http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/acp/regional-cooperation/energy/index_en.htm

The Energy Facility is a co-financing instrument established in 2005 in order to support projects on increasing access to sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor living in rural and peri-urban areas in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. In the context of the new Energy Facility, a new call for proposals was launched on the 30th of November 2009.

More than 1.6 billion people in the world mainly concentrated in rural and peri-urban areas of developing countries do not have access to electricity. The situation is particularly severe in African, Caribbean and Pacifique (ACP) countries, where the rate of access to electricity can be as low as 10% in rural areas. Access to energy is a fundamental prerequisite for economic growth and social well-being.

The European Comission established the ACP-EU Energy Facility within the EU Energy Initiative for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development (EUEI). The EUEI was launched by the European Union in 2002 during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in order to confirm its commitment to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in terms of poverty alleviation and eradication.

A second Energy Facility (EFII), with a total budget of €200 million, has been established under the 10th European Development Fund for the period 2009-2013.The second Energy Facility will be implemented through two calls of proposals. The first € 100 million call  was launched on the 30th of November 2009. This new Facility will also include new co-financing instruments namely a  financial support to energy governance through the EUEI-Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI-PDF) and a pooling mechanism which involves European financing institutions and the private sector. Further information on these two new instruments will be published soon.

The second Energy Facility follows the successful implementation of the first Energy Facility, launched in 2005 under the 9th European Development Fund with a total budget of €220 million. Almost seven million people have already benefited from the 74 projects co-financed by the first Energy Facility.