A fundamental ingredient of clean energy market growth is the capacity of entrepreneurs to design and manage the types of businesses that will expand the marketplace. New energy businesses may not be established without the human ingenuity required for these endeavors to come to fruition. ECPA is supporting entrepreneurial capacity development so that new sustainable energy market opportunities may be utilized to enhance energy access, create jobs, and advance low carbon economic growth.

On October 10, 2013, ECPA implementing partner Yo Emprendedor hosted the first in a series of 10 webinars to analyze the challenges, opportunities, and potential of clean energy projects. Thirty entrepreneurs in the early stages of their projects attended the webinar “Clean Energy Generation Potential in Central America and the Caribbean.” The event included the presentation of two projects that competed in the Clean Energy category of the Yo Emprendedor Business Plan competition, and of those that competed in the Clean Tech Open, the largest clean energy business plans competition in the world.

These learning spaces contribute to build entrepreneurial capacity by sharing experiences, perspectives and skills in the creation of clean energy projects, as well as to identify current challenges and find solutions. This initiative fosters the exchange of experiences among entrepreneurs and stakeholders such as governments, corporations and academia. It provides a forum to showcase innovative ideas and talent applied to the creation of clean energy projects.

The teachings generated by these 10 webinars will be used in a document to be shared with stakeholders from the academic, government, and private sector. The second webinar of this series was held on October 24, focusing on entrepreneurship opportunities in clean energy projects. Participation in Yo Emprendedor webinar series is free and open to the public.