Investing in Haiti: The market weighs in

Would a strong regulatory framework encourage private sector money to flow into Haiti’s renewable energy sector? Should rural mini grids be a greater target area for investment? If the views of potential investors in attendance at last week’s Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum (CREF) 2016 are any indication, then the answer would be a resounding yes.

Over the course of an informative and productive Haiti-specific session, the audience – which comprised several hundred stakeholders in the market – were polled across a range of issues designed to gauge appetite for and hurdles to investment.

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CREF 2016 Live Poll: Investor Interest

Attendees identified the regulatory framework for renewable energy (38%) and donor funding (28%) as the top two catalysts to drive private sector interest in the Haitian renewable energy market.

CREF 2016 Life Poll Results

CREF 2016 Live Poll:  Priorities

Only a quarter of Haiti’s population of 10 million people have access to electricity, so rural electrification is an obvious frontrunner identified by CREF attendees as a priority area for investment for new investors.

Haiti holds the distinction of social enterprise darling, however private sector funding has real potential for a transformative impact on the energy market, and CREF attendees seem to understand this in their responses to Haiti’s best advantage for renewable energy development.

CREF 2016 Live Poll: Haiti's best advantage

CREF 2016 Live Poll: Haiti’s best advantage

What is keeping investors away, then? Clearly the opportunity is palpable and the development banks have a heavy presence in Haiti, priming the sector and laying the foundation for investment. The following poll presents some factors impacting investment:

CREF 2016 Live Poll: Investors' concerns

CREF 2016 Live Poll: Investors’ concerns

These poll results, while compelling on their own, will actually serve a greater purpose. If Haiti’s renewable energy sector is to take off, it will require “substantial support from foreign investors and operators”, said Frederic Verdol, Senior Energy Specialist and Team Lead for World Bank. Mr. Verdol continues, “For the Haitian government to provide the adequate enabling environment, it needs to know the specific needs and requirements of the Renewable Energy Infrastructure. Results from the Haiti CREF panel’s poll provide essential data to Haitian officials, parliamentarians, and businessmen who attend CREF 2016.”

What’s next for Haiti? Time will tell, but if polling at CREF is any indicator then we can be fairly confident that if donor organizations can work with Haiti’s public sector to support a sound and attractive regulatory environment then there is an abundance of private capital which will be willing and able to engage.