Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) has signed a loan agreement for EUR 150 million with the State Bank of India (SBI) to finance solar projects in India.
On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW is implementing a solar partnership with India to promote the expansion of solar energy. It has already provided EUR 150 million for this purpose, and now another EUR 150 million is being added. These will be granted as loans to project developers via the SBI, said the official released issued by KfW.
India has set itself the ambitious goal of expanding solar energy eightfold in the coming years. KfW is promoting this on behalf of the German Federal Government with a loan of EUR 150 million. The contract was signed on 8 November. This is already the second loan with India’s largest state bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), as part of the solar partnership with India. Another loan for the same amount has already been successfully disbursed. The supported plants will produce a total of more than 600,000 megawatt hours annually. Furthermore, the measures will reduce the increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 500,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
This loan will be used to fund innovative technologies such as dry cleaning solar modules automated to reduce water use. KfW supports innovative solutions such as the use of automatic dry cleaning systems at the solar park in Jaisalmer in the province of Rajasthan. KfW is also promoting the use of bifacial modules, which absorb solar energy on both sides and also use the radiation reflected from the ground, which significantly increases the electricity yield.
The KfW project helps to ensure that environmental and social aspects are also further anchored in the SBI’s appraisal and monitoring process. “We want to sensitise the market to the issue and hope that in future project providers will also pay attention to compliance with the standards in other projects not promoted by KfW,” explains KfW portfolio manager Jördis Flöther.
The solar parks supported by KfW will ensure annual energy production equivalent to the consumption of around 710,000 Indian private households. These renewable energy capacities help to avoid air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions that would have been produced if electricity had been generated using fossil fuels. They contribute to the construction of fewer thermal power plants or even replace them. Therefore, the project contributes to the climate-friendly transformation of the Indian economy, said the release.
Discover more from SolarQuarter
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
