Meetings in India: Energy Efficiency, Financing and Chicken Tikka!

Our team was in India in the week of March 4, 2019. What an eventful week it was – networking, making new connections and building relationships with like-minded people who are passionate about making a difference for clean energy and sustainability.

The trip had two main objectives: (a) to meet with stakeholders to discuss potential partnerships to facilitate matchmaking and financing for clean energy projects as part of our role as Asia Regional Coordinator of Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN); and (b) to attend the International Energy Services Conclave and introduce Asia Clean Energy Partners and catch up on developments in the Indian market related to energy efficiency and energy services, as well as policy developments.

The International Energy Services Conclave was organized by the Alliance for an Energy Efficiency Economy on March 6-8 in New Delhi. Peter du Pont, one of our Managing Partners, participated in a panel discussion on energy efficiency financing models where he presented the work we are doing under PFAN. He spoke about our experience with facilitating finance for energy efficiency projects – nearly ~10-15% of financed projects under PFAN are energy efficiency projects and another 20% or so have a combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Our other Managing Partner Mark Lister was a part of the panel discussion on the role of Non-Profit Organisations and Multilateral-Bilateral Organisations in realising national energy efficiency goals. He discussed the need for advocacy and awareness raising to international levels, facilitation of industry capability for aggregated energy efficiency projects, and standardized legal contracting and procurement guidelines.

In parallel, the team had meetings with leading financial institutions, donor agencies, public sector organisations, and non-government organizations. These included: Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, United States Agency for International Development, Energy Efficiency Services Limited, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), amongst others. The idea was to reach out to key stakeholders to provide an overview of the PFAN initiative, explore partnerships to build a strong pipeline of clean energy projects for financing, and mobilize more finance for such projects.

We particularly liked our visit to CII’s green office in Hyderabad – the famous CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre. We discussed ways that PFAN can work with CII to identify promising clean energy projects and businesses from CII's SME members, coach and mentor them, and ultimately facilitate financing. The target size of investments is in the range of $1-50 million.

Saving the best for last, can any trip to India be complete without enjoying the spicy Indian cuisine including our favourite Chikka Tikka? We had our share of that and more! We can’t wait to be back and partner with strategic stakeholders to help them successfully transition to low-carbon energy approaches.