, EE investments are subject to various risks, which may affect involved ac-tors’ profits and create uncertainty. In this regard, a methodological framework for profitability assessment of EE investments under uncertainty is necessary to support their investment decisions. The methodological framework is based on a multi-methods approach, combining: financial analysis of EE investments using the Project Internal Rate of Return (IRR), risk assessment through quantitative and qualitative techniques, and analysis of investors’ preferences in terms of mini-mum required return and maximum accepted holding period. Utilising this framework, investors can identify whether investigated EE investments can be profitable and their profitability level. In the context of this study, the methodology is applied to financial data for EE investments implemented in Germany, retrieved from the De-risking Energy Efficiency Platform (DEEP) database, an open-source database for EE investments performance monitoring and benchmarking. The results indicate that (i) investments realised in the industrial sector of Ger-many financially outperform those in the buildings sector, (ii) macroeconomic risk is a significant factor with regards to the uncertainty of EE investments, and (iii) separate investor profiles entail different preferences under distinct risk levels.
Citation: Xidonas P., Doukas H., Hassapis C. (2021). Grouped data, investment committees & multicriteria portfolio selection, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 129, 2021, pp. 205-222, ISSN 0148-2963, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.02.044.
Description: Little attention has been paid to the necessity of a principal business context, in which the members of an investment committee decide for the optimal synthesis of portfolios, taking into account several and conflicting investment criteria. The underlying gap widens significantly, considering that mainstream portfolio theory fails to accommodate, both additional investment objectives, beyond expected return and variance, and analysts’ forecasts, when these are coming in the form of discrete recommendations. Our central contribution in this paper is associated with the introduction and standardization of a unified decision support business framework, which deals with all the above complexities and facilitates asset managers in their professional practice. Extensive out-of-sample empirical testing, based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average for a 10-year time period, provides evidence that investment portfolios generated by the methodology, appear with, either equal or superior risk-adjusted return performance, against various benchmarks.
Citation: Koutsandreas D., Kleanthis N., Flamos A., Karakosta C., Doukas H. (2022). Risks and mitigation strategies in energy efficiency financing: A systematic literature review, Energy Reports, Vol. 8, pp. 1789-1802, ISSN 2352-4847, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.01.006 2021.
Description: The ever-growing need for boosting energy efficiency implementation towards achieving the targets set at a European level till 2050, has made the upscaling of energy efficiency investments an imperative. This endeavor requires the analysis and evaluation of energy efficiency investments with respect to all the related technical aspects and uncertainty factors. Nonetheless, up to date, despite the existence of a critical body of literature that delves into this field, a significant gap exists as regards the transparent and rigorous study of energy efficiency investment risks from a holistic point of view and the time that are triggered during energy efficiency projects’ life cycle, while stakeholders’ perspective is usually not taken into consideration. In this context, this paper tries to identify the whole spectrum of risks and uncertainties that can arise in energy efficiency financing and to classify them with respect to the project phase that are probably to be triggered. Moreover, it aims to identify the proposed risk mitigation strategies to deal with the risks arisen and reduce their impact. In this effort, the study follows a systematic literature review to synthetize the respective literature, while the view of key players in energy efficiency financing is incorporated into the analysis through relevant projects’ outcomes. Our results indicate that the risks in energy efficiency financing can be classified over eight general categories, with the ones referring to the regulatory framework of the country of implementation and the technical aspects of energy efficiency projects being the most referenced ones.
Citation: Mexis F. D., Chatziantoniou I., Papapostolou A., Touloumis K., Karakosta C. (2022) An online ecosystem of energy efficiency financing supporting tools, Poster presentation in the 8th International Conference on Decision Support System Technology (ICDSST 2022), 23-25 May 2022, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Description: Increasing energy demand plays a significant part in greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution, contributing to climate change. Energy Efficiency (EE) is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy consumption while maintaining an equivalent level of economic activity. To this end, private investments are considered necessary in increasing EE by updating building stock and industry processes. The Triple-A Tools facilitate energy efficiency stakeholders by evaluating the risks and maturity of their investment ideas, benchmarking them and identifying the most bankable ones while matching them with state-of-the-art green financing schemes. The Triple-A Web-Based Database incorporates data on the fundamental aspects of EE financing, contributing significantly to upscaling EE investments, making them more attractive to investors while providing a better understanding of their framework to project developers. The Triple-A Tools and Database establish a one-stop-shop approaAch orientated towards energy efficiency stakeholders, facilitating project developers to benchmark their projects in a standardised way while also providing a hub to investors to finance bankable green projects.
Citation: Papapostolou A., Mexis F.D., Karakosta C., Psarras J. (2022). A multicriteria tool to support decision-making in the early stages of energy efficiency investments, Book of Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Decision Support System Technology (ICDSST 2022), 23-25 May 2022 Thessaloniki, Greece. Available at: https://icdsst2022gr.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/icdsst-2022-proceedings.pdf.
Description: The energy demand of modern communities contributes significantly to climate change, increasing the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Energy efficiency is recognised as the key pathway to reducing energy usage while sustaining an equivalent, contemporary economic activity. In other words, to avoid climate change, mainstreaming energy efficiency finance is considered a top priority. This study focuses on introducing a rating system based on a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis method that aims to promote the implementation and financing of energy efficiency investments. To this end, a benchmarking Tool is being deployed in order to materialise the proposed methodology and introduce a standardised procedure for benchmarking energy efficiency potential projects during the preliminary stages of investment conceptualisation. The proposed Tool exploits the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis method ELECTRE Tri, taking into account major key performance indicators that are broadly used by investors and financing institutions to identify bankable energy efficiency investments and promote green transition. The methodology has been applied to benchmark 114 energy efficiency investments from eight different European countries. It should be mentioned that for the successful and effective development of the proposed Tool, input and feedback has been received by a variety of stakeholders from the energy sector and financing community, who also tested the Tool and confirmed that the approach proved to be extremely helpful to those seeking for sustainable investments in energy efficiency. The analysis resulted in the conclusion that the Tool covers the necessity for a standardised benchmark, providing added value to the energy efficiency market.
Citation: Papapostolou A., Karakosta C., Mexis F. D., Kleanthis N., Flamos A. (2022). Α stakeholder engagement approach to map risk mitigation strategies for the promotion of energy efficiency investments in Europe, Book of Abstracts of the 32nd European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2022), 3-6 July 2022, Espoo, Finland. Available at: https://www.euro-online.org/conf/admin/tmp/program-euro32.pdf.
Description: Stakeholder engagement is the process of involving stakeholders in dialogue in order to determine their views, concerns and experience about a specific problem, and to determine economic, social and environmental factors that can improve the decision making. Successful engagement necessitates researchers to begin engagement early in the research process by developing a strategy and defining the activities based on the target group needs, and to integrate feedback into research processes and outputs. The objective of the present study is to propose a stakeholder engagement approach that aims at closing the gap between project developers and financing bodies and promoting the successful financing and implementation of sustainable energy projects. The proposed methodology aims at identifying the most suitable stakeholder profiles, contact them through a variety of communication means and, finally, engage them through a targeted questionnaire. The questionnaire developed focused on identifying and categorising the main strategies that could mitigate the risks hinder the financing of sustainable energy projects. Apart from the energy sector, the proposed methodology could be also used as a basis for the development of stakeholder engagement plans in different sectors of activity.
Citation: Karakosta C., Papapostolou A., Mexis F. D., and Doukas H. (2022). A Multidimensional Approach for Benchmarking Energy Efficiency Projects, Book of Abstracts of the 32nd European Conference on Operational Research (EURO 2022), 3-6 July 2022, Espoo, Finland. Available at: https://www.euro-online.org/conf/admin/tmp/program-euro32.pdf.
Description: Standardisation is an essential element in various sectors to avoid conflict, duplication of effort and establish a common language between key actors. Even though Energy Efficiency (EE) is a high priority for the European Union (EU), it lacks common standardisation procedures and methods among interested parties. EE investment ideas usually lack a common framework on which projects are considered profitable and merit attention by investors, while financing institutions mainly evaluate the creditability of the company that develops the project rather than the project itself. In this framework, the present study proposes a multidimensional benchmarking approach for the identification of bankable EE project ideas. The methodology aims to set the pace for EE project developers and investors to establish a consensus based on which EE investments are bankable. Unlike other approaches, the proposed methodology establishes an integrated approach, especially in terms of variety of investors and financing options, taking into consideration all possible benefits of EE investments, providing awareness concerning their compliance with the EU Taxonomy, deploying KPIs and thresholds broadly used by EE and financing sector, and providing a hub in which these projects could be financed. The benchmarking deploys outcomes that have emerged from lessons learnt, databases of already financed projects, and stakeholders’ consultation to ensure that the evaluation is in line with market needs.
Citation: Papapostolou A., Karakosta C., Mylona Z., Psarras J. (2022). Energy Efficiency Financing and Stakeholder Engagement: Evidence from a Participatory Approach, Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics XIV Hybrid Balkan Conference on Operational Research (Hybrid-BALCOR 2020) “Operational Research in the Era of Digital Transformation and Business Analytics”, 30 September - 3 October 2020, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Description: Energy efficiency (EE) is an integral part of global energy policy, since it is not only widely recognised as an effective means of tackling climate change, but also ensures long term security of energy supply. EE investments have a direct effect on reducing energy consumption towards achieving of the European Union’s (EU) energy and climate objectives for 2030 and beyond, while also driving economic growth. However, it remains a challenge how to identify which investments could foster sustainable growth, while also having the capacity to meet their commitments. To identify such projects and ensure the effectiveness of their financing, it is important to actively involve relevant actors whose engagement is a key component to enlighten the challenge of identifying EE investments. To this end, what type of effort should be used for each target group needs to be analysed, while participatory activities should be followed including concrete actions to foster their contribution. The aim of this paper is to propose a stakeholder consultation methodological framework and provide evidence from its impact in EE financing. Among others, the challenges and drivers are identified for increasing financial stakeholders' motivations. Analysis showed that effective consultation with significant high engagement was ensured achieving successful decision making of EE project towards sustainability. The impact analysis of the proposed methodology is elaborated within the framework of the Horizon 2020 Triple-A project. The methodological steps proposed could be also independently used in other sectors of activities, acting as an effective stakeholder engagement action plan.
Citation: Karakosta C., Papapostolou A., Mexis F.D., Koutsandreas D., Psarras J. (2022). Analysis of the Energy Efficiency Market in the Greek Building Sector, Recent Advances in Environmental Science from the Euro-Mediterranean and Surrounding Regions, Proceedings of the 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Conference for Environmental Integration (EMCEI 2021), 10 – 13 June, Sousse, Tunisia.
Description: Modern societies demand high levels of power and energy. Even though energy efficiency technologies have advanced drastically, energy consumption in buildings keeps increasing. The analysis of the current situation, while also identifying the main barriers and difficulties that policymakers and energy efficiency professionals are facing, is crucial to developing a feasible plan for increasing energy efficiency measures in the building sector. The aim of this study is to analyze the energy efficiency situation in the Greek building stock by utilizing a consultation approach based on a dedicated online survey involving highly relevant stakeholders, gathering their input and depicting it in statistical results. The analysis focuses on identifying links between the energy efficiency performance of buildings and their value in the real estate market and evaluating the added value of implementing energy efficiency investments in the building sector, through illustrating the Greek stakeholders’ behaviour. The main challenge that emerged is to ensure the necessary consultation with financial institutional bodies, investors, market actors and energy efficiency and real estate professionals.
Citation: C. Karakosta, A. Corovessi, A. Papapostolou, F.D. Mexis. (2022). Investing in energy efficient households in Greece: Policy framework and market architecture. Special Issue: Residential buildings management and energy efficiency investment potential in Western Balkan countries.
Description: Energy Efficiency investments in buildings have a direct effect on reducing energy consumption towards achieving the European Union’s (EU) energy and climate objectives for 2030 and 2050 while also driving economic growth. The present manuscript aims to propose a methodology that may boost the implementation of energy efficiency investments in the building sector. It provides an overview of the present energy efficiency conditions of the Greek building stock, along with the latest updates and trends regarding the policy framework and market architecture that support the implementation of potential investments in the building sector. In particular, the research conducted explores how European directives are adapted to the Greek legislative framework, also including the alignment to EU’s overarching goal for carbon neutrality by 2050, providing also briefing details on the national energy efficiency financing schemes and the tendencies and updates regarding the mobilisation of private financing. In order to further analyse the current situation in the Greek building stock, a consultation approach has been utilised involving highly relevant stakeholders, gathering their input, and depicting it in statistical results. The methodology focuses on multi-family apartment buildings in Greece, and it includes a survey regarding the energy efficiency of the Greek building stock, as well as a literature review that will facilitate energy efficiency stakeholders portraying the complete picture of the financing possibilities and the policy and legislative framework that applies to Greece concerning energy efficiency. The survey identifies the main barriers and difficulties that policymakers and energy efficiency professionals are facing when developing a feasibility plan for increasing energy efficiency measures in the building sector. Finally, the results of the research and the stakeholders’ perception reveal that there is a dire need for state-of-the-art tools and databases that could provide valuable services in the building sector, such as the Building Renovation Passports (BRPs), closing the gap between energy efficiency project developers and financing institutes, providing access to financing instruments and, thus, boosting the implementation of energy efficiency actions in buildings.
Citation: Kleanthis N., Koutsandreas D., Karakosta C., Doukas H., Flamos A. (2022). Bridging the transparency gap in energy efficiency financing by co-designing an integrated assessment framework with involved actors, Energy Reports.
Description: