In order to boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s solar mission, the World Bank on Thursday agreed to offer $1 billion (about Rs6,750 crore) loan to India for ambitious solar initiatives.
The World Bank on Thursday signed an agreement with India-led International Solar Alliance (ISA) to mobilise investments worth $1 trillion by 2030 to help fund projects to increase solar energy use around the world.
The agreement, establishing the World Bank Group as a financial partner for 121-nation ISA, was signed in New Delhi in the presence of visiting World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal.
“We have discussed renewable energy, especially rooftop solar projects. We discussed innovative financing models by which we can boost renewable energy sector,” Goyal said after the signing of the pact.
India is the largest client of the World Bank Group, which lent around $4.8 billion between 2015 and 2016.
India’s plans to virtually triple the share of renewable energy by 2030 will both transform the country’s energy supply and have far-reaching global implications in the fight against climate change.
“World Bank Group will do all it can to help India meet its ambitious targets, especially around scaling up solar energy,” said Kim adding that Modi’s personal commitment toward renewable energy, particularly solar, is the driving force behind these investments.
India has a target to generate 1 lakh MW power through solar energy by 2022 and is trying to attract investments from various sources. The World Bank-supported projects include solar rooftop technology, infrastructure for solar parks, bringing innovative solar and hybrid technologies to market, and transmission lines for solar-rich States.
It is learnt that as of now, the combined investment for India would be the World Bank’s largest financing deal for the solar projects for any country. The Central Government and the Bank signed a pact for the $625 million Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Programme, which will finance at least 400 mw of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations.
However, the World Bank said in a statement, “The development of a $200 million Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project under a public-private partnership model is also under preparation.”
The ISA was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris on November last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande. At a meeting with Kim, Modi had emphasised on the importance of adequate climate change financing for countries like India which are consciously choosing to follow an environmentally sustainable path.