US pledges $2 million for India's green tech start-ups

The grants are the first round of a joint $7.9 million fund established by the governments of India and the US, reports Tech in Asia

Yesterday, we reported the sunny news about the world’s first solar-powered airport in India. Today, there’s more good news for cleantech entrepreneurs in the country.

US Ambassador to India Richard Verma announced that up to $2 million in grants will be made available to each innovative, early-stage clean energy project selected. These grants will be the first round of the PACEsetter Fund, a joint $7.9 million fund established in June by the governments of India and the United States to push the pedal on commercialising off-grid clean energy solutions.
 

The US Ambassador also launched a new public-private partnership to marshal $41 million to help growth-stage clean energy start-ups in India to sustain and scale their business.
 

The aim is to help one million Indians gain access to electricity through off-grid clean energy solutions. New Ventures India, Insitor Management, Global Social Business Incubator at Santa Clara University and USAID/India are collaborating on this.

Both India and the US are keen on building a strategic partnership on energy security, clean energy and climate change. The countries inked a pact called Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) in November 2009. Seven US agencies, including the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of State (DOS), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), are working with the Indian ministries for this. Together, they want to find ways to harness commercial enterprises to bring clean energy access to unserved or underserved individuals and communities. That’s explains the push for public-private partnerships.
 

PM Narendra Modi has set ambitious targets of 100GW solar and 60GW wind power targets for India by 2022. SoftBank, Bharti and Foxconn have also formed a fund named SBG Cleantech, which will back cleantech start-ups as well as bid for solar plant tenders ‎under the National Solar Mission programme and state-specific solar programs.
 

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.