IRENA Project Finance Matchmaking event at Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum 2018
Most Caribbean countries have demonstrated significant economic growth over the last few decades, leading to a higher energy demand and the need to significantly expand the electricity supply infrastructure. As a corollary, many Caribbean countries have elevated levels of dependency on fossil fuels and the volatile costs of these fuels translates to heavy external debts and impacts a country's credit ratings and balance of payments. For Caribbean countries, then, renewables are a clean solution, but also one which promotes energy independence and economic security. IRENA’s NDC analysis of 2017 finds that if Caribbean islands fully implement their NDC targets they will result in more than 5GW of additional installed capacity of renewables by 2030.
IRENA seeks to catalyze and support NDC targets and the regional transition to renewables. As part of that effort, IRENA organised a half day project finance matchmaking event at the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum (CREF) on 7 November 2018 to convene finance and project development professionals in the Caribbean, to share ideas and take concrete steps on viable projects identified as needing support. The event connected developers to project finance providers and experts, while also offering them insights on project development, risk mitigation instruments and other issues essential to the successful financing of their projects.
The event enhanced networking opportunities for CREF participants, promoted exploratory discussions between developers and financiers, introduced opportunities to access IRENA platforms and services, and project financing discussions will be taken further from the event.
About CREF: The Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum is the largest annual energy event in the Caribbean. Launched in 2009, CREF gathers governments, utilities, multilaterals, developers and investors to explore opportunities to ramp up investment in clean energy across the Caribbean.