Access to affordable and reliable electricity—one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy —remains a major development challenge. In 2022, the number of people without electricity stood at around 760 million. The threat of climate change entails the need for clean energy sources for electrification projects in lieu of relying on traditional fossil fuels, given that electricity and heat production is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG).
Renewable energy (RE) can provide an alternative source of electricity generation, as it is clean and reliable. The levelized cost for electricity (LCOE) for mainstream RE technologies has fallen substantially over time, and these technologies have proven to be more worthwhile investments in comparison to conventional fossil fuels. While RE technologies have high upfront investment costs, in the long run they are cheaper than using fossil fuels, which many countries have to import, and which contribute to trade imbalance and budget deficits. With hundreds of millions of people still lacking access to energy in 2023, RE will be crucial in providing these communities and businesses with cheap and reliable electricity from a sustainable source.
The Clean Technology Fund (CTF) is focused on the demonstration of clean frontier technologies to spur further investment, and increased energy access is one of the benefits that can be achieved from the deployment of RE, directly contributing to SDG 7. Due to the large-scale capacity of CTF projects, the program has provided energy access to millions of people in middle-income countries, while successfully demonstrating the investment viability of such technologies. This Results Deep Dive examines how CTF investments have contributed to SDG 7, focusing on specific cases from completed and ongoing CTF projects.