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Clean Energy Projects in Africa get a Lifeline

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Ambassador Gips
Ambassador Gips delivering his keynote address at the Climate Technology Initiative’s Private Financing Advisory Network Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing.
February 16, 2012
CTI PFAN help facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy by increasing financing opportunities for promising clean energy projects.

Ten clean energy projects that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Africa by nearly 287,000 metric tons a year were presented to investors in Johannesburg at the Climate Technology Initiative’s Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN) AFRICA FORUM for CLEAN ENERGY FINANCING (AFRICEF). More than 120 financiers, clean energy experts and representatives of financial institutions from across Africa and overseas participated in the Forum.

U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Donald Gips delivered a keynote address at the meeting in Johannesburg. He said “The U.S. Believes that Africa offers tremendous potential for increasing private sector financing in climate change technologies. PFAN's model for assistance and capacity building can add tremendous value to this vision”.

A panel of independent judges selected four of the ten showcased projects as winners of the CTI PFAN Clean Energy Financing Awards. The winner was BioEnergy Resources Ltd. (BERL) from Malawi with a $4.5 million investment proposal for the scale-up of a biofuels plant for the production of bio-oil and organic fertiliser for the Malawian market. The runners up were Green Fuel Ltd with a $65 million project for the expansion of a bio-ethanol plant in Zimbabwe, Future Fuels Africa Ltd with a $8 million biogas waste-to-energy project from Botswana and Nexus Biodiesel Ltd from Uganda $ 1,3 million.

Sander Donker, Chief Operating Officer of the winning BERL project, said “this process has helped take our project to the next level and made us more attractive to investors; we are now confident of raising the necessary investment for our project implementation”. CTI PFAN screened business plans, selected the most economically viable and environmentally beneficial projects, and provided multiple rounds of coaching and guidance before presenting them to investors. CTI PFAN is now working on more than 60 clean energy projects across Africa; and raised over $380 million of investment for clean energy globally.

CTI PFAN activities are funded by the CTI and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other funding partners including Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and the International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer (ICETT).

USAID supports CTI PFAN through its Bureau for Economic Growth Agriculture and Trade (EGAT) in Washington, D.C. as well as through its Regional Economic Growth Office in Southern Africa, and the Regional Development Mission for Asia (ROM A) based in Bangkok, Thailand.

CTI PFAN seeks to accelerate technology transfer and diffusion under the UNFCCC, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote low-carbon, sustainable economic development, and help facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy by increasing financing opportunities for promising clean energy projects.