Caribbean Resilient Renewable Energy Infrastructure Investment Facility (RREIIF)

Details

Aim: To help Saint Vincent and the Grenadines transition toward clean energy and build energy system resilience.

Agency: World Bank

Partners: ECCB

Project Cost: USD 36M

Background:

 The Caribbean Resilient Renewable Energy Infrastructure Investment Facility also known as (RREIIF) —is a new, regional initiative launched in 2025 by the World Bank Group in partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) and member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). It is designed to help Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines transition toward clean energy and build energy system resilience.

Purpose and Context 

  • Why it was created: Eastern Caribbean nations have historically relied on imported fossil fuels for over 90 % of electricity generation—creating high fiscal and energy-security risks. As of 2022, only about 11.6 % of electricity in the region came from renewables, and electricity prices were among the highest in the world
  • Objective: Scale up utility‑scale renewable energy deployment, modernize power grids, integrate energy storage, strengthen resilience to climate shocks, and mobilize private capital through risk mitigation mechanisms

Key Features 

  1. Regional Aggregation & Coordination
    • A Regional Renewable Energy Coordination Unit (RREU) facilitates cross-border project aggregation to reduce costs and attract private developers. 
  1. Risk Mitigation & Financing Support
    • Mobilizes up to US $120 million in private-sector credit via partial credit guarantees and other financial tools to improve access to financing for renewable energy projects.
    • A Risk Mitigation Fund helps de-risk projects and enable commercial participation. 
  1. Infrastructure Modernization
    • Funds grid reinforcements, including upgrades to transmission and distribution networks and installation of battery energy storage systems, to integrate renewables and enhance system resilience. 
  1. Technical Assistance & Capacity Building
    • Offers technical assistance, project preparation support, training, regulatory advice, and institutional strengthening, including scholarships and apprenticeships.
  1. Disaster-resilient Insurance Mechanism
    • Developing an insurance product in coordination with the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility to protect solar, grid, and energy assets from natural disasters 
  1. Country-led Implementation
    • While coordinated regionally, implementation is country-led, allowing each participating country to align the initiative with its own priorities and to strengthen its national Project Implementation Units (PIUs)

Status:

  1. Following discussions between the World Bank, VINLEC and the Energy Unit during 2024, the Energy Unit hosted an appraisal mission led by the World Bank in January 2025.
  2. Together with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Legal Affairs and VINLEC, negotiations were successfully concluded in March 2025, with the project being approved by the World Bank Board in April 2025.
  3. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has reviewed the Loan and Financing agreements in preparation for the official signing in July 2025.
  4. An official signing ceremony was held on the 11th July 2025 in St. Kitts & Nevis.
  5. The Energy Unit continues to liaise with the World Bank on the way forward.