Double whammy for renewable sector: Lower tariff and missing financiers

Tariffs in solar have fallen 80 per cent in the past five years to Rs 2.44 per unit (kilowatt per hour)

Renewable energy five years ago was seen as a sunrise industry like e-commerce, with start-ups backed by investment funds jumping headlong into business. But now there is a fear of non-performing assets (NPAs) cropping up in the sector.

The renewable sector is facing the double whammy of traditional funding sources, like banks and private and venture capital funds, drying up, and falling tariffs making project funding difficult. 

“There is no loan for capex, no debt for funding. Rates of interest have gone up. States are usual laggards in paying. The benefit of lower panel prices has been neturalised by a