The World Bank will offer a $625 million facility to the State Bank of India for supporting a grid connected rooftop solar program in the country. An agreement to this effect was signed in Mumbai by Karnam Sekar, DMD of the bank, and Onno Ruhl, country director, World Bank India. Jim Yong Kim, president, World Bank, finance minister Arun Jaitley, power minister Piyush Goyal, and senior government officials were present on the occation. This facility will help the bank in financing grid connected rooftop solar photovoltaic (GRPV) projects at very competitive rates. This in turn will catalyze the market and support the government to faster achieve its target to generate 40 GW of electricity from widespread rooftop solar photo-voltaic installation. 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 MW solar capacity will be created across the country. The variety of financing mechanisms on offer under this program will represent a major innovation for the rooftop market. These solar PV installations will provide clean, renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by displacing thermal generation. SBI Capital Markets was the advisor for structuring and setting up the facility.
