E3 International (E3I) is a leader in developing sustainable energy and resource strategies to promote energy security, savings, resilience, and environmental benefit, and in implementing sustainable energy and resilient infrastructure solutions, including finance mechanisms, that serve as best practices to promote market transformation and scale.

Our core focus areas include:

✓ Developing the enabling environment to support power sector reform, including energy efficiency standards and renewable energy sources
✓ Grid integration of variable renewable energy
✓ Energy and water efficiency in the industrial, commercial, municipal, and residential sectors

✓ Development, financing, implementation, and monitoring and verification of sustainable energy and resilient infrastructure projects
✓ Green banking and finance mechanisms

E3I has been operating throughout the Western Balkans since 2010. Highlights of our experience in the region are summarized below.

USAID Better Energy Project (Better Energy) – Better Energy is a five-year USAID initiative focused on improving energy efficiency in buildings, with a special emphasis on multi-apartment buildings, and increasing the use of renewable energy at the municipal level in Serbia. The project aims to boost incentives and investments in energy efficiency, promote efficient energy use, and expand the integration of renewable energy into the energy mix, while reducing the environmental impact of the energy sector and enhancing Serbia’s resilience to external challenges. As part of this project, E3 International, along with its partners, has supported several groundbreaking initiatives, including the design and implementation of technological upgrades in district heating plants and networks, energy efficiency improvements in multi-apartment buildings, the development and piloting of sustainable financing models for building energy renovations, providing legal and regulatory support to encourage the adoption of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources, developing software tools for digitalizing building databases and energy efficiency processes, and building the capacities of project partners in municipalities, district heating companies, and multi-apartment management bodies to identify, plan, design, and implement energy efficiency and renewable energy investment projects.

Serbia Energy Efficiency Activity (SEEA) – District Heating (DH) systems in Serbia’s cities and towns are, in most cases, the single largest user of imported natural gas. Due to largely outdated and inefficient equipment as well as ineffective operation and deferred/poor maintenance, DH systems offer ample opportunity for reduction of gas consumption, thus reducing dependency on gas primarily imported from Russia. Under contract to USAID, E3I supported DH system reforms by developing innovative supply and demand side energy efficiency and related renewable energy projects, including solar thermal heating, geothermal heating, implementation of SCADA, and distributed cogeneration systems. To date, E3I has designed and implemented the largest solar thermal district heating system in the Western Balkans, in Pancevo, SCADA systems in Nis and Cacak, and distributed generation system in a major hospital in Pancevo.

EBRD Western Balkan Sustainable Energy Finance Facility (WeBSEFF) –  EBRD launched the WeBSEFF in January 2009, and the project was managed by E3 International since inception until its closure in late 2021. WeBSEFF provided loans for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects up to EUR 2 million in the industrial, commercial, residential and municipal sectors.  E3I was responsible for marketing, capacity building at banks, project identification and design, energy audits, cost and economic analysis, technical and financial due diligence, and business plan development.  Over 500 projects have been submitted to twelve participating banks for financing with a total loan amount of €162 million.

Sustainable Land, Livelihoods, and Energy Initiative (SLLEI) – With support from the Austrian Development Agency, E3I has launched the SLLEI to develop a finance facility to support EUR 1B+ in private investment to scale up of sustainably and equitably produced short rotation wood biomass cultivation for bioenergy, co-located renewable energy solutions, and bioeconomy innovation. It includes a forest landscape restoration component. Conducted in partnership with CIFOR-ICRAF to ensure science-based environmental, social, and governance standards compliance, this Initiative improves rural land and livelihoods and protects native forests, biodiversity, and human health, while supporting Western Balkan countries’ clean energy transition and both Western Balkan and Austrian business growth.

EBRD Renewable District Energy in the Western Balkans (ReDEWeB) – E3I was selected by EBRD to provide technical consulting to support its new ReDEWeB program, developed to support improvements in district heating systems, through: Project preparation and investment feasibility assessments (including pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, due diligence, technical assessment and development of long term investment plan and priority investment programme, economic analysis, financial analysis and modelling); Environmental and social assessment, gender impact assessment and economic inclusion analysis;  Green Economy Transition (“GET”) assessment and climate resilience assessment; Procurement support; and capacity building related services.

How may we help you?

Contact Us at info@eeeinternational.com