CABEI grants US$135,000 partial credit guarantee to Banco BAC San José for solar power generation in Costa Rica
With this operation, CABEI and Banco BAC San José have become pioneers in the country’s emerging renewable energy market.
San José, July 8. - The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) granted Banco BAC San José a US$135,000 partial credit guarantee to finance a solar energy project that uses thermophotovoltaic energy conversion system technology.
The project is being executed at the installations of Centro Recreativo Club Campestre Español located in San Antonio de Belén, Costa Rica. The investment will generate a 63.37 kilowatt peak (kWp). This significant project required extensive teamwork with the participation of the Costa Rican Power and Light Company (CNFL, Spanish acronym) as a national distributor and promoter of the interconnection of small projects in order to promote energy self-sufficiency in the country.
Partial credit guarantees are promoted by the Project “Accelerating Renewable Energy Investments in Central America and Panama” (ARECA) in a tripartite initiative of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and CABEI, with contributions from the Finish Foreign Affairs Ministry. Their use makes it possible for financial institutions such as Banco BAC San José S.A. to promote the Costa Rican energy sector so that future clean energy projects will have commercial banking institutions to finance the implementation of their initiatives and expand the role of renewable energy production in the regional energy matrix.
In the framework of its 2010-2014 Institutional Strategy “Competitiveness with Integration and Social Development,” CABEI, the region’s main source of development financing, promotes initiatives that generate energy through renewable sources, such as hydro, wind, biomass, geothermal and solar, which contribute to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
In this way, CABEI’s ARECA Project promotes innovative solutions for the development and execution of renewable energy projects (less than 10MW with decentralized generation), facilitating access to credit by sharing the risk with banking institutions that promote the sustainable development of the Central American region.
