The Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP) was set up by the United Kingdom government, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in December 2015 with a generous budget of £48 million and is set to run until 2020. In essence, the platform serves as a project preparation facility (PPF) seeking to get promising but hard-to-finance concepts off the ground. In REPP’s particular case, the spotlight focuses on small-scale (<25MW) renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.   

Capacity as well as energy access remain tenacious issues in the region, as most of the times neither the political nor the financial environment of countries provide much incentive to invest. By offering technical assistance, financial structuring advice and results-based financing to early-stage projects and project concepts, REPP facilitates their path towards financial close.  

The mid-term evaluation (MTE) ultimately assessed mostly internal processes, given REPP’s short lifespan and the resulting lack of palpable external results. Nonetheless, our involvement in the MTE at Trinomics shed some light on whether or not REPP was actually hitting the so-called ‘sweet spot’ – a position in the market where its services produce the best possible value to beneficiaries – in two of its priority countries (Nigeria and Kenya).  

Intrigued? Find out more about our involvement, findings, and a link to the report on the Trinomics project page. In case of any further inquiries, please contact our senior consultant Jeroen van der Laan.