Bridging the Financing Gap for Coal Mine Methane Projects

摘要

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Coalbed Methane Program has catalogued close to 300 coal mine methane (CMM) projects globally. Until now, project developers have generally provided the financial capital necessary to develop the majority of the projects. The industry is at a critical point in its evolution, however, where external capital will be necessary to take advantage of the many additional opportunities that remain, especially in developing countries and transition economies. This is true for both gas drainage and ventilation air methane projects. This paper describes the barriers to CMM project finance in greater detail and compares the experiences of the energy efficiency/renewable energy sector with the CMM sector. Specifically, the paper considers the critical importance of developing the CMM industry's ability to develop well-documented proposals supported by investment grade documents and the training and support necessary to effectively present those proposals to the financial sector. The paper concludes with a discussion of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's (UNECE) efforts to work closely with the CMM industry in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to address this issue. The UNECE has launched a 3-year project to work with the CMM and financial sectors to bridge financing gap and create funding opportunities through potential access to two different UNECE-affiliated funds. Lessons learned will be disseminated during and after the project to assist CMM project developers all over the world.