International ESCO Symposium 2025 – Financing and structuring ESCO investments at scale

Moderated by Svetlana Adamek (Managing Director, adamek & adamek consulting GmbH), this session addressed one of the most persistent challenges in the ESCO sector: access to finance. The panel explored how to overcome financing barriers through aggregation, forfaiting, guarantee mechanisms, and energy efficiency funds, with insights from experts across Europe and Mauritius.

Key Insights by Speaker

Csaba de Csiky – Chairman, EnerSave Capital Sarl

• Emphasised the need to align ESCO project structures with investor expectations.
• Proposed a conveyor belt model using forfaiting and securitisation of white certificates to unlock capital.
• Highlighted the importance of standardisation and aggregation to attract institutional investors.

Lieven Vanstraelen – President, BELESCO (Belgium)

• Shared Belgium’s experience with a large-scale federal renovation program using a super ESCO framework.
• Demonstrated how performance-based maintenance and energy performance partnerships can enable long-term investment.
• Stressed the need for tailored financing models and digital platforms to manage complexity and scale.

Carlos Ballesteros Barrado – Director General, ANESE (Spain)

• Introduced Spain’s white certificate scheme as a financing mechanism for energy efficiency.
• Advocated for ESCO accreditation, standard contracts, and verifiers to ensure credibility and reduce fraud.
• Called for equal treatment of energy efficiency and renewables in policy and market mechanisms.

Shweta Beeharee – Portfolio Manager, Capital Asset Management Ltd, Mauritius

• Presented Mauritius’ efforts to establish a national guarantee mechanism for ESCOs.
• Emphasised a shared-risk model involving government, banks, and ESCOs.
• Highlighted the importance of capacity building, standard contracts, and governance structures in emerging markets.

Common Barriers Identified

• Small ticket sizes and high transaction costs.
• Lack of trust and limited understanding of EPC models by banks.
• Mismatch between ESCO project structures and investor requirements.
• Limited off-balance sheet financing options.
• Fragmented markets and the absence of aggregators or super ESCOs in many countries.

Innovative Solutions Discussed

• Aggregation of receivables and project portfolios to reach scale.
• Forfaiting of future savings and white certificates to provide upfront capital.
• Super ESCOs and one-stop shops to standardise, de-risk, and facilitate project development.
• Digital platforms and AI tools to reduce complexity, improve reporting, and lower costs.
• White certificate markets as a scalable, performance-based financing mechanism.

Conclusion

The session made it clear that financing ESCO investments at scale requires more than just capital—it demands structural innovation, market alignment, and cross-sector collaboration. Aggregation, standardisation, and digitalisation emerged as key enablers for unlocking large-scale investments. Guarantee mechanisms and white certificate schemes offer promising pathways, especially in emerging markets.

Speakers emphasised that ESCOs must evolve from isolated project developers into participants in structured, scalable investment ecosystems. Governments, financiers, and facilitators must work together to build trust, reduce risk, and create the conditions for energy efficiency to thrive as a mainstream investment class.