The government is in talks with German lender KfW to raise one billion euros for developing roof-top solar power projects in the country, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has said.
"We are negotiating for an amount of one billion euros (about Rs 7,700 crore) as a soft loan from KfW. If that comes, it will exclusively be for roof-top solar power," MNRE Secretary Upendra Tripathy told reporters here.
The move comes at a time when the government is looking to take power generation from renewable energy sources to 1,00,000-MW in five years and Tripathy said that cheaper credit should be made available to encourage wider adoption of off-grid solutions.
"You do need to make cheaper credit available. We have to find means for this off-grid sector, including roof-top power, so that we can make it a movement," he said.
Tripathy added that the ministry has requested Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to bring the renewable energy sector under the priority lending category.
Efforts would also be made to get help from the Finance and External Affairs Ministries, apart from the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), to bridge the investment gap in the renewable energy sector, he said.
KfW is a German government-owned development bank based in Frankfurt.
