20 September 2012: The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank has published the September issue of their E-bulletin, which includes highlights on: the release of the geothermal handbook; building consensus for a green growth pathway in Viet Nam; and concentrated solar power in the middle East and North Africa.

The “Geothermal Handbook: Planning and Financing Power Generation,” published by ESMAP presents geothermal energy project development stages and examines the risks involved and the policies, institutions and financing mechanisms need to bring projects to completion.

The bulletin also reports on a workshop partially supported by ESMAP held in Tunis, Tunisia, on 28 June 3012, which charted a path forward to accelerate regional concentrated solar power (CSP) development. Following the approval of the Ouarzazate I project in Morocco, ESMAP has been making efforts to support what will be one of the largest CSP installations in the world. Participants shared insights on the impact of policy incentives, the difficulty in scaling up CSP without concessional financing, and the trade-offs between feed-in tariffs and competitive bidding in developing countries.

The bulletin reports on the Viet Nam Low Carbon Development Forum, which took place in Hanoi from 12-17 July 2012. Organzied by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Viet Nam, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the event provided an opportunity to strengthen consensus on the pathway to green growth for Viet Nam. One of the highlights of the forum was training on low-carbon growth models and the Energy Forecasting Framework and Emissions Consensus Tool (EFFECT), a modeling tool developed by ESMAP. The newsletter also highlights a new Ashden award for energy pioneers in small island developing States (SIDS). [Publication: ESMAP e-bulletin, September 2012 Issue]