World Bank to Lend China USD300 Million for Big Renewables Project
Dou Shicong
DATE:  Jun 13 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
World Bank to Lend China USD300 Million for Big Renewables Project World Bank to Lend China USD300 Million for Big Renewables Project

(Yicai Global) June 12 -- The World Bank will make a USD300 million loan to a renewable energy scheme that will help China to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its main energy consumption.

The Washington-based bank's board approved lending the money for the China Renewable Energy and Battery Storage Promotion Project, state-backed news site China Online reported. It is the international lender's biggest funding project in East Asia in fiscal 2019.

Shanghai-based Hua Xia Bank will implement the new project and provide yuan co-financing over 18 years equivalent to at least USD450 million. The project's total scale will reach USD750 million, making it the World Bank's largest energy storage project anywhere.

"This project will help accelerate the on-going clean energy transition in China and contribute to the country's emission reduction targets," Martin Raiser, the World Bank's country director for China, said in a statement released yesterday by the lender. "By providing financing for battery storage and distributed renewable energy applications, the project will reduce curtailment of renewable energy capacity and thus encourage further investments into changing China's energy mix."

The project will help China achieve its goal of energy transformation. China will gradually depend less on coal and boost the share of non-fossil energy in its primary energy consumption from 14.3 percent to 20 percent by 2030 and to over half by 2050, according to plans.

Hua Xia Bank will give financial support to the energy storage projects undertaken and implemented by small- and medium-sized companies, China Online cited Chairman Li Minji as saying. The project will pay more attention to environmental impact, land acquisition, migration as well as surrounding populations, and will improve the bank's capability in green finance and social environmental management, he added.

The scheme is the third World Bank energy project undertaken by Hua Xia Bank, with the previous China-Energy Efficiency Financing Project and the Innovative Financing for Air Pollution Control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei achieving good results, the bank said. It has formed a close partnership with the World Bank in the energy sector.

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Keywords:   World Bank,Renewable Energy,Hua Xia Bank