The Capacity Building Initiative program funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, complemented the Commercializing Renewable Energy in India (CREI) project by providing exhaustive training and knowledge dissemination, which may be effectively utilized in developing and implementing livelihood enhancement projects based on renewable energy technologies (RETs). The project was aimed to empower local communities through grassroot-level NGOs, so that they would be in a position to implement and manage the business plans prepared as part of the CREI initiative and also would be able to take this initiative forward. WII’s specific role was to identify grassroots level NGOs, train them in mainstreaming RETs in commercial activities and link the potential commercial activities with mainstream financial institutions.

The capacity building program consisted of three consecutive training modules spaced about a month apart, each lasting about 3 to 5 days with substantial practical work assignments in the intervening period. The trainees were also exposed to ongoing business activities with a renewable energy component established under the CREI project. WII developed the curriculum and conducted the training program.

The first training module was intended to be an introduction to the training course and basics of renewable energy technologies. The primary aim of this training module was to prepare the trainees for the rigors of the second and third training modules - which were more intensive.

The second training module was focused on business planning. The duration of this module was also longer than that of the earlier one. The training started with exposure to technical, operational and financial parameters in connection with various renewable energy technologies. Thereafter, there were intensive sessions on the process and procedures of business planning. The participants were also taken to field sites of the CREI projects to actually see how some technologies had been harnessed for productive businesses.

The third training module was envisaged more as a practical exercise rather than a series of classroom sessions. As an aftermath of Module 2, the participants were asked to come up with at least three business ideas, test their economic viability through appropriate calculations, and prepare complete business plans for each of them. Each participating NGO presented their business ideas and relevant calculations during this module. The business plans were critically reviewed by experts and the short listed business plans were presented by the NGOs to representatives from mainstream financial institutions.

The feedbacks from the financial institutions were very positive.

Regarding the impacts of the project, 18 business plans were prepared by the NGOs, which reflect that their capacities have been considerably enhanced. During the course of business plan development, the NGOs worked closely with the potential entrepreneurs and in this way their capacities have also been built in planning of business ventures. Another major impact of the project was the sensitization of mainstream financial institutions and micro-finance institutions, like NABARD, Syndicate Bank, BASIX and S3IDF. All the mentioned institutions expressed their interest in financing the business plans developed and currently WII is working out the modalities for the same.