The World Bank Group has a long history of supporting emerging industries. The wind energy sector is no different, and since 1995, wind power has benefited to the tune of U.S.$80.7 billion in project finance allocation from the World Bank on 565 different projects around the world.
Geographically, the Americas received a total of $35.3 billion (43.7% of total), followed by Asia Pacific with $20.7 billion (25.6% of total), Eastern Europe with $13.0 billion (16.1% of total), and lastly Africa and the Middle East with $11.7 billion (14.5% of total).
Brazil has been the single largest beneficiary of these investments, receiving $24.2 billion (30.0% of total) between 1998 and 2018 — adding more than 4.5 GW of wind energy to their allocation of 14.1 GW at the end of 2018. The remainder of capacity additions in Brazil were completed through a combination of public and private finance from other sources.
Africa and the Middle East are poised to see increased allocation of World Bank resources as capacity in Brazil ramps down along with a chill in the enthusiasm for renewables in some historically robust Eastern European markets.
Eastern Europe has seen fewer investments and those which are smaller in magnitude since their peak in 2012. Since then, the investment focus was shifted towards Asia Pacific as well as the Americas, with the latest trend in deal frequency and size favoring Africa and the Middle East.
The largest beneficiary of the World Bank’s global investment in wind energy has been Enel and its subsidiaries to the tune of almost $5 billion, or 6.1% of the total. They have deployed this capital in project developments in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Romania, Morocco, Bulgaria, Peru, and Russia thus far.
The majority (68.3%) of total investment has been made in the range of $100 to $500 million, but projects which require less than $100 million are equally as common for them to contribute finance (50.5% of total) as those projects which range from $100 to $500 million (46.5% of total).
The full IntelStor Global Wind Energy Project Finance Trends Report is available here.
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