UN identifies US$600M projects in five cities
India’s Power Ministry’s Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has proposes tech-savvy Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund (EERF) for sustainable funding mechanism of energy efficiency projects in the country.
The EERF mechanism will support the ‘proof of concept’ investments for the new technologies of super-efficient ceiling fans, tri-generation technologies & smart grid-applications and ultimately scaling up energy efficiency financing and programme development to help cover initial investment costs of identified energy efficiency programmes like street lighting, domestic lighting, five-star rated ceiling fans and agricultural pumps.
The proposal comes with EESL forming a partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for ‘Creating and Sustaining Markets for Energy Efficiency’ in New Delhi on 1 Nov 2017.
It is a follow up on UN Environment’s ‘District Energy in Cities’ Initiative has already identified US$600 million of Energy Efficiency projects across 5 cities in India.
The project will receive US$454 million comprised of the GEF grant of US$20 million and co-financing of US$434 million in the form of loans and equity, including a US$200 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The GEF project further brings together many technical and financing partners including United Nations Environment (UN Environment), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) which aims to mitigate 60 million tons of CO2 eq (carbon dioxide equivalent), that will enable a total direct energy savings of 38.3 million GJ by 2022 and 137.5 million GJ by 2032. (1 GJ = 277.778 kWh)
By 2030, India is committed to achieve 40% of the installed capacity based on clean energy sources.
The size of Indian energy efficiency market is estimated to be US$23 billion.
Naoko Ishii, Chairperson and CEO, GEF said that with the strong leadership of EESL and the Indian Government, the penetration of these clean energy technologies will help India leapfrog to a more sustainable future while helping reduce local and global emissions.
Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of India Resident Mission of ADB, said that ADB will partner EESL to implement energy efficiency projects in India to facilitate sustainable growth by addressing climate change issues, boosting the economy and generating greater employment in the country.
Geordie Codville of the UN Environment said that the project is aimed at scaling up energy efficiency efforts to achieve India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) goals and ultimately the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
EESL also has its sights set on district cooling systems which can reduce energy demand for cooling by up to 50 percent. EESL has partnered with UN Environment’s District Energy in Cities Initiative, which has already identified US$600 million of projects across five cities in India.
GEF is an international partnership of 183 countries, international institutions, civil society organizations and the private sector that addresses global environmental issues. The funding announcement was made at the launch of the GEF-6 fund which supports two projects – ‘Creating Markets for Energy Efficiency’ and ‘District Energy in Cities’. fii-news.com
