USTDA Advances Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in Jamaica

USTDA Newsroom / Press Releases / 2016 (link opens in new window)

KINGSTON, JAMAICA – The U.S. Trade and Development Agency awarded a grant to Jamaica’s National Water Commission (NWC), a utility responsible for providing water and wastewater services. The grant will provide technical assistance to examine energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities at seven NWC facilities.  For each of the targeted facilities, the technical assistance will develop detailed economic, environmental, technical analyses, as well as strategies for third-party project financing.

This project will be carried out by Resource Mobilization Advisors (RMA), a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. that facilitates private sector financing of infrastructure projects in emerging markets. RMA will be working with Ameresco, an energy services company based in Framingham, MA.

“USTDA is pleased to support NWC’s energy efficiency and renewable energy goals,” said Nathan Younge, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Energy costs represent a significant expense from NWC, and this grant will help alleviate some of those costs, and in turn allow NWC to expand and improve services to consumers.”

A ceremony to formally launch the project was held at Jamaica’s Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Maura Barry Boyle, NWC President Mark Barnett, NWC Chairman Aubyn Hill, and Minister Horace Chang from the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

This project supports the goals of the Clean Energy Finance Facility for the Caribbean and Central America (CEFF-CCA), an inter-agency initiative to catalyze greater public and private sector investment in clean energy infrastructure across Central America and the Caribbean. This is the fifth grant that USTDA has funded in support of CEFF-CCA.