The OECD, under its Clean Energy Finance and Investment Mobilisation (CEFIM) Programme, the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) are convening a closed-door Roundtable on “Financing small scale renewable energy in EMDEs: Investor perspectives on barriers, opportunities and pathways to scale”. The roundtable will take place on Friday, 26 June 2026, at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London (United Kingdom).
The roundtable will bring together investors, financiers, project developers, development finance institutions and academia to discuss the current state of play in financing small scale renewable energy in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), and to explore practical pathways for scaling private investment. The roundtable will be held under Chatham House Rule to enable open and candid discussion.
Roundtable objectives
The insights from the roundtable will inform an upcoming OECD report on Mobilising private finance for small-scale renewable energy: Innovative instruments to unlock institutional investment. The objective of the roundtable is fourfold:
- Understand how investors and market actors assess the opportunity today across different small scale renewable energy segments.
- Identify the main barriers holding back larger flows of private and institutional capital.
- Discuss financing structures, market arrangements and public interventions that proved effective in mobilising private capital.
- Strengthen dialogue among financial market actors on the strategic importance of this segment for clean energy transitions in EMDEs.
Context
Small-scale and distributed renewable energy solutions play an increasingly important role in clean energy transitions and energy access, particularly in EMDEs. These systems can provide affordable and reliable electricity for households, businesses and community services, especially where grid expansion is costly or uneconomic.
Energy access needs remain substantial: an estimated 666 million people worldwide still lacked access to electricity in 2023, highlighting the continued importance of off‑grid and decentralised solutions. At the same time, demand for electricity in EMDEs is rising rapidly due to population growth, urbanisation and increased economic activity. Beyond energy access, small-scale renewable energy systems can enhance economic resilience and productivity by reducing exposure to unreliable grids and volatile fuel prices, while supporting local job creation.
The small-scale and distributed renewable energy landscape is rapidly evolving. Recent developments suggest increasing importance of this market segment in EMDEs, especially distributed solar PV, and growing interest from investors and corporates. At the same time, significant investment gaps remain. Understanding and addressing barriers to investment will be critical to unlocking larger pools of private and institutional capital.
In this context, the OECD, through its Clean Energy Finance and Investment Mobilisation (CEFIM) Programme, is undertaking analytical work to assess how enabling conditions, financing and de-risking instruments and aggregation models can help scale investment in small-scale renewable energy. The insights from this roundtable will contribute directly to this work by grounding analysis in practical experience from investors and market actors.
