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The US-based Solar Finance Consortium (SFC) has been awarded $1 million USD by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The grant for the three-year cooperative agreement with SFC, a non-profit organization, was finalized in January and will be used to train bankers in India in financing photovoltaics. In addition to the USAID grant, SFC will provide $250,000 in matching funds. »We’re trying to bring the financial community into solar,« says Michael Eckhart, SFC’s president. »Most of the efforts to date have been the wrong way round, trying to get the solar energy industry in the bank doors. That doesn’t work.«
One of the SFC’s tasks is conducting quarterly round table discussions throughout India for senior bank officials. The first round table, held in New Delhi at the beginning of March, brought together 15 top financial managers. »If they weren’t knowledgeable about financing PV before the meeting,« Eckhart says, »they certainly are afterwards.« Another major mandate of SFC’s agreement with USAID is to train at least 1,000 loan officers. The participants, handpicked by the bank managers, receive a top-to-bottom briefing on the economics of PV systems as well as specific training on loans and leases for different kinds of solar systems. »Capital-intensive equipment requires financing. And the terms of financing can actually determine the economics of PV,« says Eckhart. The first two-day training workshop is scheduled in May in Bangalore. Eckhart is hoping to spread the SFC program to other parts of the world. At press time, he was negotiating a similar proposal for South Africa. »The ultimate size of this arrangement is unlimited,« he says. »The India program is there to show whatcanbedonewithaprogramlikethis.« The SFC’s goal is to increase the availability of low-cost, long-term capital for the market adoption of renewable energy technologies. SolarBank
Program William
P. Hirshman
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