July 8 (Renewables Now) - Norfund announced on Wednesday that it will administer Norway’s new Climate Investment Fund, which will spend NOK 10 billion (USD 1.14bn/EUR 963m) over five years on renewable energy in developing countries.

Each year over the five-year investment period, about NOK 1 billion will be set aside from the national budget for this new fund, while an additional NOK 1 billion will come from Norfund’s capital.

Tellef Thorleifsson, CEO of Norfund, said that investments will be prioritised in India, Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries in South and Southeast Asia with intensive use of coal-fired power. “We expect to invest mainly in solar and wind energy, but also anticipate storage solutions to enable a stable power supply,” he added.

“The new fund is intended to mobilise investments in renewable energy far more quickly than would otherwise have been the case and thus contribute to the efforts to phase out coal. In the long term, this will also benefit those who are most vulnerable and those who have done least to create the climate-related challenges we are now facing,” said Minister of International Development Dag-Inge Ulstein.

(NOK 10 = USD 1.138/EUR 0.963)

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