Mr. Dana R. Younger, a renewable energy finance specialist, has joined GWEC as a Senior Advisor to help the organisation step up its efforts to accelerate investment in wind power, particularly in emerging markets. Younger will help GWEC develop stronger relationships with leading financial institutions and institutional investors that are most active in financing renewable energy.
“Dana Younger brings an immense wealth of expertise in renewable energy financing to the GWEC team, which we will use to strengthen our advocacy and advisory work with governments and policy makers, international institutions and investors.” says GWEC CEO Ben Backwell.
He adds: “In order to limit the impact of climate change and meet the 1.5°C goal, renewable energy investments must increase threefold over the coming years. Having someone of Dana’s calibre and experience to support GWEC’s work will be invaluable as we seek to meet this challenge”.
Younger has been involved in wind and solar project finance, corporate finance, mobilization of private equity financing and support for development of the renewables supply chain for more than 25 years in his previous role as Chief Renewable Energy Specialist for the Global Power Team within the Global Infrastructure & Natural Resources Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group.
Younger has helped IFC build an impressive portfolio of more than $5 billion in clean energy investments over the last two decades with an emphasis on building greenfield renewable energy projects in emerging market countries. He has been involved with teams providing debt and equity finance on a project and corporate basis, creation of new private equity funds, and mobilization of co-financing from multiple sources. He served as the representative of the World Bank Group President to the G8 Renewable Task Force and acted as IFC’s Executive Coordinator for the Global Environment Facility (GEF). He participated in launching IFC’s carbon finance activities and the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund. He has also helped IFC to mobilize financing for over 3 GW of wind projects in developing countries including: China, India, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Turkey, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Jordan, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.
“The world faces a tremendous challenge in mobilizing sufficient capital to address the climate crisis and dramatically scale up investment and deployment of proven renewable energy technologies such as wind energy. GWEC has a vital role to play in expanding the flow of capital to the global wind energy community. I look forward to the opportunity to work closely with GWEC’s Board of Directors and senior management to expand the organization’s footprint within the global finance community”, commented Dana Younger, Senior Advisor at GWEC.
Younger will support GWEC’s activities for emerging wind markets across the world by creating the necessary platforms to share best practices and knowledge between investors, industry and policymakers.
GWEC will also run a series of workshops to help developers in emerging market countries create finance-ready wind projects and to connect with a wider set of financial institutions.
GWEC is a member-based organization that represents the entire wind energy sector. The members of GWEC represent over 1,500 companies, organizations and institutions in more than 80 countries, including manufacturers, developers, component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies.
