The Government of India (GoI) and the World Bank have signed agreements to develop large-scale solar parks in India. As part of the agreements the World Bank will provide $100 million (~₹6.5 billion) to develop solar power generating projects.

The Government of India and the World Bank signed a $98 million (~₹6.4 billion) loan agreement and $2 million (~₹130 million) grant agreement, stated a World Bank release.

This includes a $75 million (~₹4.9 billion) loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) that will mature in 19 years and has a five-year grace period, a $23 million (~₹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 (~₹130 million) interest-free CTF grant.

The “Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project” will finance the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), to provide sub-loans to select states to invest in various solar parks, mostly under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) solar park program.

The first two solar parks to be supported under the project are in the Rewa and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh, with targeted installed capacities of 750 MW and 250 MW, respectively. In addition, other states where potential solar parks could be supported under this project are in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana.

The Agreement for the project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; K S Popli, Chairman and Managing Director, on behalf of IREDA; and Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank. The World Bank had approved this $100 million (~₹6.5 billion) to develop solar parks in India in April 2017.

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

The Government of India is committed to set-up an enabling environment for solar technology penetration in the country. This project will help establish large-scale solar parks and support the government’s plan to install 100 GW of solar power out of a total renewable-energy target of 175 GW by 2022, said Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

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