Paper
Renewable Energy for Microenterprise
How can microfinance fund renewable energy initiatives?
80 pages
The document focuses on renewable energy (RE) options but offers a microfinance perspective. It investigates three institutional approaches that have been used to combine RE technologies with microfinance for the benefit of microentrepreneurs where:
- The MFI finances the purchase of a small RE system by a rural microentrepreneur or household;
- An MFI, microenterprise nongovernmental organization (NGO), or strategic partner develops a community-scale facility in which electricity and other services are provided to microentre-preneurs on a fee-for-service basis;
- A credit organization finances a microentrepreneur owning and operating an energy supply business, which may be a retail operation, a battery-charging station (BCS), or a minigrid.
Presents advantages and disadvantages of each of these institutional approaches, with an emphasis on the experiences of existing programs. Offers five case studies of existing programs and lessons learned.
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