The vault is opening for technology transfer

... and for financing of sustainable energy projects.

A recent UNFCCC-report has studied the options for "innovative" financing and especially surveyed the risks that are connected with transfer of technologies. It seems as if this work is now opening the door to the vaults where the BIG money is. Relating to this the EU declares willing to put up 80 million € in the period 2007-2010 and hope that this will release further funding from the private sector. In all there is an estimate that 1 billion € will be made available. 

For once the documents also mention energy efficiency and renewable fuels in the same breath. The only snag is when they say that the technologies to be deployed should have a proven track record. Depending on the definition of this requirement and of the organisation of the support given it could lead to conservative judgments that may hamper rather than spur the development wished for. A project called Environmentally Adapted Energy System for Eastern Europe, EAES, that was transferring technologies in the 90's after the fall of the Soviet Empire, used three criteria for their selection of projects: "Quick, Affordable and Reliable". Today "Quick" may not be as relevant as then. The method is recorded with other tech-transfer projects by the IEA in a survey. The IEA also created a model for such projects based on the procedure used in EAES.

The EAES procedure was then further developed in a project called "The Baltic Chain" made a proposal for a procedure that should focus and lower the risks for taking more bald actions. The idea was to make use of a guarantee agency which gives quite a leverage on the funding. That could still serve as a model.

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