The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a US$98 million Loan Agreement and US$2 million Grant Agreement to help India increase its power generation capacity through cleaner, renewable energy sources.

The Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project will finance the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), to provide sub-loans to select states to invest in various solar parks, mostly under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's (MNRE) Solar Park Scheme.  The first two solar parks to be supported under the project are in the Rewa and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh, with targeted installed capacities of 750 MW and 250 MW, respectively. In addition, other states where potential solar parks could be supported under this project are in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana.

"The Government of India is committed to set-up an enabling environment for solar technology penetration in the country. This Project will help establish large-scale solar parks and support the government's plan to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power out of a total renewable-energy target of 175 GW by 2022," said Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. "The use of this clean and green technology will also help contribute to global efforts to meet the challenges of climate change."

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