The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide India’s Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) with a $250 million loan to accelerate its operations and the adoption of energy management technologies.
EESL will leverage the loan to fund emerging energy services such as smart meters, distributed solar photovoltaic systems and electric vehicle programmes.
In addition, the ADB will provide EESL with a technical assistance package of $2 million to design and implement a gender action plan, mobilise private sector participation in energy efficiency services, identify new business opportunities and transfer knowledge about successful models.
The total cost of the project is $592 million of which the Clean Technology Fund will provide $46 million, to be administered by ADB, and the EESL will contribute $296 million.
The project is due for completion in March 2025.
India is in desperate need of accelerating energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies following carbon emissions outpacing the country’s economic growth of the past decade.
In 2016, carbon emissions in India have reached 2 billion tons compared to 890,000 tons in 2000.
The Indian government has set a target to achieve 175GW of renewables by 2022 from about 80GW as of August 2019 as well as meet sustainability targets which the country has signed to as part of the Paris Agreement.
India has pledged to reduce the energy intensity of its economy by 33% to 35% from 2005 levels by 2030.
“India’s energy efficiency potential is largely untapped—amounting to possible energy savings of about 17% of the country’s total power generated in the financial year 2019,” said ADB Principal Energy Specialist Mr Jiwan Acharya. “The project will adopt proven energy-efficient technologies to reduce electricity network losses and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
ADB previously approved a loan to EESL in 2016 for the Demand Side Energy Efficiency Sector Project, which focuses on efficient lighting and appliances. EESL is also implementing similar projects by KfW of Germany, Agence Française de Développement, and the World Bank.
