The Inter-American Development Bank today approved a US$1.5 million grant to promote investment in sustainable energy and biofuels projects in Colombia.
The objective of the grant is to provide the Government of Colombia with a solid framework and information that will enable the investment in sustainable energy and biofuels projects, plans and programs, through a set of tools, studies and institutional strengthening.
The grant includes US$922,000 from the Bank’s Japan Special Fund and US$594,000 from the Japanese Trust Fund for Consultancy Services.
The operation will help identify the strategic needs of a long-term plan to generate renewable energy, energy efficiency and biofuels. One of the main added values of this technical cooperation is that the main bottlenecks in the production chain of biofuels will be identified, including available land, best suitable crops to plant, roads and infrastructure required, processing plants, storage and ports, as well as the needs in capacity building and human resources. The activities aimed at achieving this goal include a biofuel market study and toolkit for export of biofuels; a study to identify barriers and opportunities for small size biofuel entrepreneurs; and the design and implementation of a pilot program to promote efficient use of energy and biofuels production among small entrepreneurs.
This operation, together with the recently approved grant “Expanding Innovation, Science and Technology in Bioenergy”, executed by COLCIENCIAS as well as other grants currently in execution to identify the most appropriate financial instrument to promote investments in biofuels are a concrete example of the technical assistance that the IDB is providing to the government of Colombia in the promotion of biofuels. With this technical assistance, more than US$ 2.4 millions in grants, the IDB is supporting Colombia’s goal of transforming itself rom a biofuel producer to a world biofuel leader.
The grant will be executed by Colombia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy.
