The World Bank's Global Geothermal Development Plan (GDDP) has mobilized US$235 million towards scaling up geothermal energy, a source of low-carbon baseload power for many developing countries.
The GDDP's efforts focus on overcoming limited capacity and capital for early-stage exploration, a key obstacle to expanding geothermal in developing countries.
3 December 2014: The World Bank’s Global Geothermal Development Plan (GDDP) has mobilized US$235 million towards scaling up geothermal energy, a source of low-carbon baseload power for many developing countries. The GDDP’s efforts focus on overcoming limited capacity and capital for early-stage exploration, a key obstacle to expanding geothermal in developing countries.
Speaking at the second GDDP roundtable on 24 October in Copenhagen, Denmark, Anita Marangoly George, of the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice, said development partners and governments must work together to mitigate exploratory risks and encourage the private sector to scale up.
The event, co-organized by World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), brought together government and donor representatives, technical experts and private developers from more than 30 countries to assess progress and lessons learned in geothermal development, specifically regarding exploration data management, risk mitigation options and financing alternatives for geothermal investments. During the meeting, participants recognized increasing momentum for geothermal energy in low- and middle-income countries. They also highlighted the GGDP’s contribution to developing a pipeline of resource validation projects and drawing attention to geothermal’s potential in transitioning to renewable energy in developing countries.
The US$235 million allocation for early-stage exploration, through the Dedicated Private Sector Program window of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), is expected to enhance existing donor efforts. To date, ESMAP has identified 36 geothermal fields in 16 countries where surface exploration has been completed but where additional financing is required to confirm commercial viability. ESMAP predicts 40 countries could meet a large proportion of their electricity demand through geothermal power and the number could increase in the longer term with increased public investment and improved knowledge about resource availability in order to enable more private investments.
The GGDP, launched in March 2013 by the ESMAP, works to create momentum in geothermal energy investments by focusing on exploratory test drilling, the largest financial obstacle to geothermal energy scale-up. GGDP projects are currently under preparation in 11 countries around the world. [World Bank News Story] [GGDP Website]