The role of the World Bank in financing biomass energy projects
- World Bank, Washington, DC (United States)
The World Bank`s financing of biomass energy projects has been principally in relation to the excessive use of biomass for fuel in developing countries and the measures that are needed to curb demand and reduce its adverse environmental impacts. With respect to projects for the conversion of biomass into liquid and gaseous fuels and electricity, the Bank`s role has been more limited. The major reasons for this limited role include the still unfavorable economics of many of the technologies in comparison to the current cost of conventional fuels, the small size and dispersed nature of some of already economic biomass projects and the general lack of information in the Bank on the technology status and economics of the more modern biomass energy applications. Nevertheless, in the early 80s, the Bank financed one of the largest and most important biomass projects in developing countries, the Brazil Alcohol and Biomass Energy Development Project. During this period, it also conducted various preinvestment studies on biomass gasification, bagasse cogeneration in sugar mills and other technologies for the generation of power from biomass resources. None of these studies led to Bank lending to governments, but a number were financed by the private sector directly or through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the arm of the Bank Group that deals with the private sector. With the current worldwide concern for global warming and the creation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank group is revisiting its involvement in the promotion of environmentally benign energy generation technologies. It recently launched a new program called the {open_quotes}Solar Initiative{close_quotes} that seeks to increase Bank investments in direct solar, wind and biomass energy applications in developing countries. The most recent Bank activity in biomass energy is financing for a prototype 30 MW biomass gasification project in Brazil.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 115356
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP--200-8098; CONF-9508104--; ON: DE95009230
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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