FinanzKompass – A digital platform for scaling up financing for community energy projects

As part of the FinanzKompass project, the RLI and the Bündnis Bürgerenergie (BBEn) are developing a digital platform ton help citizen energy stakeholders in Germany identify suitable financing for their energy projects. The web-based tool helps them describe projects in a structured way, assess their financial viability, and find suitable financing options.

Simplifying the financing assessment for citizen energy projects

Citizen energy cooperatives make an important contribution to the energy transition. Financing their projects is often complicated. Differing requirements from banks and funding agencies, a lack of information, and limited human resources make project development difficult. FinanzKompass aims to break down these barriers by consolidating key information on the platform and guiding citizen energy cooperatives step by step through the process of preparing their financing requests.

User-friendly design guiding through the process

The BBEn, in collaboration with community energy cooperatives and financial institutions, is examining existing financing options, requirements, and challenges. Based on the findings, the project team is developing a catalog of criteria and data to serve as the technical foundation for the platform. The RLI project team is responsible for the technical development of the tool, including the database structure, the programming of a user-friendly interface, and an automated verification process that guides users to suitable financing options by having them answer questions and enter figures.

Automated check identifies financing options

Based on the developed catalog of criteria and data, an automated bankability check will be implemented to verify whether the entered project data is complete and plausible and to what extent it meets the requirements of potential financing institutions. On this basis, the platform identifies suitable financing options.

Project period: November 2026 – April 2028

• Development of the platform’s technical architecture and data structure
• Programming an automated bankability check to assess a project’s financial viability
• Development of a user-friendly interface for entering and verifying project data
• Integration of external information sources and financing databases
• Creation of an exportable project document for financing discussions