Austria Nepal Renewable Energy Blended Finance Facility (REBFF)

The Austria Nepal Renewable Energy Blended Finance Facility (REBFF) is a three-year project running from October 2019  to July 2022 which is being implemented by SNV in Nepal.

Supported by Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, the project is a collaborative initiative between SNV, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) and NMB Bank Pvt. Ltd.

Objectives:

1. Upscale RE in Nepal through innovative financing

2. Make a paradigm shift from subsidies and grants to credit finance

3. Achieve environmental, social and gender co-benefits

There is a significant shortage of financing for Renewable Energy (RE) programmes in Nepal. It is evident that with donor funding alone (distributed as grants and subsidies), Government of Nepal (GoN) cannot bridge the necessary funding requirement for transforming the country’s energy sector. It is therefore necessary to access new sources of financing and make a paradigm shift from subsidies and grants to credit finance, impact investment and private sector-led investment.

This project, employing innovative financing mechanisms in partnership with the Nepalese banking system, will provide an additional and complementary intervention in the domain of RE financing in Nepal. The project will establish a credit guarantee facility (CGF) in partnership with NMB Bank Ltd and Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC). The CGF will be the first intervention in Nepal to support GoN in validating its ambition of ‘’aid to trade’’ and ‘’subsidy to credit’’, with the ultimate aim of building a “market-led renewable energy financing system’’. This project will therefore uniquely complement GoN’s RE policy objectives, National Renewable Energy Framework (NREF) and contribute to Nepal’s overall RE sector development.

Against the above background, the project will aim to upscale RE in Nepal through innovative financing, targeting three major outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Innovative financing leveraged to achieve GoN’s goal in scaling up energy access through renewable energy sources

• Outcome 2: Operationalizing AEPC at provincial level as per Nepal’s new federal structure

• Outcome 3: Achieving environmental, social and gender co-benefits at provincial level facilities.

In order to achieve these outcomes the project will undertake following initiatives:

Establishment of credit guarantee facility

• Support REEEP and NMB bank to establish CGF

• Technical support to identify bankable RE projects

• Support to establish and operate Investment Committee for proper functioning of CGF

Mainstreaming commercial lending through financial institutions (FIs) for RE projects

• Development of operational manual for  mainstreaming commercial lending in RE projects

• Provide capacity building trainings to FIs and Local government stakeholders for effective adoption of operational manual

Capacity building of provincial AEPC to operationalize its function at provincial level

• Design Local Capacity Building Facility

• Provide capacity development training to local stakeholders at provincial level

• Technical support to provincial AEPC to maximize direct and indirect  benefits from upscaling renewable energy projects