India signs $300 million agreement with World Bank for Energy Efficiency Scale-Up Program

The Government of India (GoI) and the World Bank signed a $220 million Loan Agreement and a $80 million Guarantee Agreement for the India Energy Efficiency Scale-Up Program. The program will be implemented by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). It will help scale-up the deployment of energy saving measures in residential and public sectors. The investments under the Program are expected to avoid lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of 170 million tons of CO2, and contribute to avoiding an estimated 10 GW of additional generation capacity. The Program will help tackle the financing, awareness, technical and capacity barriers faced by new energy efficiency programmes and support the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) and Street Lighting National Program (SLNP) schemes. The $220 million IBRD loan has a 5-year grace period & a maturity of 19 years while the $80 million IBRD guarantee will partially cover re-payment risks to commercial lenders or investors, to enable EESL to raise funds for its programme.