Government along with EESL and World Bank sign a $300 million pact for Energy Efficiency Programme
- Published | 12 September 2018
The government of India signed a pact of $300 million with the World Bank along with EESL to boost up the energy efficiency of India.
India: On 28th of August, 2018 the government signed a pact of $220million loan agreement and another USD 80 million guarantee pact to give a push to the energy efficiency programme of India. The programme is to be implemented by EESL and it is supposed to scale up the deployment of the measures taken up for energy saving in residential as well as public sectors. Through this deal EESL’s institutional capacity will also grow stronger and it will get an access to enter the commercial financing market. The grace period for the $220million loan sanctioned by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to EESL is 5 years while the maturity period is of 19 years. This pact will have a positive impact on India in the near future.
A joint statement released by EESL and the World Bank read: "The Government of India, the EESL, and the World Bank today signed a USD 220 million Loan Agreement and a USD 80 million Guarantee Agreement for the India Energy Efficiency Scale-Up Program,"
The investments that are being made under this programme are expected to avoid the emission of 170 million tons of the greenhouse gas CO2 and also contribute is in avoiding another estimated 10 GW of additional generation. This would be more than 50 percent of the target of 19.6 GW set by the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency.
According to Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, the joint secretary of Economic Affairs, “The programme will help tackle the financing, awareness, technical and capacity barriers faced by new energy efficiency programs and support the UJALA and SLNP programs of the Government of India," This is a part of several other steps that the Government of India has taken to meet its goal of reducing the intensity of carbon emission by 33-35% within the year 2030.
The key operations under this programme are creating markets which will be sustainable for the LED lights and efficient ceiling fans. Also, facilitate a proper, scalable investment for the street lightening lamps, building up sustainable business models for super efficient air conditioners and water pumping systems for agriculture. Under this programme .EESL along with the suppliers and distributors of private sector is suppose to deploy a hopping amount of 219 million tube lights and LED bulbs,7.2 million of street lights and 5.8 million of ceiling fans.
Mr.Saurabh Kumar ,the managing director of EESL, rolled out a statement in which he said “The programme will help tackle the financing, awareness, technical and capacity barriers faced by new energy efficiency programs and support the UJALA and SLNP programs of the Government of India," In an approach of maximizing the finance for development by the Bank and as an integral part of the programme, IBRD guarantee in India will come forward to help EESL in searching for markets for commercial financing. This will also help EESL grow its own portfolio and investment needs in the future.
According to BlueWeave Consulting, the pact signed will be beneficial to India. The energy efficient markets in the country are seeing a growth since the cost of solar power panels have reduced by 40% as compared with coal. With distribution of more LED and energy efficient lights and fans, the energy consumption will reduce which in turn will also lessen the emission of harmful greenhouse gases. This programme will also provide electricity to areas which are yet to receive lights and electricity due to high cost of coal and fuel. Thus, the market is sure to see positive growth in the forecasted period.