European Investment Bank and YES Bank announced $400 million investment program to support the expansion of renewable energy power generation across India.
YES Bank will manage the new co-financing program for construction of new solar power plants and wind farms.
The new $400 million renewable energy financing program was announced in New Delhi today by Donal Cannon, head of the European Investment Bank Representation to South Asia and Arun Agrawal, group president, International Banking, YES Bank.
It will be supported by $200 million from the European Investment Bank, alongside financing from YES Bank, project promoters and other financial institutions.
The 15 year $200 million EIB loan was approved by the EIB Board of Directors on 12 December and financial details of the new initiative are expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.
The new financing program will streamline financing for a range of renewable energy projects being built and operated by leading Indian corporations and private sector developers. Eligible solar projects have already been identified in the states of Rajasthan, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka and additional wind and solar projects are currently being examined.
“This new financing program will make a significant contribution to harnessing wind power and solar energy to produce green energy, create thousands of jobs during construction and strengthen technical and financial skills for the renewable energy sector to expand,” said Andrew McDowell, vice president of European Investment Bank.
“With this transaction we remain well on track to achieve our commitment to finance 5,000 MW of RE made at the 1st RE-INVEST Summit in Feb 2015 and is also synchronous with our COP 21 commitment of mobilizing $5 billion for Climate Finance by 2020,” said Rana Kapoor, managing director and CEO of YES BANK.
This is the longest tenor borrowing facility for YES BANK in the international loan market. European Investment Bank is the world’s largest international public bank, owned directly by the 28 European Union member states and the largest lender for renewable energy investment worldwide.
Last year the European Investment Bank provided EUR 19.6 billion for climate related investment worldwide.