The DEEP (De-risking Energy Efficiency Platform) is the European Commission’s open-access database designed to reduce the perceived financial risk of investing in energy efficiency projects. It is one of the Commission’s most important tools for demonstrating, with real-world evidence, that energy efficiency investments are often lower risk and more profitable than many investors assume. DEEP was officially launched on 30 November 2016 and was developed under the auspices of the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG), a partnership between the European Commission (DG Energy) and the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). DEEP is now hosted by the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition. It is operated by a consortium led by Viegand Maagøe with Fraunhofer ISI and ICCS-NTUA, on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy.
Following a major update in July 2026, the database contains more than 89,000 projects, including over 60,500 building projects and more than 28,000 industrial projects. 52,900 new projects have been added from Germany and the United States. The newly added German projects cover from 2019-2025; the US projects cover 2023-2025.
Perhaps the most interesting finding from the new data is that the business case for energy efficiency has become even stronger. For the European subset of the database, median payback periods after 2022 are shorter than before in both buildings and industry, suggesting that higher energy prices have reinforced – not weakened – the economics of energy efficiency investment.
A broader portfolio of investment opportunities
The new data also show a structural shift in the measure mix toward smaller-scale, operational energy management – alongside continued investment in deep retrofits and capital-intensive industrial measures. Median project size has come down accordingly. The updated dataset reflects the full spectrum of efficiency opportunities available to project developers, building owners and industrial operators, from low-cost optimisation to deep retrofit.
New on the platform
In addition to the new data, the relaunched DEEP includes:
- New measure categories: heat pumps, hybrid industrial heating, on-site renewable energy
- generation (PV and BIPV)
- Industry sector classification using NACE C at 2-digit level
- New filter options, including project age and implementation status (recommended /
- implemented)
- Refreshed visual design and improved usability
- Security and performance upgrades, hosted on the European Commission’s cloud infrastructure
What information does it contain?
DEEP contains anonymised data from tens of thousands of completed energy efficiency projects, including:
- Investment costs
- Energy savings achieved
- Financial savings
- Simple payback periods
- Internal rates of return (where available)
- Project size
- Technology measures implemented
- Building or industrial sector
- Country
- CO₂ reductions
- Project verification status
How does it “de-risk” investments?
For financiers, one of the biggest barriers is uncertainty:
- Will the projected energy savings actually occur?
- How long will the payback really be?
- What happens if energy prices change?
- How do similar projects perform?
Instead of relying solely on engineering estimates, DEEP provides empirical evidence from thousands of completed projects. A lender considering, for example, a €500,000 motor replacement project in a food factory can compare it with similar industrial projects already in the database and see typical:
- payback periods,
- investment costs,
- energy savings,
- avoided energy costs, and
- project performance.
This makes credit assessment easier and can reduce due diligence costs.
Who uses DEEP?
Typical users include:
- Commercial banks
- Public banks
- The European Investment Bank
- ESCOs
- Industrial companies
- Building owners
- Energy agencies
- Consultants
- Researchers
- Policymakers
Data providers contribute to the continuous expansion of DEEP, while users can benchmark energy efficiency investments against thousands of anonymised projects in the database.
For more information
Access to the data base and information for becoming a user or a data provider is available here.
The European Commission expects further data contributions during 2026, including additional datasets from the European Investment Bank and national energy agencies, further strengthening DEEP as Europe’s largest open evidence base for energy efficiency investments.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 
DEEP: From Benchmarking to Bank Lending
The upgraded DEEP platform is clearly a valuable step forward. Its larger and more recent dataset, improved classifications, additional technologies and better filters strengthen its usefulness for market intelligence, policy analysis and preliminary benchmarking.
Central methodological question
How does DEEP standardise the boundary between a single energy efficiency measure, a package of measures and a complete investment project?
This distinction is fundamental. A lighting replacement, a heating-system upgrade, a multi-measure retrofit and a deep renovation are not comparable investment cases. They differ in scale, complexity, risk, expected savings, payback and financing requirements.
If all are recorded under the common label of ‘projects’, the headline figure of more than 89,000 projects may be statistically impressive but difficult to interpret for investment and financial purposes.
Important questions remain:
Until the level of aggregation is clearly defined and standardised, aggregated indicators such as average investment cost, savings or payback may be statistically correct but economically ambiguous.
DEEP can still be useful for market trends, comparison of genuinely similar project categories and indicative benchmarking of costs and savings.
The central issue, however, is whether a larger and more sophisticated database is being implicitly equated with progress in unlocking commercial bank lending.
That link cannot simply be assumed. It must be demonstrated.
When a bank receives a financing application for a specific project, how exactly does DEEP contribute to the credit decision? Does it help determine economic and financial viability, repayment capacity, loan amount, maturity, DSCR, risk, pricing and the need for blended finance or public support?
And is there evidence that banks using DEEP approve more projects, process them faster or reduce transaction costs?
A historical database can support assumptions used in credit assessment. It cannot by itself replace project cash-flow analysis, financing structuring and risk assessment.
The upgraded DEEP therefore appears to be a stronger evidence and benchmarking platform, while its operational contribution to actual commercial bank lending remains unclear.
A practical case showing, step by step, how a bank uses DEEP to move from a submitted project to a concrete credit decision would be highly valuable.
Zoya Vassileva
Thanks so much for this detailed comment. I will make sure that those managing DEEP get this and can provide some answers.
Thank you Rod!
Who is managing the platform?
Zoya
Hi Zoya
It is operated by a consortium led by Viegand Maagøe from Denmark with Fraunhofer ISI from Germany and ICCS-NTUA from Greece.