The Growth Box stream provides direct financial support to SMEs aiming to address a specific energy related challenge linked to the green and digital transition. Applicants will be able to apply for funding to tackle one of the predefined challenges identified by GreenGrid. SMEs selected for funding will be expected to collaborate directly with the respective Challenge Owner to validate, pilot, or scale their solution in a real operational environment and to actively participate in the GreenGrid Accelerator programme.
Under the Growth Box stream, the eligible activity is the validation, demonstration, and scaling of an innovative solution addressing one of the predefined challenges identified by GreenGrid. The objective is to test, validate, and advance the solution under real operational or market conditions, contributing to grid flexibility, renewable integration, digitalisation, or overall energy system resilience.
List of challenges (read more in the Guide for Applicants: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18ZcCF-bl15LMa_vKGti5wNHBI5NT3iI0/edit):
1. Enefit Green AS (Estonia)
Enefit is experiencing rapid growth in its hybrid renewable asset portfolio, with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) increasingly co-located alongside solar and wind assets. While this supports greater renewable penetration and grid flexibility, it introduces significant operational and commercial complexity that existing systems are not equipped to handle.
2. Elektrilevi OÜ (Estonia)
Elektrilevi, Estonia’s largest distribution system operator (DSO), is a key enabler of the country’s electrification and energy transition. As demand for renewable energy connections grows and infrastructure ages, there is an increasing need for innovative and cost-efficient alternatives to traditional grid investments, especially in remote and disconnected areas where conventional solutions are costly and difficult to deploy.
3. Elektrilevi OÜ (Estonia)
Elektrilevi, Estonia’s largest distribution system operator (DSO), is a key enabler of the country’s electrification and energy transition. This challenge aims to explore how smart prosumer management, based on short-term forecasting of network capacity and real-time data, can enable greater integration of renewable energy into the grid during normal production periods, while also supporting effective load management during peak demand periods. The project seeks to develop situational models, carry out impact assessments, and run a pilot to validate the feasibility of the proposed solution.
4. Agrotami Solar PV (Romania)
AGROTAMI is an agricultural SME based in Vaslui county, Romania. It operates in the Oilseed and Grain Combination Farming industry and is seeking to find and implement a hybrid PV + battery solution that cuts electricity costs, secures continuity during grid outages, and strengthens sustainability credentials.
5. KlubeSol Association (Portugal)
The KlubeSol Association is composed of three interconnected entities that work in a complementary way to promote social, cultural, educational, and sustainable initiatives. Its focus is on human development, innovation, sustainability, and active citizenship. KlubeSol is interested to accelerate the development of a real-world sustainable energy solution in a coastal territory, enabling access to innovative cleantech solutions, strategic partnerships and European-level validation.
6. Miesto Gijos AB (Lithuania)
AB Miesto Gijos is the largest city-level energy utilities company in Lithuania bringing together more than 230 000 customers and advanced urban energy solution within a single ecosystem. The challenge they are seeking to address is developing and piloting a demand response mechanism for heat consumption which can demonstrate a measurable demand-side flexibility in district heating consumption, through enabling demand response for heat.
7. Ignitis Group AB (Lithuania)
Ignitis Group, Energy & Utilities sector, publicly listed company with majority state ownership, 4,000+ employees, operating across the Baltics, Finland and Poland.
The challenge is in accelerating household decarbonization while maintaining grid stability and affordability, increasing energy literacy among customers to support sustainable consumption behavior.
8. Klaipeda FEZ UAB (Lithuania)
Klaipeda FEZ covers an area of 412 ha, has 50+ clients and about 100 businesses. The territory is well-connected to main national and international road, rail and sea corridors, and is also an integral part of Klaipeda city.
The primary sustainability challenge stems from fragmented infrastructure and stranded renewable assets. Currently, there are three industrial buildings that are managed by different, disconnected Building Management Systems (BMS). This lack of integration leads to significant operational inefficiencies and energy losses.
9. Bricomarché (Portugal)
The Bricomarché Beja store provides a wide range of products and solutions for construction, renovation and maintenance, including tools, building materials,gardening supplies and household improvement items, serving both private customers and local professionals.
We are looking for an integrated, scalable and cost-effective solution that enables the store to significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint while maintaining operational efficiency.
10. Zipper Services SRL (Romania)
ZIPPER creates strategies and solutions to advance step by step in the field of digitalization, continuously testing the performance of implemented projects. Through our endeavours, we aim to automate and simplify work with data and documents.
The challenge is to develop an 85 kWp rooftop PV solution that cuts the electricity bill driven by scanners, servers, AC and mailing lines, and strengthens our positioning as a sustainable digitalisation partner.
The proposed solution must already be developed and demonstrate sufficient maturity for real-environment testing (recommended TRL 5–8). Activities focused purely on early-stage research or concept development (TRL 1–4) are not eligible.
Eligible activities may include:
– Adaptation and technical refinement of the solution to the specific challenge context;
– Pilot implementation or demonstration in collaboration with the Challenge Owner;
– Integration, testing, and validation in an operational environment;
– Performance monitoring, impact measurement, and data analysis;
– Preparation for market uptake and scaling within the Challenge Owner’s ecosystem or sector.
Each granted SME will receive up to EUR 50,000 lump sum.
Expected duration of the funded projects is up to 6 months, with the exact duration defined on a case-by-case basis.
Eligible applicants are SMEs as defined by the European Union SME definition (less than 250 employees, annual turnover ≤ EUR 50 million, or balance sheet total ≤ EUR 43 million, with these thresholds calculated on a consolidated basis including all related and linked companies), established in an EU member state or a country participating in the Single market Programme.
