World Bank to fund solar rooftop programme in India
New Delhi, July 10: The World Bank (WB) will provide a financial package for India’s national program for solar rooftops aimed at providing clean energy to millions of homes.
The financing package includes a loan of $820 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), a $60 million concessional loan from the Clean Technology Fund, and a $10 million grant from IBRD’s Livable Planet Fund, the World Bank said in a statement.
In addition, the World Bank will mobilize $4.2 billion in private financing in the form of commercial loans enabling them to install solar rooftops for households, it said.
“The World Bank has been supporting India’s solar rooftop sector for over a decade, mobilizing more than $2 billion to catalyze market growth from 500 MW to over 27 GW of installed capacity,” said Paul Proccee, World Bank Acting Country Director for India.
“This new financing will help India scale up residential solar, while creating job opportunities across the supply chain and installation ecosystem.”
India has committed to achieving net zero by 2070 and increasing non-fossil-fuel-based energy resources to 60 percent of its electricity mix by 2035.
While large-scale solar has grown rapidly, residential solar adoption has been limited.
To unlock this potential, the Government of India established the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana to incentivize solar rooftop installation for 10 million rural and urban households nationwide, reduce household electricity costs, and encourage local manufacturing of solar rooftop equipment. (BVI)
