CEA chief warns of energy transition challenges, calls for faster financing solutions
Notable because
The financing requirements for India to achieve its 2030 RE targets are estimated to be USD 200 billion for generation alone. Additional amounts will be needed for storage and grid upgradation. Till now, the discourse around the financing challenge for RE has been dominated by issues such as cost, flow, and scale of finance. However, the speed of delivering finance is also now emerging as a bottleneck, particularly as we are fast approaching 2030.
What to look out for in the months ahead
At present, the time taken for the loan process can sometimes exceed the time needed to actually construct RE plants. Some international banks have reportedly extended revolving construction finance loans to overcome this hurdle, but mainly to very large developers. Can the domestic banking system evolve responsively enough to provide flexible finance solutions to meet India’s RE financing needs at pace?