Unlocking SME Energy Potential: Europe’s Businesses Face the Green Challenge and New Solutions Emerge

On 12 June, over 50 participants from across Europe gathered for the “Unlocking SME Energy Potential” international online conference, held within the framework of the Interreg Danube Region Programme’s SMEnergy project. The aim: to explore how scalable One-Stop-Shop (OSS) models can offer SMEs the clear, coordinated support they often lack when navigating the complex world of energy transition.

Across Upper Austria, Slovenia and Southern Sweden alone, more than 4,000 SMEs have already received hands-on advisory support, achieving energy savings of up to 15%, while new pilots continue to scale up across the Danube region and beyond.

The One-Stop-Shop: From concept to practical reality

Throughout Europe, multiple OSS models are already showing what works and what doesn’t. At the conference, speakers shared a range of approaches from their national contexts:

❖ Tea Potočnik (Local Energy Agency Spodnje Podravje) introduced the SMEnergy project’s transnational work to pilot new OSS service hubs, helping SMEs access expert guidance, suppliers, and financing for renewables.

❖ Lena Eckerberg (Energy Agency Southern Sweden) presented how Swedish regions combine SME coaching, targeted sectoral networks, and local partnerships to deliver measurable energy savings while boosting competitiveness.

❖ John Flynn (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) explained how Ireland’s highly structured OSS approach offers SMEs a simplified, predictable pathway through the complex maze of technical standards, grants, and service providers.

❖ Christiane Egger (OÖ Energiesparverband, Austria) shared Upper Austria’s long-standing OSS system, where expert consulting, company networks, training and investment incentives work hand-in-hand to support SMEs at every stage of the energy transition.

❖ Rajko Leban (GOLEA) & Milan Klemenc (LEA Spodnje Podravje) brought insights from Slovenia’s emerging OSS structures, built around local energy agencies and a rapidly growing advisory network offering hands-on support to SMEs.

Roundtable: scaling up, breaking barriers

One of the conference highlights was the dynamic expert roundtable, where Borbála Tóth (REKK) guided a panel Ilona Szécsi (MEHI), Diana Bosfy (FEDARENE) and Dilyana Gerdzhikova (Plovdiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry) through a discussion on how countries and regions still in the early stages of one-stop shop development can take meaningful, practical steps forward. Dilyana outlined Bulgaria’s pilot in Plovdiv, a one-stop shop led by the regional energy agency and supported by her Chamber of Commerce to integrate trusted renovation suppliers, though she stressed that nationwide deployment remains heavily reliant on grants.

Ilona contrasted this with Hungary’s situation, where deeply subsidised household tariffs suppress residential uptake but high, market-rate industrial prices have driven SMEs to seek energy-saving investments; she proposed leveraging existing advisory services and the forthcoming energy-efficiency obligation scheme to create a unified support model.

Diana drew on her FEDARENE role to emphasise that regional energy agencies — now charged under Article 11 of the Energy Efficiency Directive to assist SMEs and bolstered by the European Commission’s €100 billion Clean Industrial Deal — are uniquely positioned to deliver independent, trusted advice, align one-stop shops with territorial development plans, maintain continuous stakeholder feedback and harness robust data to inform both regional action and national policy dialogue. By engaging entrepreneurs directly in co-creation, the panel agreed, such one-stop shops can swiftly translate policy into practice and accelerate the energy transition for businesses and households alike.

Building Europe’s green SME economy

Real-world numbers already show the growing impact of these models: In Upper Austria, more than 3,000 SME energy consultations have already been delivered, supported by a system where companies pay as little as €450 for expert advice thanks to public funding covering up to 75% of the cost. In Southern Sweden, over 150 SMEs have participated in dedicated coaching programmes, achieving energy savings of 10–15% on average. Meanwhile, Slovenia’s newly launched advisory network has already completed more than 1,200 consultations with SMEs in 2025 alone.

The Interreg Danube SMEnergy project is part of a growing European movement that recognises SMEs are driving Europe’s green industrial future, and that they require simple, trustworthy and accessible pathways to do so. The lively exchanges, rich expertise and strong participation at the conference suggest that across Europe, this shift is already underway but much work remains to scale it up.