Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) might be converted into a green bank to enable it to access funding from overseas banks, suggests a news report. A green bank provides low-cost financing support to clean and low-carbon projects. Green banks offer lower interest charges than traditional banks and tap into international capital to finance solar and wind projects. IREDA CMD S K Popli said the agency might be converted in to a green bank without undergoing any altercation in its basic structure to enable it access funding from overseas banks that are currently not supporting the solar and wind funding, barring well-known KFW. According to him, large banks in India are perhaps reluctant to fund the solar and wind projects though no developer in these two segments have defaulted on re-payment though might have delayed the payoff schedule. A study by IREDA, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), and Natural Resources Defense Council has found that India needs as much as $ 264 billion in financing to reach its target of producing 160 gigawatts of power from solar and wind energy by 2022.
