USAID aiding expansion of 9MW geothermal facility in Georgia

Reported from the U.S., the country’s Development Agency USAID is helping developing countries to get financing for clean energy projects.

“Increasing energy is essential to developing countries. It moves water and communications. It brings schools into the 21st century and allows merchants to compete in broader markets through information technology. It lights, heats, and refrigerates health clinics around the world.

But how energy is produced and used can potentially harm the environment and contribute to global climate change.

As developing countries grow, they are faced with ever-increasing demands for adequate energy services. However, many countries have trouble attracting private financing and face a range of other barriers to using clean energy options as a way to meet these needs in a climate friendly way.

The Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN) connects small- and mid-size clean energy developers with international financiers and financial consultants. As a multilateral initiative, PFAN helps developers learn to speak the same language as their potential financiers.

In 2009, USAID joined PFAN to expand the initiative from a pilot to a global network and to help the Agency’s missions interested in clean energy. When necessary, PFAN also draws on USAID’s financing mechanism, the Development Credit Authority, to unleash new investment in clean energy activities.

During PFAN’s pilot phase in 2006, 10 projects were selected to receive support, including a small hydroelectric power station in Mexico and a biodiesel refinery in Brazil. The two projects raised a total of $35 million in private sector investments. In South Africa, PFAN also supported a project that converts biomass materials to clean fuel pellets for furnaces.

One upcoming project: rehabilitation and expansion of a 9.3 megawatt geothermal facility in Georgia that will provide heating and hot water.”

Source: USAID.gov