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INVESTMENT AND FINANCING
The year 2015 saw closure of a number of financing agreements
to support DRE development worldwide. In India, the US Agency
for International Development (USAID), the David and Lucile
Packard Foundation and the Asian Development Bank agreed to
invest or provide financing for USD 41 million in off-grid energy
infrastructure, USD 15 million in clean energy “beyond the grid”
and USD 6 million for SHS. 45 Also in Asia, the UK-based Impact
Investment Fund finalised a USD 2.1 million package to support
the activities of Sunlabob Renewable Energy (Lao PDR). 46 The
African Development Bank launched its “New Deal for Energy
in Africa”, targeting 75 million off-grid connections by 2025. 47 In
addition, the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreed to provide
a USD 46 million grant for off-grid electrification in Benin. 48
Investments in distributed solar systems continued to grow in
2015. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that roughly
USD 276 million was invested in off-grid solar companies (solar
lanterns and home systems) during the year, bringing the total
since 2010 to more than USD 511 million. 49 Pay As You Go (PAYG)
companies received 87% of all such direct investments in 2014
and 2015. 50 For example, Off Grid Electric raised USD 70 million
in debt financing in 2015 to kick-start its partnership with the
Tanzanian government to provide solar electricity to 1 million
households over three years. Other market leaders in off-grid
solar – including M-KOPA, Nova Lumos, BBOXX, Mobisol, Fenix
International and Greenlight Planet – each raised investments of
USD 10 million or more in 2015. 51 (p See Figure 33.) As part of the
Power Africa initiative (discussed in the section on programmes,
below), the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
also agreed to provide Kenya and Nigeria with more than USD 20
million in loans to promote solar energy in 90,000 households.
distributed 6.8 million clean cook stoves in 27 countries. 57
In addition to debt capital and equity financing from investment
funds and development banks, crowdfunding continued to
increase in popularity in 2015, with many institutions managing
crowdfunding campaigns to release new products or expand
into new areas. i Countries with low rates of energy access,
such as Tanzania and Uganda, have implemented a number of
micro-grids with funds from companies such as SunFunder. 58 A
crowdsourcing model launched in 2015, “Gridmates”, is a webbased
platform that aims to expand access to DRE globally by
crowdfunding ii . 59 In Nepal, Gham Power teamed up with other
local solar companies and Global Nepali Professional Network
to launch a new campaign called Rebuild with Sun, which has a
crowdsourced Indiegogo campaign that raised USD 150,000 for
solar power systems and micro-grids. 60
In December 2015, an array of new financing and investment
initiatives was launched at the COP21 in Paris. For example,
the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), which aims to
achieve universal energy access on the continent, plans to install
10 GW of additional renewable energy capacity by 2020, and
300 GW by 2030. 61 France will double investments across Africa
in renewable energy projects – ranging from wind farms to solar
power and hydroelectric projects – to USD 2.2 billion between
2016 and 2020. 62 The International Solar Alliance, with members
from 120 countries, aims for large-scale solar PV expansion in the
tropics and beyond, and has a goal to raise USD 400 million from
membership fees and international agencies. 63 In December
2015, the European Union launched the ElectriFI Initiative, a tool
with initial funding of USD 83.5 million that supports investments
in clean energy services. 64
Moving away from solar to micro-grids, the company Powerhive
(United States) secured a loan of USD 6.8 million to build 100
solar-powered micro-grids (which will power about 20,000
households and businesses), and Enel Green Power (Italy)
announced that it will invest USD 12 million for the construction
and operation of a 1 MW portfolio of mini-grids in 100 villages. 52
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched a USD
5 million programme to develop a market for mini-grids in
Tanzania to increase access to energy, while in Mozambique,
Energias de Portugal (EDP) secured USD 1.95 million to finance a
160 kW hybrid solar/biomass mini-grid to power 900 households,
33 productive users and 3 community buildings. 53
To promote the use of clean cook stoves, more than
USD 400 million has been mobilised in the past five years. 54
In 2015, under the Enhanced Livelihoods Investment Initiative
(ELII) (a three-year, minimum USD 10 million investment
initiative), BURN Manufacturing (Kenya) secured an investment
of USD 800,000 to bring clean cook stoves to smallholder and
plantation workers on tea estates in Kenya and Tanzania. 55 Early
in 2016, OPIC committed to finance USD 4 million of Envirofit’s
activities to expand the use of clean cook stoves. 56 Carbon
finance also continued to gain momentum as a commercial
pathway to generate revenue to scale up the deployment of clean
cook stoves; by mid-2015, 57 projects using carbon credits had
03
i Crowd-sourced platforms such as SunFunder, Indiegogo, Kickstarter, RocketHub and Pozible have become increasingly accessible in recent years through
the Internet.
ii Gridmate users donate hours of energy via PayPal.
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