The Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN), a clean energy financing advisory group, has announced that it had passed the $1 billion mark in total financing raised for clean energy projects in developing countries.
The multilateral public-private partnership, currently transitioning to a new governance and hosting arrangement within the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), Vienna, Austria, has now raised total financing of $1.2 billion.
The financing is being used to build, install and operate 701 megawatts of clean power for 87 projects across Africa, Asia and Latin America. These projects–which include solar and wind farms, biomass and biogas power plants, small hydro generation, decentralized renewable energy minigrids for underserved areas and others–together translate to over 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere annually.
“This is an excellent launch platform for the new generation PFAN under UNIDO REEEP hosting, and we look forward to expanding activities and continually pushing the limits on delivering new financing milestones in the future to support small business and innovation,” says Pradeep Monga, director of UNIDO’s Department of Energy.
PFAN’s accelerated rate of project closures, which led to a massive boost in financing raised this August, comes on the heels of a significant expansion effort for the group in Asia and West Africa, where new dedicated networks are beginning to show impressive returns. PFAN’s more mature networks in Eastern and Southern Africa have also made notable contributions. At the same time, PFAN is expanding across Latin America and the Caribbean, and recently launched activities in Ukraine, Georgia and Uzbekistan.
PFAN operates by identifying high potential clean energy projects, and providing them with project development, investment advisory and financing facilitation support via a network of independent experts. This program, supported by a coalition of governments and international organizations that includes the United States, Sweden, Australia and others, has resulted in private sector investment mobilization orders of magnitude higher than PFAN’s operating costs.
“This is a major milestone for us,” says Peter Storey, PFAN global coordinator for the billion-dollar achievement. “We could not have achieved it without the commitment and dedication of our in-country network members, and the trust of our funding partners who make our work possible in the first place.”
“Under its new governance structure nested within UNIDO and REEEP, PFAN is poised to go even further,” says Martin Hiller, REEEP’s director general. “We want to drastically accelerate PFAN’s contribution to technology transfer and diffusion-a key element of the Paris Agreement-by driving untapped finance to promising clean energy businesses.”
