Greentech Lead
America: The Asian Development Bank will provide $100 million credit
line to ICICI Bank to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in India.
The credit will be available to projects identified by the
ADB and ICICI Bank.
The bank’s support will help in developing renewable energy
and energy efficiency in priority sectors in India. It will also catalyze local
commercial bank financing to support the development of smaller and medium-size
renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that are too small for ADB to
support on a project-by-project basis.
The credit line will fill a market gap in terms of financing
such projects. It will achieve energy savings contributing to reducing India’s
energy supply-demand gap and mitigating climate change, the central bank said.
Against an estimated 80,000 MW renewable energy-based grid
connected power generation potential in India, about 6,000 MW installed
capacity has been realized. This is an opportunity to exploit renewable energy
sources, according to a report in Times of India.
The renewable energy constitutes 5 percent of the total
installed power generation capacity in the country. The target is to achieve up
to 10 percent of additional installed capacity to be set up till 2012 to come
from renewable energy sources, according to Indian Renewable Energy Development
Agency.
The promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency are
key objectives under ADB’s Strategy 2020, ADB’s Country Partnership Strategy
for India and ADB’s private sector operations.
Starting in 2013, ADB’s annual target for clean energy
investments will double to $2 billion. This will accelerate low-carbon growth
and reduce greenhouse gas in the region.