The capacity of renewable energy in the Middle East and North Africa will nearly double from 1.7 gigawatts (GW) today to 3.3 GW by 2015. This is shown by research from Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII). Morocco plays a leading role in expanding the currently capacity, around 0.6 GW, to 1.7 GW by 2015.
“North Africa and the Middle East are at the beginning of an impressive energy transition based on wind and sun. I am particularly pleased that companies from the Dii network play an important role in around half of the many upcoming projects,“ said Paul van Son, Dii’s CEO at the opening of the fourth Dii Desert Energy Conference in Morocco. “Supporting the right projects in their early stages is a priority. This is why Dii has launched REDIMENA for promising projects.”
As the initiator of new renewable projects, project developers are an important driver in reaching these ambitious goals. However, the amount of capital available for the high risk phase of early-stage development is often limited in the emerging markets of MENA.
REDIMENA (Renewable Energy Development and Investment Vehicle for MENA) is a tool dedicated to overcoming such hurdles. REDIMENA would co-invest €1-4M of risk capital per project to help them reach the construction phase. A well-developed, shovel-ready project then builds the basis for the much larger amounts of private sector investment necessary for constructing a renewable energy power plant. Last but not least the support of these local entrepreneurs as first movers will pave the way for further projects through demonstrating best-practice of project concepts and contractual arrangements.
As a next step, the consulting company Suntrace together with Dii will perform a feasibility study to lay the groundwork for this investment vehicle. The aim is to identify investors to set up REDIMENA with an initial volume of €30M.
(Source: Desertec Industrial Initiative)