Public lender State Bank of India (SBI) and the World Bank recently announced that they have jointly financed 100 MW of rooftop solar projects worth Rs 400 crore in India.
“The World Bank aid helped the public sector SBI lower the lending rate to project developers,” said Karnam Sekar, Deputy Managing Director, SBI.
“The support from World Bank has helped to lower the interest rate by 3-3.5 per cent from the 11-12 per cent lending rate for a medium-sized solar rooftop project,” he said.
SBI has received a loan of 625 million US dollar from the World Bank for on-lending of Grid-Connected Rooftop Solar PV (GRPV) projects undertaken by developers, aggregators and end-users, for installation of rooftop solar systems.
“Through this programme, SBI will support the installation of more than 600 MW of rooftop solar capacity,” said an official communiqué by SBI.
“We will reach the halfway mark of financing 300 MW of rooftop solar projects by 2017. About 600 MW of this financing capacity will be utilised by 2019,” Sekar said.
