- Both organisations will mobilise up to $2bn in private sector investment.
- Funding will prioritise countries where up to 70 per cent of households are unelectrified.
- Organisations believe that this funding will help get the continent back on track following the impact of the pandemic on electrification last year.
The Rockefeller Foundation and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have partnered to mobilise up to $2 billion of private sector investment in distributed renewable energy solutions in developing countries.
Rockefeller Foundation will contribute about $150 million in blended finance to help unlock private investment in the sector. The Rockefeller Foundation and the World Bank’s private sector arm say that they will focus on countries in sub-Saharan Africa where 70 per cent of households are not yet electrified.
Both organisations will begin with quick deployment of $30 million in blended concessional finance and grant capital towards an active pipeline of projects developed by IFC. These include IFC’s scaling mini-grid programme and distributed renewable energy generation, battery energy storage, and other innovative clean energy technologies.
Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shahn states that “investing in renewable energy infrastructure in communities that have not had access to reliable power will ensure that the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis is both green and equitable,”
Both companies believe that this is key to getting back on track after the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had hurt progress on energy access. The number of people without energy access in Africa increased by 13 million in 2020.