Asian Development Bank to provide $500 mn to finance rooftop solar systems in India

Money will be provided to Punjab National Bank, which in turn will lend to various developers and end users to install rooftop solar systems

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is planning to provide $500 million in financing for rooftop solar systems that will help the Indian government expand energy access using renewable energy. This will be provided to Punjab National Bank, which which in turn will fund various developers and end users to install rooftop solar systems.

Combined with an additional $300 million in subproject equity investment and $200 million in loans from commercial banks and other financiers, the entire cost of the Solar Rooftop Investment Program is $1 billion

The financing comprises of $330 million from ADB and $170 million from the multi-donor Clean Technology Fund administered by ADB.

This funding should mean that 11 million fewer tons of greenhouse gases are emitted over the typical 25-year lifetime of solar rooftop systems.

"There is huge potential for India to expand its use of solar rooftop technologies because of the sharp drop in the price of solar panels, meaning the cost of producing solar energy is at or close to that from fossil fuels," Anqian Huang, finance specialist in ADB's South Asia Department said in a statement.

"Sourcing more solar energy will also help India meet the carbon emissions reduction target that it has committed to as part of the recent global climate change agreement."

India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, or the carbon emission reduction target under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, is to lower the emissions intensity of the Indian economy by 33 per cent from 2005 levels and to increase the share of non-fossil-fuel-based power generation capacity to 40 per ent of installed power capacity by 2030. India formally ratified the Paris climate agreement yesterday.

The Government of India aims to increase the amount of energy sourced from solar rooftop systems to 40 gigawatts by 2022. This is part of a wider goal under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission to increase its overall solar energy generation to 100 gigawatts by the same date.