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...Solar Loan Programme the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which has been working with the finance sector for some time on new approaches to finance renewable energy.
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The loans for the photovoltaic solar home systems (SHS) came from Canara and Syndicate Banks, two of India's leading financial organizations. There was no capital subsidy, but instead an innovative interest-rate subsidy that allowed the banks to feel more secure about increasing their lending services for a technology that they had not previously considered financially attractive. India's expanding solar industry has a potential market that includes 65 per cent of rural house-holds, which do not have access to a reliable electricity supply. These households may have access to electricity, which is often unreliable, but many rely on kerosene for light, and on dung and wood for heat--poor-quality energy that impacts their health from respiratory diseases and limits their economic and social development.
Without financing, however, the high initial cost of an SHS constrains the growth of the Indian market. Increased access to credit can enable rural households to buy cleaner energy services and...
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