With support from Energy Peace Partners (EPP), 3Degrees, a renewable energy consulting firm, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), have inked the largest Peace Renewable Energy Credit (P-REC) agreement to date, which is also the first-ever P-REC registration in South Sudan.
Under the deal, 3Degrees obtained the P-RECs generated by the IOM-managed solar facility and transferred them to Block, a financial services company formerly known as Square, in order to assist Block's commitment to financial inclusion and desire to support forward-looking sustainability projects.
The groundbreaking purchase will also speed up the global expansion of P-RECs.
P-RECs are a type of I-RECs (International Renewable Energy Certificate) generated by projects in climate-vulnerable, energy-poor, and fragile countries.
Each P-REC represents one megawatt-hour of renewable energy generated, with an EPP-issued supplemental label certifying the peacebuilding co-benefits of the project.
Microsoft signed the first P-REC contract in 2020, and Block's purchase is currently the single largest P-REC transaction to date.
EPP will issue the P-RECs generated from a new IOM-managed solar facility that feeds electricity to its Humanitarian Hub at a camp outside of Malakal, South Sudan, which shelters more than 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).
The agreement between 3Degrees and IOM will allow IOM to support the solar electrification of the Malakal Teaching Hospital, the city of Malakal's principal healthcare facility, and the surrounding region.
The city of Malakal was destroyed during South Sudan's civil conflict, which began in 2013, and is now home to one of the country's largest camps for IDPs.
The solar electrification project, which is expected to be finished in mid to late 2022, would improve community health services by providing a reliable supply of power for the hospital.
The P-REC transaction also serves as a test bed for a funding model that can be duplicated in the field by UN agencies and other international organizations to support humanitarian and peacebuilding efforts.
