An on-grid renewable energy (RE) grant facility does fill a need, but only if there is adequate time to screen, select and implement projects which would take most of MCC’s five year timeline. As recommended by the evaluator in the report, MCC agrees that despite the disappointing performance of the GP facility in on-grid RE, there is still a need for this kind of facility as grants and leveraged financing can help move forward good projects that are not yet economically feasible. The underperformance of some of the on-grid RE grants was due to internal issues rather than sector issues. First and foremost, had the GP facility made grants in 2013 rather than late 2015 and 2016, the available records suggest that most of the full grants awarded would have been completed. In the future, on-grid RE facilities should be operational as close to EIF, as practical and budget expectations should be set based on an assessment of the pipeline of projects likely to meet requirements and not merely due to MCC priorities.
Lesson Learned