Board of Executive Directors of The World Bank has approved $200 million Renewable Energy Guarantees Programme (REGREP) to mobilise International Development Association (IDA) guarantees under a Multi-Phased Programmatic Approach (MPA).
The programme will enable the government of Ethiopia’s ongoing power sector reforms and leverage private sector financing for renewable energy generation.
REGREP will guide the development of over 1,000MW of greenfield solar and wind energy Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects in Ethiopia, including the World Bank Group mounting Solar initiative.
“REGREP comes at this important juncture and signals the government’s commitment to comprehensive power sector reforms and a private sector led renewable energy development programme that has the potential to be one of the largest in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Rahul Kitchlu, senior energy specialist at the World Bank.
The REGREP marks the first IDA guarantees under arrangement in Ethiopia. Enabled by the 2018 Public-Private Partnership anouncement, this programme reflects a new way of doing business in the energy sector in Ethiopia - transitioning from continued public-financing towards private sector led competitively tendered procurement of new renewable generation capacity.