Renewable Energy Focused Infrastructure Debt Fund (RIDF)

India, under the Paris Agreement, has committed to increase the share of non-fossil fuel sources to 40 % of the power generation capacity and reduce the emissions intensity of the economy by 33 to 35 % compared to 2005 levels by 2030. In this regard, India has set an ambitious target to reach 450 giga watt (GW) of installed renewable energy (RE) capacity by 2030. It is imperative to note that ~94 GW of RE projects is installed in India including 35 GW of large-scale solar and 39 GW of Wind Energy projects. Also, ~84 GW of utility-scale RE projects are in pipeline, which would need USD 60 Billion capital infusion for operationalization (i.e. USD 18 Billion Equity and USD 42 billion at 30:70 ratio). Refinancing of RE projects is critical to enable access to finance for greenfield RE projects which are either planned or are in pipeline. Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDFs) are one of the preferred instruments for refinancing. There have been three IDFs (Non-Banking Financial Corporation or NBFC-route) in India till date – L&T IDF, India Infra-debt (ICICI Group promoted), and IDFC IDF (acquired by NIIF). There is a need for the Renewable energy focussed Infrastructure Debt Fund (RIDF) to raise equity capital and debt from FIs in order to realize India’s national RE target.