Deadline: 2-Oct-22
The Energy Transition Partnership (ETP) – Energy Efficiency Innovation Window is now open for applications.
The Energy Transition Partnership (ETP) is a multi-stakeholder platform that aims to accelerate the energy transition in Southeast Asia and deliver the Paris Agreement targets on climate change by bringing together government donors, philanthropies and partner governments.
ETP aims to empower its partner countries to transition towards an energy system that simultaneously ensures environmental sustainability, economic growth and energy security. To achieve this goal, ETP will mobilize and coordinate the necessary technical and financial resources to create an enabling environment for renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable infrastructure in the region.
Objectives
The ETP Energy Efficiency (EE) Innovation Window can provide an effective pathway through which ETP can provide early-stage grant financing for innovative approaches to address the systemic problem of under- investment into energy efficiency in Southeast Asia. This will allow for a consistent, rapid, and non-duplicative assessment of the many small solicitations for EE funding that are currently being received by ETP on an ad hoc basis. If well-targeted and efficiently implemented, this EE Innovation Window can have a material impact on some of the barriers to EE investment in the target countries and thereby significantly improve the uptake of energy efficiency in the region.
Eligible Technologies and Approaches
Successful applications will address the barriers to expanding energy efficiency investments as defined in the three categories under the EE Innovation Window, and in addition eligible technologies and interventions include the following:
- Interventions that cover energy efficiency or increased productivity in the commercial, industrial or residential sectors, or efficiency-focused applications in transportation;
- Smart metering, monitoring and energy use information and data;
- Smart grid and control technologies;
- Residential and commercial building construction and retrofitting – insulation and building envelope measures, lighting, heating and cooling (including space cooling and refrigeration), appliances, control systems, building integrated PV, hot water production;
- Industrial energy performance – electric motors, drives, pumps, air compressors, boilers and thermal equipment, economizers;
- Training and/or certification programs for practitioners in component parts of project development, such as energy auditing, understanding and delivering M&V for energy savings, EE project finance, and other capacity building required by the project owner.; and
- Innovative approaches and support to the development of effective and innovative energy efficiency policies, that have potential to inform and influence public policy towards energy efficiency investment.
Specific activities to be funded
Examples:
The EE Innovation Window will seek proposals for funding focused on innovations (in either technologies, business models or engagement approaches) that address one or more of the following three categories:
- Category 1: Project Development Support
- EE Innovation Window will provide grants for the development of EE projects, and for tools and approaches that support such project development. Local project developers often have limited capacity and/or experience to conceive of and design bankable projects in key sectors such as buildings and industrial facilities. However, there are many standardized project development approaches and tools that can assist in developing EE projects, including in how to assess and verify data, how to perform audits and design energy conservation measures, how to perform project measurement and verification (M&V), and how to administer projects operationally over time.
- Category 2: Access to Energy Efficiency Finance
- The EE Innovation Window will provide grants to support initiatives and approaches that can increase or expand access to financing for energy efficiency. As noted in Part 1 above, there is an urgent need to create better linkages between the appetite for EE investment and the needs of investors (across local financing institutions, banks and private investors, international financial institutions and development banks, and global and national climate funds).
- Category 3: Facilitation of Public Policy Implementation for Energy Efficiency
- The EE Innovation Window will provide grants for the development of EE projects and initiatives specifically targeting the public sector. The public sector is often responsible for policies and regulations that can hinder EE investment—e.g., when government budget and procurement regulations hinder the ability of government units to carry out EE projects with ESCOs using a shared-savings or performance contracting approach. On the other hand, the public sector can create enabling conditions that can facilitate and accelerate EE investment, and government procurement can also be used as a pro-active tool to demonstrate EE technologies and business models. Proposals submitted under this category could include initiatives that address policy and regulatory gaps and opportunities
Expected Outputs and Outcomes
ETP’s results-based monitoring framework is focused on enabling Southeast Asian countries to attain their Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement commitments. Energy efficiency is fundamental to these objectives: the IEA estimates, in its “Efficient World” scenario, that by 2040 energy efficiency could deliver a reduction in annual energy-related emissions of 3.5 Gt CO2-eq compared with 2017 levels, delivering over 40% of the abatement required to be in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. Moreover, energy efficiency delivers multiple benefits towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, across outcomes for industrial productivity, air quality, livelihoods and human health. Energy efficiency can be improved through technological innovations in energy-consuming products and services, by preventing energy losses in transmission and distribution systems, improving the infrastructure, by integrating nature-based solutions, and by designing and implementing suitable technical efficiency standards.
ETP seeks to increase the flow of public and private investments to energy efficiency projects in the energy and end-use sectors, and measures its success at this through the following performance metrics:
- National budgets indicate a resolve to maximize RE/EE capacity by allocating increased amounts of public funds and attracting FDI into the RE/EE sector: Through advocacy efforts and technical support, ETP would see that more public funding is allocated to the renewables sector as against the non-renewable sector that indicates the nation’s resolve to promote RE and EE. In addition, national governments advocate and seek support from foreign investments into the RE and EE sector.
- Indicators:
- Amount of public funding allocated to RE/EE projects.
- Amount of FDI inflow into RE and EE sector initiatives.
Eligibility Criteria
- The EE Innovation Window will select projects for grant funding and will guide their implementation phase towards activities that create improved market conditions and “bankability” of energy efficiency projects, and that subsequently catalyse increased public investment and foreign direct investment in energy efficiency in the target countries. In terms of mechanics, it will operate in line with established UNOPS procedures for similar funding windows.
- Eligible technologies and innovations include any that address any of the categories listed in Section 3 Scope of Work (Category 1: Project Development Support; Category 2: Access to EE Finance; Category 3: Facilitation of Policy Implementation for Energy Efficiency), and also that directly address one or more of the barriers to EE investment listed below. During the application process, ETP will explicitly screen for these questions. ETP will accept applications on an ongoing basis, with evaluation of applications carried out on a quarterly basis refer ‘Project Management’ below).
- Limitations.
- Examples:
- This Call for Proposals will select more than one successful Proposal, limited to entities with demonstrated experience in working in different geographic regions (global) or in at least 2 of the following: Southeast Asia. – Limited to entities with proven experience (of at least 5 years) in project
- Implementation, research, policy development and analysis, and/or capacity building activities in energy transition or climate action in line with the Paris Agreement.
- Entities are eligible as long as the grant project does not have the purpose of producing a direct financial profit, however this does not refer to the reasonable recovery of a grantee’s overhead or operational costs up to a limit of 10% of the total project amount.
For more information, visit https://www.ungm.org/Public/Notice/181484