Challenge
The Caribbean is highly dependent on imported oil, despite great potential to generate energy via renewable and clean sources, such as solar, wind, hydropower, and ocean thermal energy conversion. This results in high costs to consumers and unreliable access to electricity.
Solution
USAID was studying the establishment of a fund to support private sector investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency to boost energy resilience and overcome roadblocks to growth, stability, and self-reliance, and sought a better understanding of the current landscape for RE/EE projects in the Caribbean to further US Government climate change and energy goals. Making Cents conducted a desk review for USAID of the political environment around the energy sector and a study of the sector’s landscape of public actors and private investors. This activity was a Task Order under the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Services II IDIQ. The desk review included an assessment of existing private and public funding sources, financing conditions, technologies covered, size and geography of projects supported, and financial gaps and opportunities. The review allowed Making Cents to provide recommendations and identify priority areas and mechanisms that require further assessment.
The second phase of the activity involved a deeper investment landscape analysis for five countries in the Caribbean: Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Guyana, and Dominica. The resulting data was analyzed with an inclusive lens with a special focus on marginalized populations, including women, the LGBTQ community, migrants, and others to identify their unique barriers to access to finance and investment opportunities in the energy sector. This landscape assessment informs and supports future renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in the region and provided evidence-based recommendations to USAID’s Mission in the Dominican Republic to boost energy resilience and increase growth, stability, and self-reliance in the region.