The World Bank Group has increased its funds for hydro power and other renewables, plus energy efficiency schemes, by two-thirds to US$1.43B in the past year.
More than half the total amount – US$751M – was given to hydro power projects with installed capacities of more than 10MW.
The other parts of the funding include US$421M for renewables projects and US$262M for energy efficiency schemes.
Funds included in the total include financing from the World Bank, the International Finance Corp (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) plus carbon finance operations and projects co-funded with the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Of these bodies, the funds each have given to hydro schemes (over 10MW) in the last 12 months were:
* World Bank – US$430M
* World Bank (Carbon Finance) – US$66M
* IFC (Own funds) – US$140M
* Miga – US$115M
The World Bank said that it considered hydro power to be renewable no matter the scale of the project, but for reporting purposes only accounted for plants of more than 10MW capacity.