SBI secures $625 mn from World Bank for solar programme

State Bank of India (SBI) and the World Bank have inked agreements for a $625 million (around Rs 4,200 crore) facility to support grid-connected rooftop solar programme (GRPV) in the country.

This will help SBI in financing GRPV projects at competitive rates, the country’s largest lender said in a statement on Saturday.

This  will catalyse the market and support the government to faster achieve its target to generate 40 gigawatt (Gw) of electricity from the widespread installation of rooftop solar photo-voltaic panels.

The eligible beneficiaries under the facility would be developers, aggregators and end-users, who wish to set up solar PV projects, mainly on commercial, industrial and institutional rooftops.

Through this initiative, at least 400 megawatt (Mw)  solar capacity will be created across the country.

The agreements were signed by Karnam Sekar, deputy managing director, SBI and Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank India.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das were also present. SBI Capital Markets was the advisor for structuring and setting up the facility.

The programme also aims at improving the investment climate for solar PV, and increase the ‘ease of doing rooftop business’ through technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of key institutions, and support development of the overall solar rooftop PV market, the statement said.