Nabard aims Rs 200 cr from solar home lighting scheme

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) is eyeing disbursal of Rs 200 crore under the solar home lighting system and thermal application devices (solar water heaters) to commercial banks and regional rural banks in state.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has introduced this scheme recently. Nabard will support the initiative by providing refinance to banks at an interest rate of 2 per cent, an official release from Nabard said.

“With over 300 sunny days available annually in our country, there is a huge potential to tap, store and retrieve solar power, which can be much more than our curent power requirement. Initially, the ministry identified eleven pre-approved models with the per unit indicative cost between Rs 3,000 and Rs 60,000.

The beneficiary will get 30 per cent subsidy and 50 per cent as loan from the commercial banks and RRBs at 5 per cent rate of interest. The balance 20 per cent will be contributed by the beneficiary," Venkatesh Tagat, chief general manager, Nabard said in a release.

In Karnataka, RRBs and commercial banks have already performed well in popularising Solar Energy Scheme. With more incentives for banks and beneficiary from Nabard, it is expected that the new scheme will gain much more popularity during the current fiscal, the release added.