IREDA to get global funds

New Delhi: The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) is likely to receive financial assistance from foreign institutions such as Nordic Investment Bank, European Investment Bank and KFW Germany, for its various renewable energy projects that are in the pipeline.

“We are looking at specialised fund for various projects. We are expecting funding of €150 million from European Investment Bank, €50 million from KFW Germany and €50 million from the Nordic bank in the near future,” said Mr Debashish Majumdar, Chairman and Managing Director, IREDA.

Earlier also, it has received $100 million from the Asian Development Bank, $130 million from the World Bank, €62 million from KFW, amongst others. IREDA which is into financing wind, solar, hydro and biomass projects receives assistance from international organisation based on specific sectors. But for this year, the credit would not be sector bound but for any of the projects in the above categories.

The funding from these institutions would enable IREDA to finance projects at a relatively lower interest rates.

Commenting on the outlook this year, Mr Majumdar said, “In the financial year ended March 31, 2008, we disbursed around Rs 580 crore of loans, and this year we are expecting to grow the volume to Rs 900 crore.”

He said that in case of sanctioned loans, the number is expected to grow to Rs 1,400-1,500 crore in the present financial year compared with Rs 800 crore achieved during the last fiscal.

The institution is expecting growth in financing this year due to increasing interest from foreign companies to invest in clean development mechanism projects, and thereby, buy Certified Emission Reductions from Indian companies to meet their emission targets.

According to him, the entire renewable energy accounts for 8 per cent of the total power that gets generated in the country. Recently, it tied up with Power Trading Corporation and Power Finance Corporation to support their energy projects.

IREDA is a public financial institution operating as a non-banking finance company for renewable energy-related projects.