There are more than 2200 inhabited islands in the EU. Despite having access to renewable sources of energy, such as wind, sun and wave energy, many of them depend on expensive fossil fuel imports for their energy supply. This is why the European Commission has launched the Clean Energy for EU islands initiative, as part of the ‘Clean energy for all Europeans’ package. One of the instruments of this initiative is the European Islands Facility – NESOI, which aims to foster and deliver bankable clean energy projects, attracting more than €100 million of investment in islands. NESOI presented in this workshop its first open call aimed at offering grants of up to € 60k per proposal as well as up to € 60K worth of Technical Assistance to help local European islands reach their energy transition ambitions.

In the second part of this workshop, five H2020 demonstration projects (INSULAE, SMILE, GIFT, REACT and ROBINSON) presented the innovative solutions they are developing to foster islands energy systems’ decarbonisation:

• “NESOI: The European Islands Facility – First open call” (PDF)
• “INSULAE project: PV and BESS integration on islands” (PDF) 
• “GIFT project: Storage concepts and interoperability” (PDF)
• “ROBINSON project: Utilisation of local renewable resources” (PDF)
• “SMILE project: Sustainable mobility on islands” (PDF)
• “REACT project: Citizen engagement REACT project strategies” (PDF)

Finally the third part of this workshop was dedicated to stimulate knowledge sharing and exchange of ideas about two cross-cutting questions: 

• “How to engage islanders in the energy transition?”
• “How to stimulate islands’ long-term energy strategy?”

Participants: NESOI – the EU Island Facility, INSULAE, SMILE, GIFT, REACT and ROBINSON

Workshop Chair: Sophie Dourlens, R2M Solution