The BASE is proud to launch the Servetia Catalytic Platform (SCP), a revolving mechanism to scale renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Switzerland through service-based models. SCP helps building owners access decarbonisation solutions without upfront investment, while offering philanthropies and investors a transparent, impact-driven vehicle for climate finance.
Switzerland faces a paradox: many public and private building owners have the need (with assets near the end of life or with high inefficiencies) and willingness to decarbonise, but projects often stall due to a lack of technical support, limited internal capacity, or the absence of financing models aligned with their operational and financial realities. Small- to mid-sized actors (such as hospitals, care homes, and industrial facilities) are frequently overlooked by traditional finance and overwhelmed by the complexity of sustainable solutions implementation.
The opportunity is clear: longer-term service contracts (e.g., for solar, heat pumps, insulation, lighting) can drive rapid decarbonisation, cost savings, and new revenue streams.
However, the market is constrained by a lack of trusted intermediaries, limited competition, poor data transparency, and inadequate early-stage project support.
In 2023, Fondation Valéry and BASE jointly recognised that Switzerland’s progress toward net-zero was constrained not only by technology availability but by the lack of practical, scalable deployment business models. The Servetia initiative was launched to directly address this gap by providing specialised support to Swiss companies, from hospitals to industrial facilities, to gain technical knowledge on the feasibility and value of as-a-service models.
Led by BASE and in collaboration with E4S, the 1st phase of the initiative focused on understanding and establishing Switzerland’s ecosystem for service-based energy solutions. BASE deployed efforts to:
- Map national market opportunities,
- Build a cluster of technology providers and financiers
- Develop standard contracts, pricing tools and MRV protocols
- And initiate several pilot opportunities in commercial, healthcare and industrial sectors
Today, building on the momentum of the Servetia Initiative and thanks to the continued support of Fondation Valéry, BASE is launching the second phase of the program: bridging early-stage project gaps, mobilising co-financing, and accelerating the adoption of sustainable Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) and contracting models across healthcare, industry, agriculture, housing, and public infrastructure.
A Catalytic Platform for Faster Decarbonisation
Servetia 2.0, or “Servetia Catalytic Platform (SCP)”, will support renewable and energy-efficiency projects first-hand, while addressing the key barriers that building owners and end users face – from performance risks, limited internal capacity, lack of technical support, complex procurement, and financing misaligned with operational needs.
The Servetia Catalytic Platform will achieve this by providing key support at all levels, from the financing to the technical conceptualisation and the projects’ operations.
Diagram 1: The SCP stakeholder support
In a nutshell, the Catalytic Platform will function according to the following steps:
- Upstream, the Servetia team will source high-impact projects across industry, commercial, healthcare and non-profit sectors in Switzerland, creating a pipeline of promising investments for financiers, whether impact-investors, banks, development institutions and philanthropic organisations.
- Independent technical assistance will be provided to identified project developers, including feasibility analysis and tendering support to ensure commercial viability and bankability.
- With these projects up the sleeve, above mentioned private and public financial institutions will be engaged to develop innovative blended finance strategies to bring the EaaS projects to life, mixing concessional and commercial finance to mitigate investment risk.
- Downstream, once projects are completed and new the energy equipment is installed, Servetia will deliver transparent impact reporting through its own or partners’ robust Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) aligned with international standards;
To activate all these elements, a revolving Results-Based Financing (RBF) mechanism will lie at the core of the project, enabling the long-term viability of the Catalytic Platform. In essence, philanthropic contributions will be aggregated in a fund used to finance the technical assistance accelerating EaaS projects. If the client moves forward and signs the service contract with a provider, the grant will be gradually reimbursed to the fund by the offtaker. The energy savings from the more efficient equipment will already generate lower operational expenses when payback is requested, partially or totally compensating the fee. This scheme ensures that potential EaaS adopters bear the cost of this expert support only if they proceed with the installation of a new and cleaner energy system under an as-a-service model, both reducing technical and financial risk on their side.
Diagram 2: The SCP operational flow
By simplifying and de-risking early project stages, the SCP aims to unlock Switzerland’s pipeline of renewable and energy-efficiency investments and operate at the market intersection between energy & tech “Providers”, “Investors” and “Customers” in need of energy retrofits.
Whether you are a business (or non-profit) looking for energy retrofits, a clean tech provider with customers in need, or an investor looking for impactful and sustainable projects, reach out; Servetia 2.0 looks forward to supporting you.
