- The UK government has announced that GBP 100 million will be directed to the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) to support up to 40 new RE projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Camco Clean Energy, a leader in renewable energy finance, which provides developers with access to various financing products, services and experience, will manage the funds.
- The new funding is available for small-scale solar, wind, hydro and geothermal projects.
The U.K. government has announced at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, that an extra GBP 100 million (US 126 million) has been made available for the development of small-scale renewable energy (RE) generators in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the statement, the funds will be directed to the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) to support up to 40 new RE projects in the region. These will include small-scale solar, wind, hydro and geothermal projects.
The additional investment should enable REPP to support the financing of up to 40 more projects across the region from 2019-2023 – providing improved or first-time electricity access to around 2.4m people per year.
REPP was set up in 2015 with £48m initial funding from the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to help small to medium-scale renewable energy projects attract and access private and institutional investment – mobilising private finance in sub-Saharan Africa. It is managed by Camco Clean Energy, a leader in renewable energy finance, which provides developers with access to various financing products, services and experience.
To date, the programme has agreed contracts with 18 renewable energy projects across 11 countries, employing seven different technologies, from solar home systems and PV mini-grids to biomass and run-of-river hydro.
Over the projects’ 25-year lifespans, they are together expected to provide improved or first-time energy access to 4.5m people, increase capacity from clean energy by 194MW while creating 8,000 jobs during development and operation. REPP has a really healthy pipeline of suitable projects, with a number more in the advanced stages of the selection process.
The additional investment, which was announced today at COP24 in Poland, will enable REPP to build on these early successes. The extension could also unlock an extra £156 million of private finance into renewable energy markets in Africa by 2023.
Geoff Sinclair, Managing Director of Camco Clean Energy, said: “In just a few years, REPP has made significant inroads using climate finance to help realise the enormous potential small to medium-sized renewable energy projects in catalysing sub-Saharan Africa’s clean energy revolution, enabling change where it’s most needed.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates BEIS’s commitment to the programme, and will enable REPP to extend its important work to millions of other people who currently have little or no access to electricity in the region, while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Claire Perry MP, Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth, said: “At home we’re world leaders in cutting emissions while growing our economy and abroad we’re showing our international leadership by giving countries a helping hand to shift to greener, cleaner economies.
“This £100 million will help communities harness the power of their natural resources to provide hundreds of thousands of people with energy for the first time. Building these clean, reliable sources of energy will also create thousands of quality jobs in these growing green economies.”
BEIS’s investment in REPP forms part of the UK’s £5.8bn commitment to international climate finance by 2021, as part of the global effort to tackle climate change.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
