Geothermal Development Facility for Latin America: Second Call Results

The Geothermal Development Facility for Latin America’s (GDF) second call has concluded this October with an announcement of grant awards. In conjunction with the awarding of successful grantees, the GDF also organized and participated in several conferences supporting energy reform, including a technical assistance forum in conjunction with the GEOLAC 2018 conference in Mexico City, where it was awarded the Best Financing Program award for the  second year in a row.

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The GDF is pleased to announce seven grantees spanning across Central and South America. As a result of this initiative, surface studies in amounts of up to €600K will be funded in Chile, Peru, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, while exploratory drilling campaigns up to €5.8M will be funded in Chile and Guatemala. ​

These seven projects were chosen from a pool of fifteen applications. Similarly to the first round, the GDF sought out projects with the highest viability for geothermal energy production, and which will not only benefit local economies by creating jobs but will also benefit the environment by decreasing carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions. The fifteen applicants were evaluated in an exhaustive two-step process, consisting of both technical and financial reviews. The seven chosen projects are now invited to sign grant agreements with GDF. 
 
The €13M in total grant awards approved during this second call comprises approximately 23 percent of the GDF’s original €55M fund, which is expected to catalyze €1.6B in future geothermal investments in Latin American. The total anticipated amount of energy generation supported through the first and second calls is expected to reach 520MW. Furthermore, with a new, third call for applications scheduled in December 2018, the GDF anticipates surpassing its original goal of seeding 350 MW of geothermal power in the region. Due to its success and to continuing interest in—and government reforms toward—renewable baseload and geothermal energy, the GDF will continue to discuss increasing its funding beyond the initial €55M seeded by KfW and the EU.

For more information, email info@gdflac.com, or contact Alan Beard at: 703-752-5880, ext. 115.

About the GDF
The GDF is managed by IDA Fund Management, a consortium led by Interlink Capital Strategies (www.interlinkdc.com), a Washington, DC–based management consulting firm and financial advisor well known in the Export Credit Agency (ECA) and Development Finance Institution (DFI) space, along with Dewhurst Group (www.dewhurstgroup.us), a Washington, DC–based geothermal exploration and development company with international experience and a Latin American office in Bogotá, Colombia. The GDF was initially funded by the German government through Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau Development Bank (KfW) and the European Union (EU).