Substantial resources and effort has been devoted so far on a European and national level in order to support the development and implementation of Renewable Energy Technologies and Energy Efficiency Technologies. However, there are some non-technical factors that act as barriers to their large scale implementation. These factors are:

1.	the current energy prices do not reflect to all the costs of energy
2.	the majority of RET and EE technologies have comparatively long pay-back time
3.	the amortization cost of RET and EE technologies is relatively high especially compared to their scale of investment
4.	there is lack of sustainable, flexible and easy to access financing products for small-scale RET and EET applications
5.	there is lack of market oriented mechanisms for the effective promotion of RET and EET introduction

Among these factors less attention and effort has been devoted till now to the identification, development and promotion of financing products that will address the needs of stakeholders aiming to invest on small-scale RET and EE technologies' applications (i.e. farmers, SMEs, Industries, individual households, etc.).

The implementation of small-scale renewable energy projects-whether electricity, biogas or heat- requires specialized financial tools, vehicles and measures targeted to the specific project conditions. Several options, including dedicated funds, bundling of investments with services, and customer based investments, proved to be effective and deserve further promotion. Emerging evidence in developing countries and some EU countries suggests that micro credit or micro lending, financial leasing programmes, vendor credit, targeted project credits, equity financing and flexible dept financing, as well as specialized grants and subsidies linked to micro enterprises, households, farmers and local communities can have considerable success in promoting RET and EET implementation. Such financing products require the actual involvement of private financing sector such as Banks, credit institutions and financial intermediaries, as well as of NGOs and international agencies, like the World Bank, the European Bank for Restructuring and Development, DANIDA, KfW, etc.

Considering the above sated issues related to renewables and energy efficiency technologies investments FINA-RET project concept and approach were developed. FINA-RET project is funded under the 2006 call of IEE Programme.

The project aims to support the deployment of RET & EE technologies through the identification, specification and packaging of sustainable, flexible and easy to access financing products (i.e. loans, funding and awarding programmes) addressed mainly to individuals and SMEs that wish to invest on renewables and energy efficiency technologies in order to meet their energy needs and increase their energy performance.