GREENMAP is an impact-driven non-profit organization aimed at scaling up cheaper and faster renewable energy deployment at large scale in the developing world by helping governments implement the right policies and providing them with innovative credit-enhancement tools to attract investment, foster competition and lower costs of renewable energy generation, while reducing GHG emissions.

GREENMAP is inspired by Argentina’s successful RenovAr Program, which was designed and implemented by GREENMAP ́s core team starting in early 2016. Under RenovAr and other complementary regulation introduced, more than 6.5 GW have been awarded across 200 projects of different technologies (including wind, solar, small hydro, biomass, and biogas) all along the country. Out of the total awarded, roughly 5 GW are already either in operation or under construction across 156 projects, representing over US$7.4 billion investment, more than 11,000 new jobs and 220 million tons of CO2e of avoided emissions by 2040.

At the heart of this success is an innovative, multilayered financial de-risking mechanism which has proved to be an effective protection against the country’s unstable economy, and it has attracted billions of dollars in long term investment and financing in renewable generation and equipment manufacturing in the country. A key element of this guarantee system is the participation of multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank and IFC.

The result was RenovAr securing a novel risk guarantee scheme from the World Bank, designed ad hoc and implemented for US$730 million. For more information on RenovAr’s basic structure see this IFC article .

In three years since its creation, RenovAr has held four successful and very competitive international public tenders which add up to a new scheme for corporate renewable PPAs (or power purchase agreements). In total, 6.5 GW have been awarded. This capacity, when fully built, will generate 18% of the country’s electricity, at about half the cost of previous government-led initiatives. It is estimated that, on average, two projects come online every week for the next year. Additionally, nine manufacturing plants have been set up in the country in the last 18 months, including two for wind turbine generators (Vestas and Nordex Acciona), five for wind towers, and two for solar trackers.

RenovAr successful implementation by 2025 will contribute to fulfill 20% of Argentina’s reduction commitments to the Paris Agreement and it will also help achieve the country´s UN Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, the program has already contributed to making renewables the cheapest unsubsidized source of energy in the country.

As further evidence of RenovAr’s success, Argentina’s position in the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI), published regularly by Ernst & Young, shot up to #9 at a global scale and #1 for Latin America in April 2019, just two years after entering the ranking for the first time. It is also noteworthy to mention that in 2018, Argentina has represented the 3rd most important global market for Vestas, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world.

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