Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status Update - October 26, 2021

Kiva and MicroEnergy Credits have agreed to end their partnership after nearly 8 years and $50,000 in loans raised. This partner has repaid its outstanding balance to Kiva in full, and these funds have been distributed to lenders. We thank MicroEnergy Credits for the years of collaboration and wish them success in their future endeavors.

Status Update - July 16, 2015

Kiva has moved this Lending Partner to inactive status. This means Microenergy Credits (MEC) is no longer fundraising loans on Kiva, though Kiva fully expects the partner to continue to send repayments owed to Kiva lenders for as long as the partner has an outstanding balance. MEC is moving to inactive status because it has maximized its current credit line and we are waiting to see how the initial loan performs before raising MEC's credit line. If and when this partner requests to fundraise again on Kiva, Kiva will first conduct any additional monitoring and due diligence tasks we believe necessary.

Partner Description:

MicroEnergy Credits (MEC) is a Seattle-based social enterprise dedicated to empowering people in developing countries to choose healthy, clean, and affordable energy alternatives. By providing established MFIs with the technical and strategic support necessary to develop new sustainable clean energy lending products, MEC aims to overcome the barriers currently preventing impoverished communities from accessing cleaner, more efficient technologies.

Established in 2007, MEC partners with microfinance institutions, trains them to start scalable energy lending programs, and then tracks the carbon emission reductions that arise when client households switch to clean energy. These valuable lifestyle changes are then monetized as the household emission reductions are converted into carbon credits and sold on the voluntary carbon market. Each program is designed to reach profitability within two years, generating income for the partner MFI and allowing for further growth.

Once approved for the program, MFIs receive technical assistance and strategic support from MEC to build out the new green loan products. Through the use of smartphone technology, MEC tracks the MFIs clean energy product sales and the resulting emission reductions in each household. Through its partnership with the Gold Standard, MEC sells the carbon credits, keeping a set percentage of the revenue generated to cover operating costs and passing the remainder to the MFI as a means of scaling the program.

To qualify for MEC’s loan product development program, each MFI must already be profitable, serve over 20,000 clients, offer a diverse portfolio of clean energy products, and present reasonable interest levels on all their pre-existing loan products. Each potential partner must also commit to reaching at least 12,000 households with clean energy products in the first two years as MEC aims to impact a wide range of underserved families.

MEC currently works with eight MFIs across India and Mongolia, and as the organization expands into East Africa, Kiva’s support will prove to be critical.

MicroEnergy Credits in Mongolia from Change Catalyst on Vimeo.

A unique lending approach:

Through this partnership, Kiva lenders will be able to support MEC’s expansion into East Africa in 2014. For each new program, MEC currently invests $150,000 into the partner MFI over the course of two years. Through Kiva’s $50,000 interest-free Microfinance Clean Energy Product Loans to promising MFIs, lenders’ will be able to contribute to the expansion by funding a third of the capital necessary to implement the program.

Similar to more traditional loans, this partnership involves a Lending Partner (MEC) and a borrower (the MFI). Loans will be repaid through the sale of carbon credits and the margins on product sales, rather than the borrower, allowing MEC and its partners to achieve sustainability.

Within its first year, MEC’s clean energy program is designed to offset 9,216 tons of CO2 -- the equivalent to planting 368,640 trees -- and save 12,000 families close to four million USD in energy expenditure. By replacing traditional stoves with cleaner, more efficient counterparts, the program’s first three years will save borrowers 1,537,293 days in wood collection, and within five years close to 3,300 Ugandan lives will be saved because they stopped using traditional stoves or gained access to clean drinking water, and close to one million households will face reduced harmful indoor air pollution.

Without MEC’s technical assistance, these established MFIs would be unable to successfully set up a green loan program. By helping these organizations to provide these products, Kiva lenders’ will in fact be helping tens of thousands of people to access cleaner, safer and cheaper energy.