Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) conducted a three-day training program at Lucknow, with support from GIZ in partnership with Deloitte. BIRD is a learning institution promoted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to cater to the training requirements of stakeholders of agriculture and rural banking. The workshop, titled “Program on Financing of Solar-based Decentralized Energy Solutions”, had a total of 28 participants from 18 organisations, including commercial banks, RRB/co-operative banks, MFIs, and NGOs/Foundations, in attendance. Participants learned about key aspects of financing in the Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) sector. 

The first day of the workshop included a synopsis of the renewable energy sector in India, with a focus on DRE and its technical, commercial, policy and regulatory aspects, as well as the financial ecosystem for the proliferation of the DRE segment. Day Two comprised sessions on the financial viability and appraisal of DRE projects. The sessions were followed by a field visit to a solar mini-grid installation site to better understand technical/commercial aspects of installations. The final day included sessions on implementation frameworks and financial products for solar water pumps, as well as exchanging field visit experiences by participants, case studies/group activities that involved designing a suitable financial product for solar water pump, and a visit to the rooftop solar system installed at BIRD. The central points of the workshop are summarised below:

• Dedicated financial products can facilitate access to DRE financing
• Customised implementation models & tailored strategies are needed for targeting different DRE segments
• Creation of supporting ecosystem can provide an anchor for DRE proliferation
• The government needs to provide support in the form of soft loans/interest subvention
• Capacity building programs & awareness campaigns are required for adoption

For more details, please contact Ms. Prerna Sharma, prerna.sharma@giz.de.