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The government raised around ₹16,000 crore through sovereign green bonds in the last financial year, of which more than ₹6,100 crore were provided for Renewable Energy (RE), Parliament was informed on Thursday.
“To ensure availability of low-cost funds for renewable energy projects, Government of India raised sovereign green bonds of ₹16,000 crore (approximately) during FY23. Out of the proceeds of sovereign green bonds, ₹6,186 crore were dedicated for renewable energy,” Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy RK Singh said in a written response to a query in Lok Sabha.
Providing details about RE financing, the Minister said the sources available for equity funding include private equity capital, own funds of the developers, venture capital, etc.
Fund requirements
The sources available for debt financing include commercial banks, FIs such as IREDA, PFC, REC, external commercial borrowings and foreign currency loans from multilateral and bilateral agencies like World Bank, ADB, KfW, Exim Bank, AfD, etc, he added.
Singh informed the House that according to the draft National Electricity Plan (May 31, 2023), prepared by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the fund requirement for solar and wind generation projects from FY22– FY32 is estimated at ₹20.67-lakh crore.
The solar and wind power projects are developed by Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Most of the RE projects in the country are being set up by private sector developers selected through a transparent bidding process. Private sector developers identify locations for setting up the renewable energy projects and also arrange financing of these projects, he added.
The government is constantly working on increasing the sector’s overall health through various schemes, such as Liquidity Infusion Scheme to help Discoms settle their debt and Electricity (Late Payment Surcharge & related matters) Rules, 2022 to encourage timely payment of dues, apart from the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), the Minister said.
India’s installed power generation capacity from non-fossil sources is 186.46 gigawatts (GW), which is 43.82 per cent of its total installed capacity. In addition, it has 114.08 GW under implementation.
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