PFAN in Numbers

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 had severe consequences on economies and societies around the globe.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, PFAN extended tailored coaching support to a further 157 projects in 2020, successfully increasing the number of supported climate and clean energy projects by 30% compared to 2019. We also strengthened our network by adding 23 PFAN Advisors in 2020, bringing the total number up to 141 clean energy financing experts coaching projects in 52 countries around the world.

In addition to PFAN’s successful scale-up in terms of projects and network members and despite the more difficult environment for attracting investments, 28 PFAN-supported projects were able to raise a total investment of just under USD 142m. These projects added a total of 62.8 MW capacity, which would be enough to supply about 156k average Indian households for one year. Moreover, these projects were mitigating more than 514k  tonnes CO2e which is equivalent to taking more than 100k passenger vehicles off the road for one year[1].

Beyond the numbers, stand out positives during the year included:  Asia and Central America and the Caribbean (CCA) leading the way in the organisation of virtual events with partners and investors; our first financial closures in CCA and Eastern Europe & Central Asia; intensification of the origination, project development and advisory work in Africa; meaningful market penetration and network establishment in Fiji as our beachhead in the Pacific, where the new virtual reality actually accelerated and facilitated our efforts.

[1] https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator

In 2020, none of us could have predicted the unprecedented events which unfolded from the end of February last year onwards and the effect that they would have and continue to have on all aspects of our work and private lives. I am – and I think we can all be – immensely proud of the way PFAN as an organisation and group of people responded to the extraordinary demands placed on us.

There were of course frustrations as well as we all adapted to the new (ab)normal. As good as our response programme ensuring business continuity in turbulent times was, we weren’t able to connect enough of our clients to the emergency liquidity they urgently needed. But learning from this we are now building increased resilience into our own operations and making sure it is embedded also in our clients’ business models, such that we can all withstand future shocks better.

Adaptation in practice!

PFAN is in a good place going into 2021. The work we are doing is important and is contributing to fundamental shifts in the way people live and work in developing countries and helping drive the transition to low carbon economies, ensuring a more sustainable future for us all in the long run.