Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sostenibilidad

Just another web-blogs Sites site

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agriculture and Food Security
    • Climate change
    • Ecosystems and Biodiversity
    • Environmental and Social Safeguards
    • Infrastructure and Sustainable Landscapes
    • Institutionality
    • Responsible Production and Consumption
  • Authors
  • English

Workshops and studies to reduce financing barriers for energy efficiency and self-sufficiency

May 10, 2014 por Autor invitado Leave a Comment


Representatives of the Chilean financial, business, and government communities are participating in a comprehensive program of workshops, training, and pre-investment studies with the aim of increasing financing for renewable energy self-supply and efficiency projects, particularly for small- and medium-scale industrial, commercial, and private entities. Program participants include the Ministry of Energy (CER), the Chilean Agency for Energy Efficiency (AchEE), the IDB, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), banks, and potential private sector clients.

The activities financed by the grant will help to reduce barriers to the availability of financing for renewable energy self-supply and energy efficiency projects and to enable firms to quantify the effects of non-conventional renewable energy projects in reducing operational costs. The issue is critical for firms seeking to raise productivity in a country where energy costs are high.

The program. The grant for preparing the Renewable Energy and Energy Self-Sufficiency Program is being carried out by the IDB with US$780,000 in CTF technical cooperation resources in collaboration with the IFC, which is managing a CTF technical cooperation for US$213,000. The IDB operation was approved in December 2012.

The program’s five activities, which are being carried out in coordination with the Ministry of Energy, CER, and AchEE, are preparing the way for a scaled up renewable energy self-supply and energy efficiency program that would be funded by the CTF and executed by the IDB and the IFC. The program activities are as follows:

  • Identification of the target market (feasibility study) which will assess entry barriers for energy efficiency and energy self-supply production schemes, including feasibility profiles for energy efficiency and self-supply for segments of the energy consumption market (IDB).
  • Capacity building for technical service providers that will include workshops and training to increase knowledge and expertise in reducing financing barriers and developing expertise of project developers and finance analysts (IFC).
  • Development of pilot projects for energy efficiency and self-supply production projects to be funded later. Included will be pre-investment studies and development of projects to a bankable stage (IDB).
  • Identification of possible financing mechanisms and structures and the proposal of alternatives for increasing project development for energy efficiency and local energy production projects with financing from private banks and governmental loans (IFC).
  • Design of a system to evaluate the impact of the REESSE program (IDB).

Although the Chilean government has provided support mechanisms for energy investment, these incentives have had a relatively minor impact on the development of small-scale thermal and/or electrical energy self-supply projects in the industrial, public, and commercial sectors. A large part of the reason is that investment costs of these projects are typically less than US$400,000, which is the minimum required for projects to qualify for preinvestment studies by the country’s economic development agency. Moreover, these projects generally are not connected to the grid.

Update on results. A coordination committee with representatives from local governmental institutions, CER, and AchEE has been established. The target market feasibility studyhas been completed and the development of more than 10 pilot projects has initiated at the first trimester of 2014.

High-priority on energy savings. Chile will require an additional 14,500 MW of installed electrical power capacity by 2020. Reducing incremental consumption by 20 percent in the period 2008-2020 will decrease the additional installed capacity needed by 1,600 MW.

Despite the compelling need for energy efficiency measures and their apparent profitability, investment in this sector has not yet taken off. For this reason, the government has included energy efficiency as a central tenet of its recently launched National Energy Strategy, which seeks to decouple economic growth from energy consumption. The goal is to reduce by 12 percent the projected energy demand by 2020, which would be equivalent to a reduction of more than 4.1 million tons of petroleum equivalent.

The IDB is executing several projects in Chile’s energy sector that support the country’s energy strategy. An equity investment fund is financing smaller hydropower plants, which is expected help increase interest in renewable energy projects. A direct loan to a commercial bank is financing green projects, mainly small hydropower plants. Other initiatives include a project to promote clean energy market opportunities among small and medium-sized enterprises and a program with the Chilean Energy Efficiency Agency with support of the GEF to promote energy efficiency in the industrial and commercial sectors by strengthening technical service providers and increasing access to financing.

Lessons learned. During the preparation of the grant several initiatives were identified to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy in the country. However, while many of these studies were developed, they resulted in few actual projects. The program’s aim is to ensure that projects are carried out, which is the purpose of the component for developing pilot projects and preparing investment studies to bring projects to a bankable stage. It also was felt that pilot projects would be the best means for replicating these type of initiatives nationwide.


Filed Under: Infrastructure and Sustainable Landscapes

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

SEARCH

Sustainability

This blog is a space to reflect about the challenges, opportunities and the progress made by Latin American and Caribbean countries on the path towards the region’s sustainable development.

SIMILAR POSTS

  • Reducing risks for renewable energy to spur financing for projects totaling 60 MW
  • Chile – Clean Technology Fund Investment plan
  • Honduras SREP investment plan emphasizes renewable energy production and distribution
  • Energy-efficient technology helps firms to compete and reduce GHG emissions
  • Hotels, hospitals, clinics receive investments to boost energy efficiency

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Derechos de autor © 2025 · Magazine Pro en Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube
    This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser.
    To learn more about cookies, click here
    x
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT