The ‘Label Pack A+’ project aims at supporting the implementation of the energy labelling of heating appliances while boosting its impact, the focus being on the “package label” and its potential to push for the uptake or renewable technologies, in particular solar thermal, in combination with more efficient conventional technologies. The project will address one of the main challenges related to this particular energy labelling process in relation to other Energy-related Products : the issuing of the package label by installers. This challenge involves the preparation of the industry, retailers and installers to this process, including the communication to the final consumer. Therefore, the main objectives of the project are to: - Provide guidelines, as well as standardized answers to clarify the responsibility of each actor in the supply chain. These activities will, in particular, focus on installers and SMEs, who might be facing specific implementation challenges; -> Facilitate the exchange of product fiches and product related information on the format of equipment’s databases, available to all the actors in the energy labelling process; -> Apply the energy labelling calculation methodology and make it available to all the actors in the supply chain in the form of a user-friendly online calculation tool; -> Develop and provide industry specific training material, especially focusing on the responsibilities’ and roles of installers in the energy labelling process; -> Provide tailor-made information for end consumers, which will either be directly accessible by them, or used by dealers to explain the significance and added value of the “package label”; -> Provide consolidated expertise on the energy labelling process to the Commission and national authorities, based on the experiences gathered on the pilot implementation in the participating countries.

The aim of the PV-Prosumers4Grid project is to develop and implement innovative self-consumption and aggregation concepts and business models for PV prosumers that will help integrating sustainable and competitive electricity from PV in the electricity system. The benefits of the PV-Prosumers4Grid action will be therefore threefold: • To identify the necessary regulatory changes and the business opportunities for PV prosumers and grid operators • To further support the deployment PV systems for electricity generation with focus on physical and financial grid interactions • To provide PV Prosumers (households and industries) with competitive and sustainable electricity Innovative self-consumption and aggregation concepts and business models for PV generation are extremely needed nowadays. At the time being many EU Member States have drastically reduced measures to further support the development of the RES sector, even though several projects have clearly demonstrated the need to maintain the policies to support RES until when a consolidated competitiveness has been achieved. Such competetiveness for variable RES will depend on the ability of the existing or future electricity markets to provide them with adequate revenues, whatever the size of the plant. In addition, the variable aspect of PV doesn’t allow them by nature to bid on the market at chosen times, with a possible and already visible impact on the market prices. The consequence could be that under such conditions, their competitiveness will become more difficult to achieve unless the consumers could become more responsive to price signals and allow to displace the load. Moreover, the new state aid guidelines published in April 2014 by the European Commission are pushing for further integration of renewable sources into the electricity markets, which will require from RES to cope with market integration, more constraining grid codes and balancing regulations.

Feed-in tariffs (FITs) have been the fuel for successful solar PV growth stories in basically every one of today’s large solar markets. First in Europe, now in China and Japan. The US is the only exception – backed by tax credits and net-metering, leasing has become a key means of financing residential solar systems there. With many European countries phasing out FITs, the simplicity of selling solar power will be gone; and without safe and fair returns, real estate and homeowners will not invest in PV anymore. In post-FIT times, solar companies and/or electric utilities in partnership with financial institutions will have to come up with new business models and financing schemes for PV investors in order to continue the success story of the FIT era. The German Solar Industry Association as project coordinator is driven by the mission to successfully evolve those business and financing models, to disseminate them among stakeholders and to shape the necessary policy framework and to remove barriers that prevent those models from realization. Consequently, the goal of PV Financing is to help stakeholders from specific application segments with the implementation of PV projects based on new PV business models while applying innovative equity and debt financing schemes. The availability of financing for PV projects based on the new business models shall be increased and the transaction costs shall be decreased by educating investors, commercial banks and insurance companies on the PV business models and their risks.