Eligibility Criteria for CEFF-CCA Funding

In accordance with the overall mission of the grant facility, all CEFF-CCA funded projects must meet a common set of eligibility criteria.  Projects must demonstrate a clear renewable energy or energy efficiency focus and produce social and economic benefits. Projects should support low-emissions development, with a positive impact on energy access, energy security, poverty alleviation, gender inclusion, and/or other key considerations. Specifically, projects should meet the criteria described below:

General Eligibility Criteria
 
A.  Eligible Organizations
  • Investors[1] and project developers
  • Host country public and private sector sponsors of project and investment programs
  • Private-public partnership projects (PPPs) [2]
  • Non-Governmental Agencies and Civil Society Organizations
These organizations should be capable of fulfilling the requirements needed to receive a DUNS number[3] and be legally constituted under the current regulatory framework of the host country.
 
B.  Project or Service Eligibility
  • Definitions. Projects must focus on electricity generation or services which clearly respond to the following definitions
    • Renewable Energy. Electricity supplied from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, geothermal, hydropower and renewable biomass, but not including natural gas, nuclear power or other excluded technologies, see below
    • Energy Efficiency. Increasing end-use energy efficiency – i.e., technologically providing more of a desired service per unit of delivered energy consumed
  • Project Categories. CEFF-CCA will consider the following clean and renewable energy project categories that use commercially proven technologies for:
    • Power generation. Projects involving construction and operation of renewable energy power generation facilities for connection to the national grid, local utilities, distribution companies, or off-grid distributed generation systems
    • Market-based solutions. Projects involving sale and distribution of small-scale clean power systems and products that provide access, or extend the hours of access, to electricity e.g., self-contained solar home systems, and pay-as-you-go access systems. This category includes development of energy efficiency projects by energy service providers or other aggregators of such projects
    • Clean energy project catalyzers. Initiatives that introduce or expand essential, or provide additional, resources to a specific market, which clean energy sector actors may then leverage to expand renewable energy and energy efficiency offerings to a target market, including financing and leasing facilities
  • Project Impact. The selected projects will integrate as primary or secondary outcomes a combination of the following:
    • Promote broad-based socio-economic benefits within the project area and have processes in place to monitor and evaluate these benefits. For example, a micro-hydro project selling most of its production to the grid, but also providing electricity to its surrounding, un-electrified community, would receive credit for the primary economic development impact of its production for the grid, as well as for its secondary energy access impact
    • Have a positive impact on energy access, energy security, poverty alleviation, gender inclusion, and other key considerations important to USG missions and activities in the country where the project is located
    • Support low emissions development in Central America and the Caribbean
  • Exclusions. CEFF-CCA funds cannot be used to facilitate the financing of the following technologies:
    • Energy sources from energy crops, waves and tidal differentials
    • Bio-Fuels
    • Self-generation or energy efficiency solutions principally for the benefit of the project sponsor or other single end-user
  • Period of Performance of Activities Subject to Grant Funding
    • All Grants Under Contract will be issued no later than December 15, 2017
    • Period of performance of Activities subject to grants is of six (6) months ending no later than June 30, 2018
    • No accrual of cost will be allowable after June 30, 2018
    • Grantees will provide closing documentation and final request for payment no later than July 15, 2018
 
C.  Funding Ceiling and Use of Funds

CEFF-CCA will provide grants for up to $500,000.00, but not for less than $100,000.00.  Funding, however, will be limited to project development activities (see use of funds, below) and may not be used for project execution. Applicants must demonstrate financial additionality. Specifically, this means that the CEFF-CCA grant:
    • Fills a funding gap-covers development costs that the client or other financial partner does not otherwise have the financial resources to cover
    • Accelerates the project's development process by helping to meet project development needs in a manner that improves the probability of financial close
    • Attracts private sector participation - funding will bring previously uncommitted private investors to the table to help finance the project
    • Addresses a barrier that would otherwise prevent securing financing or insurance to a project
  • Use of CEFF-CCA funds. Funds are to be used for project development costs that are critical to the project reaching financial close (or an otherwise relevant milestone).  Following is an illustrative list of permissible uses of CEFF-CCA Funds:
    • Financial and technical pre-feasibility and feasibility studies
    • Engineering costs associated with project design, technology assessment, and overall feasibility studies
    • Legal costs for preparation of documentation related to permitting, PPAs and other power sales agreements, EPCs, O&M,[4] and financing agreements
    • Costs for the preparation of environmental and social impact studies
    • Costs associated with the assessment of physical and technical availability and characterization of renewable resources
    • Other costs associated with consulting, engineering or legal services needed to reach financial close, to develop proof of concept or to pilot a business solution, or with scaling up of power generation, energy efficiency services, or business solutions
    • Costs associated with the efforts of equity funds, bank financing programs, companies, or non-governmental organizations to identify, select, prepare and aggregate projects for funding, for the uses enumerated above, and subject to the exclusions, above and below
  • Exclusions
    • Purchase of goods, including, but not limited to,  computers, construction materials, and equipment, in general
    • Any cost, service or activity related to project execution
    • Any cost, service or activity related to operations, such as personnel or overhead costs
    • Research or other studies that are not meant to be used by the sponsor or developer in the development or expansion of a project, market-based solution, or clean energy project catalyst
 
D.  Eligible Countries for CEFF-CCA grant support
  • Caribbean:   Antigua  and   Barbuda,   Barbados,   Commonwealth of  Dominica,   Dominican Republic, Grenada,  Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago
  • Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama
  • Applications from Suriname and Guyana are also eligible.


[1] Including funds and financial institutions
​
[2] PPPs with 51percent or more of project costs paid by the public partner will be considered by USTDA only, as  will  projects submitted by the  public sector

[3] To create a Dun & Bradstreet number, please visit http://www.dnb.com/get-a-duns-number.html.

[4] PPA- Power Purchase Agreement; EPC - Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (contract); O&M - Operation and Maintenance