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UK Fund for Solar Energy in India

  • The UK Government is providing £6 million to help bring down the costs of solar power and unlock private sector funding to help kick start projects in India, where solar energy offers huge potential for clean and cheap energy for businesses and homes.
  • The UK is working with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to unlock the potential and generate greater private sector investment in solar energy under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in India.
  • The UK believes that such a project will help countries like India to tackle climate change and make the shift to a low carbon economy. The £6 million will reduce the risks for investors in solar power technologies and generate an estimated £265 million in the private sector investment. Developers and banks, who perceive solar power as a risky investment, will be offered credit guarantees by the ADB, supported by the grant from the UK Government, that, they believe, will help galvanise private sector interest.
  • The UK Government support will offset part of the financing cost of using the ADB guarantees on commercial loans for small-scale solar plants. These guarantees on private sector loans are available under ADB’s solar power generation guarantee facility. Clean energy generation of upto 130 MW of solar power capacity is expected to be generated, avoiding 4.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere over the next 25 years.
  • Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission that was launched in January last year aims to create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022.
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