Listen to the podcast:
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a sister organization of the World Bank, is making a big push in the Asia-Pacific region. The IFC provides financing, advisory and other services to boost private sector development in developing nations and has set a goal of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity in every country by 2030. The organization operates by aligning multiple stakeholders to a common vision, leveraging innovative financing instruments to reduce project risks, and helping to pioneer private investments.
Those approaches are ideal for projects in emerging-economy countries where political and sector risks run high, according to Nena Stoiljkovic, IFC’s vice president for Asia and Pacific. Pulling more private funds to the projects is particularly important in the region, which accounts for 60% of the world’s population but has widespread poverty, she said in a recent interview with Knowledge@Wharton. (Listen to the complete podcast at the top of this page.)
It helps that in her previous role as IFC’s vice president of blended finance and partnerships, Stoiljkovic worked on developing new instruments to “de-risk private sector investments in emerging markets,” among other global initiatives. It also helps that several countries are displaying technological prowess in sustainable development technologies such as in combating climate change.
For example, an IFC project in Singapore is a model that can be replicated in emerging markets, while other economies such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are promoting low-carbon energy generation through increased energy efficiency, particularly solar and wind, hydropower and geothermal and green buildings. Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Indonesia are proving to be fertile markets for fintech companies and the financial inclusion they bring to underserved populations.
The ‘Cascade’ Approach
According to Stoiljkovic, the Asia-Pacific region needs $3.5 trillion in infrastructure financing every year. “A cascade approach” that the IFC has designed would help achieve the sustainable development goals of the region, she added. “That’s a simplified way of talking about maximizing finance for development. What it really means is that whenever you can finance something through the private sector, do not resort to public sector [financing] – especially grants – because these are precious sources of financing that should be used only where the private sector cannot do it.”
When a project is presented, the IFC asks whether there is a sustainable private sector solution that limits public debt and contingent liabilities. “If the answer is ‘yes,’ then promote private solutions. If the answer is ‘no,’ ask whether it is because of policy or regulatory gaps or weaknesses, and how the World Bank can support policy and regulatory reforms,” she said. “And if it is because of risks, we can see what World Bank instruments we can bring to bear.”
In essence, that “cascade” strategy implies boosting private sector financing. “The only way we will be able to put trillions of dollars into development by 2030 to deliver on SDGs (sustainable development goals of the U.N.) is to create conditions for the private sector to provide financing that’s needed,” said Stoiljkovic.
“We can bring a lot of the trillions that sit in institutional investment companies to emerging markets to finance some of those much-needed projects.”
The IFC is also pushing for policy reforms in public sector institutions. “When we connect it all with the same goal, we can bring a lot of the trillions that sit in institutional investment companies to emerging markets to finance some of those much-needed projects,” Stoiljkovic explained. At the same time, she stressed the overall need for effective collaboration among nonprofit organizations, the public sector, private sector financiers, commercial banks, private equity funds and institutional investors. The World Bank Group has tried to promote this concept with other multilateral development banks through work on mobilization definitions and common blended-finance principles.
The Jordanian Case
The “cascade” strategy sets out to make systematic what has happened informally over the years in the World Bank. One example that stands out is Jordan’s project to build a new terminal at its international airport that ran the better part of the past decade, Stoiljkovic noted. The King of Jordan had originally planned to finance it solely through public sources. However, a World Bank team leader suggested that it would be better to build a private airport, which could generate ongoing revenues for the government.
The IFC helped set up a public-private partnership financial structure for the project, where the government awarded the contract to a French company to build and operate the airport on essentially a lease basis.
Between 2007 and 2016, the IFC assumed three roles: an advisor to the Jordanian government; a lender and lead arranger of financing; and portfolio manager during the implementation of the project, according to an IFC note. Queen Alia International Airport “is now one of the most successful airports in the world,” said Stoiljkovic.
The financing plan for the airport helped conserve substantial government resources, she added. The Jordanian government went from subsidizing airport operations at a cost of $23 million per year to receiving an annual fee from the operator to run the airport amounting to more than 50% of the net revenue — the highest revenue share ever bid on an airport PPP project. This has added up to over $1 billion in revenue for Jordan over the last decade.
The IFC is adopting similar approaches in solar energy and climate-change reduction projects in Africa, with the private sector providing the financing, and the public side providing regulatory and policy support to institutions like the IFC to structure the bidding processes and contracts for private operators.
Retooling Financial Instruments
One important aspect of the financing structures the IFC puts together for such projects is “de-risking,” or finding ways to reduce the risks for private financiers. In several emerging-economy countries, the economies are “fragile and conflict-affected,” or have other political risks, Stoiljkovic noted. At times, such projects also face technological risks — for example, a solar power initiative, if it happens to be the first of its kind in the country.
In such cases, the IFC steps in with “blended finance instruments,” such as “loans with much longer tenures than the market can provide” or other instruments such as guarantees and even equity to reduce the overall risk profile of the transaction. That approach, which uses relatively small amounts of donor financing to target specific risks in private sector projects, allows private sector investors to earn satisfactory returns on infrastructure projects, Stoiljkovic explained. The IFC has successfully implemented several such first-of-its-kind solar power projects across Africa and in South Asia, using those blended finance instruments as incentives to help investors offset some risks.
“Public sector [funds] … are precious sources of financing that should be used only where the private sector cannot do it.”
All those initiatives are part of a broader refresh of the ways in which the IFC approaches project financing. In earlier years, it would raise money through bond offerings, where government guarantees would help it secure attractively low rates, and use such funds to support private sector projects. Its traditional approach was also to wait for projects to be ready for financing.
Now the IFC takes a different approach, where it can help create a market for a project if one doesn’t exist, Stoiljkovic said. These may be privately operated solar or hydroelectric power projects, new fintech instruments, digital education or health care initiatives. What’s more, the IFC attempts to “connect all the players” in a project with each other, which may include the World Bank, commercial investors, nonprofits, and of course the IFC itself, she added.
A prime example of such an approach is in the building of the 750-megawatt Rewa solar power project in India’s Madhya Pradesh state that is slated to be commercially operational in December. Here, the World Bank provided advice on the resettlement of people around the project site while the IFC structured the deal and provided financing.
“We worked in sync because one without the other – just the advice on resettlement without private financing – it would not have worked,” said Stoiljkovic. The Rewa project and other such solar power projects that the IFC has financed account for 15% of India’s solar capacity.
Asia and Climate Change
A big chunk of the IFC’s work is directed at climate change mitigation, which includes projects such as the Rewa plant. In that space, Asia is an important market for the IFC. “Asia in particular is interesting from a climate change perspective, because it is a region where many people live around the coast,” said Stoiljkovic. “It’s also very fragile in terms of being prone to climate change effects, whether they are storms or tsunamis.”
At the same time, Asian countries, such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam and China, are developing innovative technologies in the production of solar power equipment, batteries and related products, said Stoiljkovic. Climate-change mitigation projects in global emerging markets — such as in renewable energy — now account for some $18 billion of IFC financing annually, which is close to a third of its overall financing outlays, she added.
“Asia in particular is interesting from a climate change perspective, because it is a region where many people live around the coast.”
Some of that takes the form of “green bonds,” which provide an alternative source of long-term green finance used exclusively for climate-friendly projects, including in agribusiness where crops can be protected from the adverse impacts of climate change, she added. In December 2017, the IFC enabled the first green bond to be issued by a financial institution in the Philippines, which is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The proceeds are to be being used in renewable energy, energy efficiency and green building projects.
Stoiljkovic further noted that the IFC has supported climate-friendly technologies by advising local banks in emerging economies about financing “climate-smart projects.” This adds to its efforts to help build capacity and provide advisory services. In addition, the IFC finances a “green energy efficiency alliance” by providing local banks credit lines that they could use to provide loans to their small and medium-sized clients.
Digital Banking for the Underserved
Another example of how the IFC’s new approach works: a fintech company transforming the money transfer business in Bangladesh. Considering Bangladesh’s population density, an essential part of the IFC’s development mandate is to design strategies for financial inclusion jobs and economic opportunities, Stoiljkovic said.
The country’s banking sector has some 50 banks, many of which were state-owned and “not very efficient and have non-performing loans,” she added. That setting provided an opportunity for an IFC client called bKash to pioneer digital money transfers using mobile channels in the country. It was able to grow rapidly to provide access to finance for some 30 million people and allow for money transfers to poor families in rural Bangladesh, according to Stoiljkovic.
“The fintech company [bKash] has now reached the size and scale that it cannot be regulated as a bank or as a micro-finance institution,” Stoiljkovic said. The IFC is helping the Bangladesh government find ways of regulating the fintech space. “They obviously did not know that [digital money transfers] would grow at such a pace,” she added. “[This is] a classic example of market creation and a tremendous story of financial inclusion in a country that very much needed it.”
Once set in motion, projects such as bKash tend to have a snowballing effect. “[Setting up physical] branches in rural areas of Bangladesh or any other country is very difficult and expensive,” Stoiljkovic pointed out. “Technology is allowing us to connect people and give them that access, simply by having a mobile phone.”
Stoiljkovic placed the impact of IFC’s work against the backdrop of the larger goal of using sustainable development to reduce world poverty from current levels of below 10% to less than 3% by 2030. “When I think of Asia, I think about sustainable cities, urbanization. I think about agriculture and linking what happens in rural areas providing food to growing urban populations. I think about a lot of young people that need to be included in the economy – by providing jobs for those people and [empowering them with the] skills for those jobs,” she said. “And of course, I think about doing all of that in a sustainable way and hopefully using more and more technological development to speed up the growth.”
Join The Discussion
One Comment So Far
Anumakonda Jagadeesh
Excellent.
The India-UN Development Partnership Fund is a dedicated facility within the United Nations Fund for South-South Cooperation established in 2017. It is supported and led by the Government of the Republic of India, managed by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, and implemented in collaboration with the United Nations system.
The India-UN Development Partnership Fund supports Southern-owned and led, demand-driven, and transformational sustainable development projects across the developing world, with a focus on least developed countries and small island developing states. United Nations agencies implement the Funds projects in close collaboration with partnering governments.
“Corporate India should look at sustainable development issues relevant to different regions in the country and avoid a ‘one size fits all’ approach, said PP Chaudhary, Minister of State for Law and Justice and Corporate Affairs.
Addressing FICCI’s ‘India Sustainability Conclave 2018’ in the Capital, Chaudhary said that good corporate governance was not just a means of enhancing long-term value for companies but also to provide lasting benefits to consumers and other stakeholders.
Corporates, therefore, need to look beyond the four walls of their companies and strive to match the drive to become responsible and accountable entities with the benevolent impact of their actions on the environment and society, he said.
While acknowledging that multilateral and bilateral funds had dried up as they were being diverted to countries like Africa, Chawla said there were funds available which focused on green issues and those could be tapped by the Indian corporates.”( Sustainable development: Need to avoid one-size-fits-all approach, says Minister, ,BusinessLine,THE HINDU, March 06, 2018).
Renewable Energy is one component for Sustainable Development. Though India occupies 4th Position in Wind and fast advancing in Solar,most of the projects are by Big Industrial Houses and Businessmen. The funds are obtained from mostly Banks and IREDA. In countries like Denmark,Germany,Netherlands etc. Community Wind Projects(Wind farm co-operatives) exist. In Denmark every 5th person is a partner in Wind through Wind Farm co-operatives.. In India also Wind Farm Co-operatives concept can be promoted. Exemption for Incomr Tax Payers is allowed for Rs 1 lakh under Section 80C. The Government can start a “Renewable Energy Fund” and contributions to it by Individuals can make the Wind field mass based. Issue of Bonds for the investment can be worked out. This way huge funds for Renewable Energy Projects will be available and mass participation in Renewable Energy Projects.
Need for Solar Co-operatives in India:
While many people associate cooperatives with a place for hippies to buy organic food, the cooperative movement actually has grown far and wide, creating sustainable enterprises that generate jobs and strengthen local economies. Today, nearly 30,000 cooperatives are in the United States, with more than 100 million members. From day care centers to hardware stores, cooperatives seem to be permeating every sector of society. So it’s no surprise that cooperatives are making their way into the renewable energy field as well.
A cooperative is a group of people acting together to meet the common needs and aspirations of its members, sharing ownership and making decisions democratically. Co-ops can be owned by workers, residents, consumers, farmers, the community or any combination of the above. What they have in common is that they are not about making big profits for shareholders, but rather circulating the benefits back to their member-owners, and these benefits ripple out to the broader community.
Solar cooperatives are helping independently owned solar integrators share best practices, allowing homeowners to install PV systems more economically and giving renters or people living in apartments a simple way to join the solar revolution.
Community solar
A similar type of cooperative can be found in community solar arrays, also known as solar gardens. Community solar has overcome the barriers for people who want to invest in solar energy but rent their home, live in an apartment, or have too many trees shading their roof. Customers can own or lease solar panels in a large community array and receive the credit on their electric bill. The Clean Energy Collective (CEC) was one of the first organizations to offer shares in solar gardens. In the CEC model, customers can purchase as little or as much solar energy as they’d like and actually own the panels, without having to deal with any installation or maintenance issues.
CEC operates 26 megawatts of solar gardens from Colorado to Vermont, purchasing large amounts of equipment at a time, enabling its customers to get bulk prices that would be impossible to secure on their own. For renters or anyone whose roof isn’t suitable for rooftop solar — whether they want to lower their carbon footprint, save money or hedge against future rising utility prices — solar gardens can be an appealing solution. They’ve certainly been extremely popular for CEC; shares in the first solar garden CEC built, located in Carbondale, Colo., sold out in the three months of construction before the array was even completed. “I found [community solar] quite simple to participate in, which overcomes what I see as one of the biggest hurdles for solar today,” Brendan Miller wrote on the CEC website. Miller and his wife, Robin, purchased 11 panels (2.75 kW) in the Denver/Lowry Community Solar Array. “For end users, solar has become very cost competitive with traditional power but still requires some effort on the part of individuals to set up.”
Solar cooperatives allow people and companies to work together to help each other succeed. The growing number of solar cooperatives around the country are making solar more affordable and accessible and proving that cooperatives aren’t just for hippies anymore. In fact, a recent study estimates that U.S. cooperatives account for nearly $654 billion in revenue and over 2 million jobs. And as Stephen Irvin, the president of Amicus Solar Cooperative, told SolarPro magazine, “the great collaborators of the world will lead the way to a healthier and more vibrant future.”
(Solar co-ops bring affordable green power to the people
Laurie Guevara-Stone April 28, 2014 ,GreenBiz).
WHITHER OFFSHORE WIND FARMS IN INDIA?
I have had been advocating Offshore Wind Farms in India since TWO Decades(Refer My Letter in THE HINDU(26 November 1994).
India is yet to start an Offshore Wind Farm.
Need for Offshore Wind Farms in India:
Though India occupies 4th position in Wind in the world , in Offshore wind we have not even made a beginning.
Installed wind capacity by state as of 31 March 2018
State Total Capacity (MW)
Tamil Nadu
8,197
Gujarat
5,702
Maharashtra
4,784
Karnataka
4,509
Rajasthan
4,298
Andhra Pradesh
3,963
Madhya Pradesh
2,520
Telangana
101
Kerala
53
Others 4
Total 34,132
(Source: Wikipedia).
Instead of wasting money by setting up wind farms in average wind sites Offshore wind farms can be planned with collaboration of Major offshore wind farms with UK Collaboration as UK is pioneer can be started in India. India has 7516.6 km long coast line.
Following are the official figures sourced from union governments latest documents:
The total length of coastline along each of the coastal State/UT in the country is as follows:
Sl. No. State / UT Length of coastline (in km)
(i) Gujarat 1214.7
(ii) Maharashtra 652.6
(iii) Goa, Daman and Diu 160.5
(iv) Karnataka 280.0
(v) Kerala 569.7
(vi) Tamil Nadu 906.9
(vii) Pudducherry 30.6
(viii) Andhra Pradesh 973.7
(ix) Odisha 476.4
(x) West Bengal 157.5
(xi) Lakshadweep Islands 132.0
(xii) Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1962.0
Total Coastline 7516.6 km
SOME BIG WIND TURBINES IN THE WORLD:
1. Vestas V164 8MW
The V164 8MW turbine is the latest addition to the to top 10 list. The Vestas V164 came online in January 2014, nearly three years after the project was first unveiled in London. Curiously for an offshore turbine, the V164 is geared. Other notable features include a 80 metre-long blades and a lightweight nacelle that won the design innovation category in Windpower Monthly’s annual wind turbine awards. The first machine has been installed for testing at the Danish national wind turbine test centre at Osterild.
2. Enercon E126 7.5MW
The majority of the turbines on this list are designed for the offshore market. But Enercon ‘s E126 7.5MW, is purely designed for the onshore sector. The initial 6MW second-generation Enercon E-126, introduced in 2007, featured a concrete tower with a 135-metre hub height, and segmented steel-composite hybrid blades with a 127-metre rotor diameter. It also holds a 12-metre diameter generator. Around 34 E-126 units are operational.
3. Samsung S7.0 171 7MW
Samsung’s 7MW is the latest addition to the top 10 and one of a number of next generation in development for the market. This is the first prototype to be built (at a test site in Scotland) and was only completed in October. Among its features, it includes the world’s longest turbine blade at almost 85-metres. To put this in context this record has been extended by almost 10 metres over the last year. Unfortunately, this machine is unlikely to go into production following the Korean company’s move toexit offshore wind in 2014.
4. MHI SeaAngel 7MW
Like the Samsung 7MW, the MHI SeaAngel was installed in Scotland in early 2015. It has two other similarities, firstly it is 7MW and secondly it is unlikely to go into full scale production. MHI is likely to mothball the machine as its JV with Vestas means it will be using the V164. Although the SeaAngel’s hydraulic drive train may be passed on to the V164 at a later date. This machine is third place behind the Samsung because of its slightly smaller rotor, which is 167-metres.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
Renewable Energy Expert
Recipient
Margaret Noble Foundation Seattle Award in Energy Technology.