The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a deal to provide a €150m long-term loan to support renewable energy development across India.
The funding loan was agreed by the EIB’s president, Dr Werner Hoyer, and will be allocated to the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA). It will support renewable energy development across India, and the clean energy produced by renewables schemes financed under the new initiative are expected to benefit some 1.1m households.
The announcement came ahead of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) founding summit, held earlier this week in New Delhi, India. The ISA was established to mobilise investment in renewables, in recognition of the need to meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s global warming targets.
The loan is due to be spent on the construction of new photovoltaic solar power schemes and on-shore wind farms throughout India, to support a transition towards renewables and to address growing electricity demand in the country.
What has the EIB said about the agreement?
Hoyer expressed optimism that the agreement would have a huge impact on combating climate change, because India is the world’s third largest consumer of electricity, and that the EIB’s investment would contribute to economic development alongside supporting renewable energy development across India.
He said: “The expansion of solar power generation alongside cutting energy use through energy efficiency measures is crucial to supporting sustainable economic development and reducing carbon emissions… Investment in new solar energy and wind power schemes will improve access to clean energy for millions of Indians and create many new jobs.”
He concluded that the initiative, if successful, could be showcased as a model for collaboration by which other international partners could tackle climate challenges and greenhouse gas emissions.
India’s minister of state for new and renewable energy, R.K. Singh, also welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with Europe and expand the role of clean and renewable energy development across India, building on a prior collaboration that has been successfully undertaken over the past four years.
