Shri Piyush Goyal Minister of State (IC)
for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy and Mines and US Ambassador
Mr Richard Verma in India launched new joint initiative of US-India
Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) Initiative which would help in
unlocking OPIC financing and mobilize public and private capital to expand
access to distributed clean energy projects here today. Shri Rajeev Kapoor,
Secretary, MNRE, White House Senior director John Morton and Mr William Pegues,
Managing Director, OPIC and representatives of the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Good Energies Foundation were also present.
Letter
of Intents were signed and exchanged between MNRE and OPIC in presence of Shri
Piyush Goyal for the creation of a $20 million for US-India Clean Energy
Finance (USICEF) Initiative, equally supported by the United States
and India would support projects which, upon long-term financing and
deployment, and would qualify for the support of long-term debt financing from
OPIC.
The
U.S.-India Clean Energy Finance facility (“USICEF”) would support
project preparation activities for distributed solar projects in order to
unlock OPIC financing and mobilize public and private capital to expand access
to distributed clean energy solutions that will benefit disadvantaged
communities in India and contribute to India’s ambitious renewable energy and
energy access goals. USICEF builds on the success of other project preparation
facilities to support renewable energy in emerging markets. Through this
initiative, project developers pursuing mini-grid, distributed rooftop and
off-grid solar projects, as well as smaller-scale grid connected solar projects
would be benefitted.
During
the event, Mr Udai Khemka presented Clean Energy Finance Forum (CEFF) Report
to Shri Goyal. The report has been prepared after an extensive domestic and
international consultation with all categories of financial Institutions
(including pension funds, sovereign investors, insurance companies, other
financial investors/funds, banks, investment banks etc.), multilateral
institutions, as well as strategic investors and developers.
CEFF
has made recommendations which will help solicit greater investment into the
renewable energy sector. Some of the key cross cutting recommendations includes
to boost and Accelerate “Open Access” Markets; Improve PPA Bankability;
Improve Ease of Access to Domestic Banking and Capital Markets;
Encourage International Debt and Equity Investments and Mitigate
Currency Risk.
Shri
Goyal assured that suggestions emerged out would be examined and corrective
actions would be taken up soon. He also stated that the new initiative of
USICEF launched today would help the early-stage project capital gap for
distributed solar by supporting project preparation activities necessary to
access long-term debt financing and unlocking OPIC and private finance.
RM/