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Ecrowd Invest
Published on 02 March 2018
Spain
Comunidad de Madrid
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
Ecrowd! is a crowdlending website, which means it is a crowdfunding for loans. Private people lend small quantities of money to a company, a project, or another person, through an online platform. All these small contributions together make up the total amount of the loan. In return, the person or company, who receives the loan, pays each principal investor the interest rate periodically according to the signed agreement.
The project owners commit to using the annual cost savings to pay back their investors over a fixed contract period until the initial investment sum plus interest has been paid off. Once, the contract period has ended, the savings remain in the project owner’s company. The online platform is financed by a percentage commission (based on the investment sum) and an annual handling fee during the contract period.
These projects are conceptualised and calculated by certified energy consultants, and are monitored throughout the investment terms.
In this way, we all benefit from reduced carbon emissions, less energy usage and an accelerated energy transition.
The project owners commit to using the annual cost savings to pay back their investors over a fixed contract period until the initial investment sum plus interest has been paid off. Once, the contract period has ended, the savings remain in the project owner’s company. The online platform is financed by a percentage commission (based on the investment sum) and an annual handling fee during the contract period.
These projects are conceptualised and calculated by certified energy consultants, and are monitored throughout the investment terms.
In this way, we all benefit from reduced carbon emissions, less energy usage and an accelerated energy transition.
Resources needed
Anybody who is a member of Ecrowd! can participate with a minimum investment of 50 €. The maximum limit is 3,000 € per project, with a 12 months cap of 10,000 € across all crowdfunding platforms. If the amount of the project is between 25,000 € and 2,000,000 € will be able to get finance.
Evidence of success
It enables people to jointly invest individual sums of money in energy efficiency projects, lead the change and accelerate the energy transition, around 2,800 investors (private people) have invested 3,800,00 € so far.
All the investment generated positive impact in society and the environment and it managed to reduce about 4,670 Mt CO2 emissions per year.
Also it is a new financing alternative, since lack of funding is one of the major obstacles to implementing energy efficiency improvement.
All the investment generated positive impact in society and the environment and it managed to reduce about 4,670 Mt CO2 emissions per year.
Also it is a new financing alternative, since lack of funding is one of the major obstacles to implementing energy efficiency improvement.
Potential for learning or transfer
In Ecrowd! you can invest in the real economy. These projects are profitable and generate positive impact in society or the environment. Examples of such investments can be in energy efficiency and renewable energy:
Building of several families in state of energy poverty in Navalmoral de la Mata (Extremadura Region, Spain). The project replaced an old mixed boiler with a biomass boiler and achieves 10 to 40% energy savings per year. The total amount invested was 63,850 € between 140 investors.
Another example is the student housing “Calvo Sotelo" in A Coruña (Galicia Region, Spain). The initial situation was incandescent lighting, strip lighting and old electrical system. The project included the replacement of all lighting with LED lighting and the electrical system retrofit. The total amount invested was 55,925 € between 97 investors.
These ongoing examples provides good base for a real transfer of practices to many other EU regions.
Building of several families in state of energy poverty in Navalmoral de la Mata (Extremadura Region, Spain). The project replaced an old mixed boiler with a biomass boiler and achieves 10 to 40% energy savings per year. The total amount invested was 63,850 € between 140 investors.
Another example is the student housing “Calvo Sotelo" in A Coruña (Galicia Region, Spain). The initial situation was incandescent lighting, strip lighting and old electrical system. The project included the replacement of all lighting with LED lighting and the electrical system retrofit. The total amount invested was 55,925 € between 97 investors.
These ongoing examples provides good base for a real transfer of practices to many other EU regions.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
Ecrowd Invest
Spain
Comunidad de Madrid