Credit Line for Energy-Efficiency projects in India

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In September 2012, OeEB signed a long-term credit line in a total of EUR 35 million for renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects in India. India is facing a substantial energy deficit which might increase in the next years due to the economic development and the still relatively low per capita consumption of energy in India. Coal accounts for the majority of India’s energy use for the time being. Due to the low quality of the domestic coal, India has to import considerable quantities of coal to meet its requirements which has become increasingly costly and the high ash-content of the domestic coal has led to increased pollution. To enhance the energy security and to decrease the dependency from (imported) coal, the government of India targets to increase the share of renewable energy by 2020 to 15%. Besides this, hundreds of millions of people in India don’t have any access to energy and renewable energy, in particular off grid solar projects, could be a solution. The credit line of OeEB is supposed to finance renewable energy as well as energy-efficiency projects in India. Thereby OeEB supports environmentally-friendly and sustainable energy projects that could reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. Furthermore it contributes to the creation and protection of employment, the further economic development and consequently to the reduction of poverty. ICICI Bank Ltd. is India’s second–largest bank with business activities that range from retail and wholesale banking to small and medium-sized enterprises, project finance, asset management, international banking as well as rural & inclusive banking by which ICICI undertakes several initiatives to meet the financial requirements of the rural and semi-urban population.