Introduction The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) have collaborated on a joint Project Facility to support technically, economically and financially feasible, replicable, scalable and transformative renewable energy projects with the potential for positive development impacts in developing countries. ADFD committed USD 350 million in concessional loans, over seven annual funding cycles, to renewable energy projects recommended by IRENA. IRENA administers a project screening process to recommend technically, economically and financially feasible, replicable, scalable and/or transformative renewable energy projects with the potential for positive development impacts in developing countries. Projects were selected for funding in January 2014 in the first cycle. ADFD soft loans cover up to 50% of the project costs. USD 214 million of ADFD loans have been allocated by ADFD for 21 renewable energy projects recommended by IRENA. Over USD 420 million is being provided by other co-funding sources to cover the rest of the project costs. IRENA carries out its project screening and recommendation process through two bodies: a strategic Advisory Committee (Committee), appointed annually by the IRENA Assembly, and an independent Panel of Experts established by the Committee. IRENA decision guides the implementation of the Facility. The Director-General of IRENA, on the basis of the Secretariat’s knowledge of experts in the field and Members and Signatory countries’ submission of the names of qualified experts, recommends a list of candidates for the Panel of Experts to the Committee in each cycle who evaluate the project proposals submitted by the applicants. Qualifications The experience and expertise of the of Experts needs to cover: various renewable energy technologies; renewable energy resource qualification; relevant developing country experience; knowledge of procedures and practices of development funds including economic analysis and financial assessment of projects; project design, development, implementation and management; project analysis, monitoring and evaluation; and technical, commercial and socio-economic impact assessments. See expert nomination form in Annex 1 for further details of qualifications needed. Selection cycle
There are two stages of project evaluation facilitated by IRENA. In the first stage, the experts must evaluate, score and shortlist Executive Project Summary submissions. The Committee selects from this shortlist. Selected summary applicants are invited to submit a Full Project Proposal in the second stage. Experts evaluate and score the Full Project Proposals that are submitted. The Committee recommends projects to ADFD from this scored list. See Diagram 1 for the schedule and approximate number of projects considered at each stage from estimates from previous cycles. However, ADFD would like many more projects to be selected and recommended through the process. ADFD is advising that the Committee submit at least around 13 projects to them by the end of September 2019. Evaluation criteria The Panel of Experts carries out technical reviews of project proposals based on the following criteria at the Executive Project Summary stage and Full Project Proposal stage. See Annex 2 and Annex 4 for details on the evaluation criteria at these respective stages. Projects must have: technical merit, including through appropriate design, management capability, project deliverables; economic and financial viability, including through an appropriate business plan, demonstrated economic feasibility, revenue contracts and co-finance and socio-economic and environmental impact, including through achieving development goals e.g. equity, health and gender impacts. Projects must also: be transformative (expected to have a significant positive impact on the energy landscape, society, environment and/or business situation); be replicable (show an effective, efficient business model for the given technology that can be replicated, and/or involve a "solid and tested" approach); improve energy access (expressed in number of people to gain new access to clean energy, new connections to the grid or megawatts added to the power supply); address energy security (expressed in terms of how the project contributes to the diversification of energy supply, saving scarce energy resources, or reducing grid outages and/or in the number of people or systems with reduced reliance on traditional biomass, diesel, etc.). The Committee carries out a strategic review of the scored and shortlisted projects so that projects selected and recommended to ADFD must be geographically spread, technologically diverse and aligned with government priorities including the provision of a government guarantee. 5. Roles and responsibilities Each expert will be informed once the Panel of Experts is established by the Committee in mid to late January 2019. Experts can serve on the Panel for more than one year, bearing in mind a
Executive Project Summary – applicants submit 2018 to mid-Feb 2019 -Objectives -Design -Management -Project cost -Revenue sources -Business plan -Social, economic and environmental benefits -Stakeholder engagement -Transformative -Replicable/ Scalable -Innovative business model -Improve energy access -Address energy security -Geographic spread -Diversity of technologies -Alignment with government priorities Full Project Proposal including full feasibility – shortlisted applicants submit early May to end June 2019 -Detailed project design and output -Resource assessment -Implementation plan and operational arrangements -Technical risk mitigation measures -Organisational and management capabilities -Monitoring and evaluation -Full feasibility study -Co-finance agreements -Economic/ financial risks and mitigation options -Stakeholder engagement -Accessibility -Affordability -Job creation -Energy security -Environmental / health -Other/ gender/ transformation/ replicability/ scalability/ innovation -Risk mitigation Annex 3 STATEMENT OF UNDERTAKING Panel of Experts Seventh cycle of the IRENA/ADFD Project Facility As a member of the Panel of Experts for the seventh project selection cycle of the IRENA/ADFD Project Facility, I confirm and undertake that: