IRENA and ADFD offers $57m as loan for five renewable energy projects

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) will offering $57m as concessional loans for constructing five renewable energy projects in the developing countries.

The recent loan stands for the second of seven funding cycles, which on a whole is expected to provide $350m over seven years for setting up renewable energy projects in developing nations.

The entire project has an estimated worth of $800m.

The projects to be financed in the second cycle have a combined power generation capacity of 35MW.

The approved projects comprise of solar, hydro, hybrid (wind and solar) and geothermal energy.

Upon starting operations, the facilities are expected to meet reliable and sustainable energy requirements of over 280,000 people across rural communities in Argentina, Cuba, Iran, Mauritania and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

IRENA director-general Adnan Amin: "Renewable energy offers the prospect of clean, affordable power to the 1.3 billion people currently off the electricity grid.

"While renewable energy resources are abundant in many communities suffering from energy poverty, finance is still a key challenge for deployment. That is why the partnership between IRENA and ADFD is so important as a pioneering effort."

ADFD operations department director Adel Abdulla Al Hosani said: "Towards this priority, we are keen to support the economic development and deployment of sustainable energy projects in countries with immense clean energy potential, but lacking necessary financial resources and project management expertise."