Citizen participation and crowd investing in solar projects
Crowd investing solar projects: for selected projects, we enable citizen participation under Austria’s Alternative Financing Act.
It is a particular concern of ours to provide for citizen participation in selected projects. To this end, we offer, among other things, the option of crowd investing under the Alternative Financing Act (AltFG). This allows citizens to take a direct part in the energy transition in their region. In crowd investing, many individuals provide capital to a project, usually in small amounts. For municipalities and local residents, this can strengthen acceptance, because they can also share economically in the project in their area. However, active participation models only work if there is enough local interest. That is why early dialogue with the host municipality, which is involved in the project anyway through land-use zoning, is part of the process.
The Alternative Financing Act (AltFG) is the Austrian framework for crowd investing and sets out tiered obligations according to the issue volume. Below EUR 250,000 within twelve months, there are no information or prospectus obligations. Above that, an information sheet must be published, and for higher volumes additional prospectus obligations under capital markets law apply. In principle, consumers may invest no more than EUR 5,000 per issue within twelve months, with exceptions, for example where income or financial assets are sufficiently high, and they can withdraw within two weeks. Depending on the structure and distribution channel, the EU Crowdfunding Regulation may apply instead of the AltFG. Where an information sheet is required, the issuer must publish it together with the balance sheet and business plan, update any changes until the end of the offer period and identify the investors, unless the offer is distributed via a platform.
Crowd investing in Austria often uses qualified subordinated loans. It remains a loan, but because of the qualified subordination clause it is economically close to entrepreneurial risk financing: repayment is only permitted if it does not jeopardise the company's ability to pay its debts. The information sheet, business plan and contract terms must therefore be accessible without registration, and advertising must be clearly recognisable as such. The information sheet is checked by third parties for completeness and comprehensibility, and for platform offers by the platform. This lets citizens assess the opportunities and risks of participating in advance. The limits of the AltFG apply only to offers in Austria, and the outstanding amount from investments may not exceed EUR 5 million over seven years.
Participation needs a viable economic basis. Reliable yield forecasts show what returns can be expected, and the technical due diligence for photovoltaics reviews the project technically. The investment and operating cost plan presents the costs transparently. The revenue side also depends on funding, under the Renewable Energy Expansion Act (EAG) for example on the investment grant or the market premium. Participation is part of our project financing; for the funding side, we support the handling of the funding application. You will find an example of our turnkey systems in the EWS Sonnenfeld®.
