Newsletter to keep the members of Refinee community up to date on the most important topics related to the project.

Highlight
Most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in EU have not tackled yet the clean transition challenge. There are several reasons for that.
On one hand, lack of internal technical capacity and financial resources. On the other hand, investors are not always willing to place funds into such projects, which they usually find risky, complex or less attractive.
Investments in energy efficiency related to SMEs are behind compared to the ones of big companies, and we believe that something has to be done about it.
REFINEE stays for EXTENDED PROJECT TITLE and is one of the projects launched by EU LIFE Programme under the umbrella of PRIVAFIN in order to find ways to overcome obstacles in financing investments related to energy efficiency of SMEs.

Kick off meeting
On October 23rd and October 24th 2024, FVG Plus, project leader, hosted the kick off meeting of the Project REFINEE – Regional based FINancing schemes to pool private investments in tailored Energy Efficiency plans for SMEs of strategic value chains. The meeting has been organized in Udine in Italy and it was the opportunity to meet the project partners and to discuss the design of financial instrument aimed at incentivizing investments in energy efficiency.

Refinee
The project officially started on October 1st, 2024, and will last for three years.
The project consortium will enable SMEs in two selected regions, Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy and the County of Istria in Croatia, to access innovative investment financing models with the aim of increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources.
The main goals of the project REFINEE are:
1. Creating a framework for encouraging more significant investments in low-carbon technology among SMEs;
2. Encouraging the creation of the first energy communities in industrial zones, which relate to the public and private sector in the area of Istria County;
3. Developing hybrid financial instruments that will encourage small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to join the green transition;
4. Creation of new jobs.

Consortium
Project leader and consortium coordinator is FVG Plus (IT).
Project partners are: SINLOC- Sistema Iniziative Locali (IT), IRENA – Istarska Regionalna Energetska Agencija, Istarska županija (HR), CER Partnerstvo, za trajnostno gospodarstvo (SLO), ABI Lab – Centro di ricerca e innovazione per la banca (IT), Regione autonoma Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (IT).

DOWNLOAD REFINEE NEWSLETTER n.1/2025