World Bank Group’s renewable energy and energy efficiency financing hits $3.3bn

14 September 2009

The World Bank Group saw its financing of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and programmes across the developing world rise by 24 per cent in the last fiscal year to hit $3.3bn, the banks highest ever.

In total, the Bank’s renewable energy and energy efficiency commitments for the year ended 30 June 2009 accounted for just over 40 per cent of their energy lending, equating to about two out of every three dollars spent on energy projects were in the renewable energy or energy efficiency sectors.

The Bank Group said it far surpassed commitments made at the Bonn International Renewable Energies Conference in 2004 to increase support for new renewable energy and energy efficiency by nearly $1.9bn over the period 2005-2009 included. In fact, over the four year period, the Bank Group’s financing exceeded more than $7bn, more than three and a half times the target.

‘Five years ago, we thought we were stretching ourselves by promising to expand support for renewable energy and energy efficiency by 20 per cent per year,’ said Katherine Sierra, vice president for sustainable development at the World Bank. ‘As it turns out, our client countries have been even more ambitious in asking us to help them in this area, and we’ve been able to respond with robust investments to help build the low-carbon economies each country is seeking. We’ve now committed to even more challenging goals on clean energy and carbon intensity reduction investments as we strive to make reliable energy access for all a reality.’

During the past five years, the Bank Group has approved 366 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects spanning 90 countries. In 2008, the World Bank Group invested in 99 projects across 48 countries. Among the projects were those in Bangladesh, supporting off-grid solar electrification.

‘We’ve shown that not only is lending for renewable energy and energy efficiency an environmentally and socially sound choice, but that often these options make good business sense as well,’ added Rashad Kaldany, IFC’s vice president for Asia, Middle East/North Africa and Global Infrastructure. ‘By stimulating private sector involvement in renewable energy projects, IFC is playing a transformational role in the sector.’

In Tanzania, World Bank is funding solar, small hydro, and biomass power plants to expand grid electricity supplies and power to public health and education facilities, enterprises, and households. Meanwhile, in China, funding is helping to install an additional 30,000 new biogas digesters. This is enabling nearly half a million rural households to use biogas from their small farms to cook food, reducing the use of fossil fuels to heat homes and fertilise farms, and resulting in 60,000 fewer tonness of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

In India, funding is being used to replace 370 CFC-based inefficient chillers used in commercial buildings and industrial establishments, helping India meet its goal of a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency by 2016-2017. In Turkey, IFC is supporting a 135MW wind farm to increase the country’s wind energy capacity by 30 per cent while reducing pollution. Finally, IFC financed a large wind project in Chile.

In 2008, the board of executive directors approved a Strategic Framework on Development and Climate Change. Under it, fresh commitments were made to increase the investments in new renewable energy and energy efficiency by 30 per cent per year between fiscal years 2008-12, and increasing participation in environmentally and socially sound larger hydro power projects.

In addition to the $7bn in financing in fiscal years 2005-09, driven by demand in developing countries the Bank Group also committed $2.7bn for hydropower projects of more than 10MW per facility.

Copyright © 2009 newnet

Tags: biogas, energy efficiency, wind

This story was published on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, biomass/biofuel, deals, energy efficiency, knowledge, wind. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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