WFES: ISA signs letters of intent for $5bn financing, MNRE announces $350 million for solar

In one of its first outreach programmes post-ratification, the ISA hosted a two-day event, the International Solar Alliance Forum, at the 2018 Future World Energy Summit (WFES) 2018, held this week in Abu Dhabi.

In addition to discussing the body’s intention to mobilize $1 trillion investment in solar by 2030, the ISA used its first-ever gathering to initiate new project deployment across its member states and sign its first financing commitment.

The association signed a letter of intent with India’s private sector lender, YES Bank, which pledged to mobilize $1 billion until 2023, and $5 billion until 2030 towards financing solar energy projects in India.

In its press release, the bank said it had signed five solar energy co-financing letters of intent with Hero Future Energy (up to 1.5 GW capacity), Greenko Group (up to 10 GW capacity), Amplus Solar (up to 1 GW capacity), Jakson Group (up to 1 GW capacity) and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (up to 10 MW capacity) for their solar projects in India, to be completed by 2023.

Action to transaction

In delivering the keynote address at the Ministerial Plenary of ISA Energy Ministers, held on the first day of the ISA Forum, January 17, Raj Kumar Singh, Government Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy further anounced a $350 million solar development fund by the Indian Government, to finance solar projects.

“India has one of the fastest growing renewable energy programs in the World and the country would achieve its target of 175 GW of installed Renewable Energy capacity well before 2020,” he said.

Overall, the ISA signed deals for nine projects, which will be deployed in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, India and Spain, with the help of eight companies, including Vyonarc Development Ltd., Waree Engineers, Gensol Group, SOLARIG, Shakti Pump, Refex Energy, Amplus Solar, and Zodiac Energy.

“The best way to get going is to get projects on the ground. That is what we call action to transaction, and that is what ISA is all about,” said Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General of the India-based ISA.

CLP and NTPC Limited also announced a partnership deal with ISA, and committed to making a voluntary contribution of $1 million each to the ISA fund corpus; and The International Energy Agency (IEA) and Green Climate Fund (GCF) said they would work with the alliance.

For the treaty-based inter-governmental alliance of 121 solar-rich countries, this is only the beginning of its push for new solar projects. At two upcoming events in New Delhi, the ISA will seek to launch a signing ceremony, which would mark the identification of over 100 new solar projects, potentially all from ISA member countries. The projects are expected to be signed by April 2018 under the ISA umbrella.

ISA’s Tripathy also thanked the member countries and various stakeholders for making ISA a reality in such a short time; and extended an invitation for the 2^nd RE-INVEST meeting, to be held in partnership with the MNRE between  April 19 and 21, 2018.

The Ministerial Plenary was followed by three technical panel discussions: ISA a Trillion Dollar Opportunity; Networking of R&D Institutions in ISA Countries for Solar Innovation, Incubation & Start-Ups; and Best Practices for Solar Capacity Building in ISA Countries. These sessions were attended by Energy Ministers, policymakers, multilateral banks and finance institutions, R&D institutions and innovators, solar project developers and manufacturers, investors and other stakeholders.