€4.7 million for 49 clean-energy projects

Europe’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) plans to fund 49 new clean-energy projects in 25 developing nations around the globe. The organisation’s seventh round of funding for such projects, it is also the largest: €4.7 million.

That’s 46 per cent more than REEEP allocated in its last disbursement in June 2007.

“REEEP projects concentrate on the two areas where small-scale interventions can have a huge knock-on effect: in helping establish clear regulatory and policy frameworks for renewables and energy efficiency, and in creating finance and business models to attract private players to these sectors,” said Marianne Osterkorn, REEEP’s director general. “Given the financial crisis, this year’s roster is weighted slightly towards the policy side, but even so, we also have some very interesting financial projects in the mix.”

Nine projects will be situated in China, including support for the Centre for Renewable Energy Development in creating a roadmap to show how 30 per cent of China’s 2030 energy demands could be met with renewables. A microfinance project with the Foundation for Development Cooperation will support renewable energy systems in Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu.

“REEEP projects are not selected solely for the significant benefits they deliver, but also for their potential replicability, up-scaling and learning effects,” said Morgan Bazilian, REEEP’s programme board chair and Irish Government representative. “These projects are helping to create the national and regional environments required to transition to robust green economies”

This year, Australia join the governments of the UK, Norway, Ireland, Italy and New Zealand as a REEEP programme donor.