Distributed Renewable Energy Programs in India
CPI manages the US-India Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) initiative: India’s first project preparation and pipeline development facility that catalyzes long-term debt financing to support promising distributed solar projects.
Since 2017, USICEF has identified and supported nearly 50 early-stage businesses across 20 states in India. These companies received USD 5 million in grant-based funding, which mobilized more than USD 285 million in debt to help scale these renewable energy start-ups into successful commercial enterprises, creating more than 670MW of new renewable energy capacity, along with an estimated 20,000 jobs.
Given the success of USICEF, CPI has initiated a new ICEF program to further catalyze financing for small and mid-scale distributed renewable energy generation and applications in India. Like its predecessor, ICEF will be managed as a private sector project preparatory facility with a returnable grant structure, aiming for a 40x debt mobilization rate based on the success of the original USICEF program.
Both these initiatives are led by Dhruba Purkayastha.
Featured work
Publication
USICEF Impacts and Lessons learned, 2017-2021
Since launching in 2016, USICEF supported 47 solar power projects, which went on to mobilize 30x in commercial debt over the initial grants provided.
Publication
The Future of Distributed Renewable Energy in India
India will require an annual DRE investment of USD 18 billion by 2024, a 10x increase from current levels to meet its sustainability targets. This CPI report outlines the benefits and market potential of India’s DRE sector, examines the current policy and institutional landscape, and provides tailored recommendations for the different stakeholders.
Publication
Credit Support Pathways for Rooftop Solar Projects in India
The proposed Credit Guarantee Mechanism addresses the most important barriers to scaling rooftop solar in the MSME sector; and could be crucial if India wants to achieve its rooftop solar target by 2022.