The government of India is in talks with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank seeking $2 billion (₹13,000 crore) of funds. The funds would be used to provide cheaper loans for rooftop solar projects, Upendra Tripathy, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said at Delhi today.
The funds would be used to provide interest subvention to banks – banks would provide cheap loans and would be reimbursed for their sacrifice of interest from the funds.
India has huge rooftop solar ambition. The Ministry aims to facilitate creation of 40,000 MW of rooftop solar power plants – 23 per cent of the total renewable energy target of 175,000 MW – by the year 2022. At a function held to launch a funding scheme of the government-owned finance company, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), Tripathy termed the 40,000 MW rooftop ambition “challenging” and said “everyone should help”.
He said that a survey conducted by the Ministry showed that if all government offices put up rooftop solar plants, they would add 1,500 MW of capacity.
The government is also getting funds from other agencies, such as the German development funding company, KfW, Tripathy said.
The Union Minister for Coal, Power and New and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, launched the IREDA scheme for rooftop solar PV power projects. IREDA will give loans at interest rates between 9.9 to 10.75 per cent for rooftop projects.