Covid-19 and worsening impacts of climate change are putting resilience high on cities’ agendas, alongside ambitious targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions; distributed renewable energy (DRE) deployment in cities will help deliver both.
The global scale of the opportunity and need for DRE is enormous, but the deployment of projects is far short of projections.
Most DRE technology is mature, and finance is widely available. Market rules and policies constrain some cities’ power to act. Still, we observe that the lack of city resources and know-how to shape DRE opportunities into investable propositions is a universal barrier.
This paper sets out a project and program development ‘kit of parts’ for cities to bring resilient DRE opportunities to market.
With support from the Rockefeller Foundation via the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and S&P Global Foundation, Urban Power is building assessment and project development tools and working with cities to develop energy projects that help them achieve a green and just energy transition, reach their net-zero ambitions, and deliver multiple resilience co-benefits.