13 August 2012: The Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) has published the results of its first call for proposals for the ECOWAS Renewable Energy Facility (EREF) and is set to award 41 projects in 15 countries with an overall grant amount of €1 million.

With support from the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC), the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the EREF provides grant co-funding to small and medium sized renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in the region’s urban and peri-urban areas, although some of the grant will be disbursed to successful project proposals in rural areas. The financial award per project is to be disbursed over a two year period, with the final disbursement pending the submission of the project’s final report.

The projects include: a biogas rural electrification programme in Benin; an off-grid solar project in Nigeria; an interactive online mapping project targeting renewable energy sites in the region; business training to promote solar energy to mitigate climate change in Ghana; biofuel production to empower the rural poor in Mali; and the establishment of small hydro-power facilities in Sierra Leone. Other successful projects will deal with the deployment of clean cook-stoves, solar refrigeration, innovative financing for solar kits, and bio-ethanol production.

The call for proposals drew participation from local government actors, government, local and international non-governmental organizations, research sectors, and the private sector. [ECREEE Announcement][List of Approved Proposals]