The World Bank has approved a US$ 480 million guarantee to help Argentina meet its target of 20% of energy consumption originating from renewable energy by 2025, a move that will aid development of small hydropower in the country.
The bank guarantee will support the Fund for the Development of Renewable Energy which facilitates financing of projects under the RenovAr Program of the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mining. This initiative seeks to stimulate power generation from wind, solar, biomass, biogas and small-scale hydro sources to achieve the 20% renewable energy target.
The RenovAr Program was implemented in 2016 through two tender rounds (known as Round 1 and Round 1.5) to award 59 projects. These projects will generate 2423MW and will be implemented throughout the country. Of the total, 27 projects requested the World Bank guarantee, including 12 wind projects (721MW), 10 solar projects (306MW), four small-scale hydro projects (4MW) and one biogas project (1MW).
This transaction uses a 20-year World Bank guarantee to mobilize private-sector investments.
