German development bank lends Euro1bn

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH India on behalf of the German Government have signed an agreement on technical cooperation for green energy.

It was signed under the “Indo-German Energy Programme – Green Energy Corridors (IGEN-GEC)” in New Delhi on 28 August 20117.

The main objective of this programme component is to improve the sector framework and conditions for grid integration of renewable energies.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal and the German Ambassador to India, Dr. Martin Ney.

Speaking on the occasion, Goyal said “… this relationship between GIZ and India will result in improve market mechanisms and regulations, help us train manpower, to ensure grid stability and integration of renewables into grid and ensure safer & secure grid and a grid which can take cyber challenges”.

Germany is a very reliable partner country and has been supporting India in achieving its goal for sustainable development through bilateral cooperation for almost six decade now, he pointed out.

Dr. Ney highlighted that Germany’s “Energiewende”, the evacuation and grid integration of renewable energy, plays a pivotal role with major technological and fiscal challenges.

India and Germany have very constructive dialogue under the Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF), he added.

GIZ and MNRE will work on improving market mechanisms and regulations for integration of Renewable Energies; advancing technical and institutional conditions in specified target states, regions and on a national level; adding human capacities to handle systemic (strategic, managerial, financial, technical) Renewable Energies integration in an efficient and effective manner.

The IGEN-GEC programme is commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and jointly implemented by Ministry of New and Renewable Resources (MNRE), Ministry of Power (MoP), Government of India and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

This programme component supports the implementation of the Renewable Energy Management Centre (REMCs), Green Energy Corridors scheme of the Government of India which is a prerequisite for large scale grid integration of renewable energy thus contributing to achieve the 175 GW target of the Government of India for renewable energy generation capacity by 2022.

Germany has agreed to provide concessional loans of up to 1 billion Euros through KfW (German Development Bank) and up to 10 million Euros under technical assistance in forecasting, balancing, market design, network management and demand side energy efficiency, implemented by GIZ.

These contributions have been further increased in 2015 and 2016 by concessional loans up to 400 million Euros for transmission infrastructure and up to seven million Euros for training activities in the photovoltaic solar rooftop sector and energy efficiency in residential buildings under technical assistance through GIZ. fii-news.com