New project: Lebanon Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Finance Facility
In September 2017, GFA started implementing the Lebanon Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Finance Facility project (LEEREFF), which supports small-scale investments in energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energies (RE) by private companies in Lebanon. LEEREFF is a 80 million euro global loan provided by EIB and AFD and intermediated through the Central Bank of Lebanon (BdL). The latter will make the proceeds of this loan available to selected local banks and will blend EIB and AFD's financing terms and conditions. The objective is to disburse the funds within the next 24 months.
Representatives of EIB, AFD, BdL and GFA presented LEEREFF to the public during the International Beirut Energy Forum on 19 Sept, 2017. The Facility will finance private small-scale EE/RE investments with a particular focus on SMEs. It will enable local companies to make use of RE by reducing electricity consumption through solar hot water production or photovoltaic panels that generate electricity for self-consumption. Moreover, SMEs can achieve energy cost savings by investing in EE measures in cooling, lighting, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, motors and production processes in industry and in the tertiary sector. Investments in new green buildings in the tertiary sector will also be supported as these achieve a substantial energy performance increase compared to the usual standard.
The services provided by GFA will first of all support BdL and the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) in managing and implementing LEEREFF efficiently. In addition, GFA will use its technical expertise to support participating banks in developing a pipeline of bankable projects and proactively help potential investors to develop EE/RE projects. These services will be provided free of charge as part of the technical assistance funded by the European Commission under the Neighborhood Investment Facility scheme.
Further information is available in the following articles, published in the local press:
>> €80 million BDL-subsidized energy loans at zero interest – Lebanon BusinessNews
>> Un nouveau prêt accordé au Liban pour les projets verts – Orient le Jour
