AfDB/World Bank-supported plan to generate more than a gigawatt of power
WASHINGTON,
May 7, 2013/ -- The US $7.6 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF)
today gave the go-ahead to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and
Tunisia to proceed with an updated version of a sweeping plan to create
an unprecedented 1,120 megawatts (MW) of energy from Concentrated Solar
Power (CSP) for the region. The plan will receive US $660 million from
the CIF's Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and is expected to leverage nearly
US $5 billion from other donors and private financing.
The plan,
first endorsed by the CIF in 2009, has undergone post-Arab Spring
changes by each country to reflect the political and economic conditions
in the region and to build on emerging lessons from the plan's first
project now underway – the Ouarzazate I 160 MW plant in Morocco.
The
revised plan accepted today by the CIF governing body provides a
realignment of projects in the pipeline based on each country's
reassessed needs; focuses on well-performing projects as a stronger
measure of the plan's positive impact; and expands the plan's horizons
to also include Concentrated Solar Photovoltaic (CPV) technologies and
business models including public sector, public-private partnerships
(PPPs), and independent power producers (IPPs). The original plan
projected a total of 895 MW of power, but with the revision the region
now expects to achieve 1.12 GW, making it the most ambitious CSP program
in the world. The countries have also agreed to request a smaller
funding envelope from the original US $750 million to US $660 million
including currently funded projects.
"The
changes suggested by the countries in the plan make it a more viable and
flexible plan which takes into account the realities each of these
countries face," stated Mafalda Duarte, AfDB coordinator for the Bank's
CIF program. "We can all look to this revised plan as both a signal of
hope for the forward economic and social movement in the region built on
renewable energy, and a more realistic blueprint for the evolution of
renewables as a potent engine of power globally."
The plan
is also adding a technical assistance (TA) component to complement
efforts at the project level and establish a critical platform for
knowledge exchange and increase private sector involvement and regional
integration.
President
Mustapha Bakkoury of the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN), who
presented the revised plan to the governing body, emphasized to the CIF
that, "We are looking forward to seeing more involvement by this kind of
financing in the coming years, and hope it will help continue the
dynamism of the solar power sector and its competitiveness with wind and
other energy sources, including fossil fuels."
CTF allocations in the revised plan are:
• Morocco: CTF US $218M for 300 MW (Ouarzazate II)
• Egypt: CTF US $123M for 100 MW (Kom Ombo)
• Tunisia: CTFUS $62M for 50 MW (Akarit) (may increase to 100)
• Jordan: CTF US $50M for up to 100 MW including CPV
• Technical assistance: CTF US $10M
Background
In 2009,
recognizing their region's enormous potential for tapping into CSP, they
had agreed on an unprecedented Investment Plan for regional CSP
development to generate 1 Gigawatt (GW) power and triple worldwide
capacity, and had received a commitment for US $750 million by the CIF's
Clean Technology Fund (CTF). The Investment Plan was designed around
deployment of about 10-12 commercial scale power plants to be
constructed over a three- to five-year time frame. Now, in light of
subsequent political and technological developments in the region, the
countries and their partners have come together again to update and
revise the Plan to better suit their countries' current circumstances
and consider advances in solar technology.
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the African Development Bank.
About the Climate Investment Funds (CIF)
Established
in 2008 as one of the largest fast-tracked climate financing
instruments in the world, the US $7.6 billion CIF provides developing
countries with grants, concessional loans, risk mitigation instruments,
and equity that leverage significant financing from the private sector,
multilateral development banks (MDBs), and other sources. Five MDBs –
the African Development Bank (AfDB) (http://www.afdb.org), Asian
Development Bank (ADB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and World Bank Group
(WBG) – implement CIF-funded projects and programs.
Contact: Mafalda Duarte, Chief Climate Change Specialist and CIF Coordinator, ONEC
m.duarte@afdb.org
For
further information on the CIF projects supported by the AfDB, please
visit "Financing Change: the AfDB and CIF for a Climate-Smart Africa"
(http://goo.gl/cMCDM)
SOURCE
African Development Bank (AfDB)
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