Workshop on aiding decentralised renewable energy
Syndicate Bank DGM S S Hegde said financing for solar power is a viable business opportunity under MSME especially the solar sewing machine and laptop-printer kiosks solutions.
He was speaking at a workshop on financing for decentralised renewable energy organised by Solar Energy Company Foundation (Selco) in collaboration with the lead district office, Udupi.
Hegde said India currently has more than 260 million people who lack access to adequate grid-electricity or receive less than four hours of electricity in a day. A robust ecosystem for decentralized renewable energy solutions can rapidly accelerate the access timeline. One of the key aspects of this ecosystem is access to affordable and flexible finance for end users and small businesses for renewable energy. To address the bottleneck of access to finance, capacity building of bankers on lending for decentralized clean energy is a critical step. For banks to finance renewable energy, it is essential for the regional heads of banks to formulate schemes and programs for financing and have a thorough knowledge on the techno-commercial viability of renewable energy. To impart this knowledge and initiate discussion around opportunities and challenges in financing for renewable energy.
Nabard DDM Ramesh said Nabard has championed programmes on financing self help groups for solar home lighting and to operate silk-reeling machine in Bihar and same can be replicated in Karnataka.
Hamsa Chitanya Souhardha Credit Cooperative president Sudish Naik said bankers need to finance the poor to tap solar power keeping in mind the societal development rather than excessively depending structured rules and guidelines.
The programme is a part of Selco Foundation’s effort to build an ecosystem to finance tapping of decentralised renewable energy. The workshop is a continuation of Selco’s nation-wide banker sensitisation effort that has been successfully implemented through two days’ workshop in Uttar Pradesh in partnership with Bankers’ Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) and SLBC – Bank of Baroda, in Odisha with SIDBI and SLBC-UCO bank, in Karnataka with SLBC – Syndicate Bank, in Patna and Pune at State Bank Learning Center with SLBC – SBI and Bank of Maharashtra respectively.
The programme also saw a live demonstration of different machinery such as solar-powered sewing machine, milking machine, roti-rolling machine, butter churner, water purification machine, blacksmith air blower and laptop-printer. The programme was attended by 48 bankers.
Source: deccanherald
