The World Bank has approved $100 million (~Rs.6.5 billion) to develop solar parks in India. This includes a $75 million (~Rs.4.8 billion) loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development that will mature in 19 years and has a five-year grace period, a $23 million (~Rs.1.5 million) loan from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) which has a 10-year grace period and a maturity of 40 years, and a $2 million (~Rs.129 million) interest-free CTF grant.

The Shared Infrastructure for the solar parks project will establish large-scale solar parks in the country and support the Government of India’s plans to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power by 2022, stated a World Bank release.

The program will fund the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), which in turn will provide sub-loans to select states to invest in various solar parks that are included in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) Solar Park Program.

Through this engagement, it is expected that these investments will boost market confidence, enable demonstration of economies of scale in large-scale grid-connected solar generation, contribute towards a decrease equipment and transaction costs, increase efficiency while reducing unit costs of solar power, and catalyze on further support from other investor groups to help India achieve its ambitious target of installing 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2022,” said Surbhi Goyal, Senior Energy Specialist and World Bank’s Task Team Leader for the project.

Mercom previously reported, the World Bank Group is providing $25 million (~Rs.1.62 billion) to develop transmission infrastructure at the Rewa Solar Park at 0.25 percent interest rate for 40 years.