Winrock International India (WII) and Winrock International India (WI) worked together with a team of local and international experts to implement the Solar Finance Capacity Building Initiative (SFCBI) that would enhance financing opportunities for renewable energy projects, especially in solar energy, in India.

The SFCBI initiative was designed to measurably reduce the constraints on, and increase the capacity for, financing of solar home systems (SHS) in India, simultaneously helping local entrepreneurs build sound solar energy projects for investment.

WII had the lead on executing the SFCBI training program, which was to increase the capacity for financing of SHS in India by making lenders more comfortable with SHS technologies and more confident in their abilities to assess related financing opportunities. The SFCBI team is well on its path of imparting training to 1,000 financiers by the end of September 2002.

The project activities included thew following: The WII-SFCBI team trained three discreet sets of bankers:

1. Apex-level Officials: They were introduced to the core concepts of solar photovoltaics (SPV) to educate senior bank officials on the subject and cultivate interest in financing SHS.
2. Branch Managers: A two-day course builts technical skills necessary to evaluate and process consumer loans for SHS.
3. Staff Training College Faculty: The goal was to 'train the trainers', to enable these institutions to conduct courses for the above two groups without the involvement of WII or other organizations on a sustainable level.

besides addressing the following tasks during the project duration:

• Developing finacial mechanisms (supply of financing)
• Developing solar energy markets and projects (demand for financing)
• Training lending personnel (capacity for financing)
• Strengthening NGOs and their role in solar energy markets (pathway for financing)
• Communication and outreach
• Policy support (viability of financing)

While the SFCBI team had committed to train 1,000 financiers in lending for solar, the team exceeded the target within the stipulated timeframe and budget, and trained over 1,068 financiers; 428 in Phase One, 151 in Phase Two, and 489 in Phase Three.

WII conducted a survey of approximately 40% of the bankers trained in Phase One of the SFCBI Bankers’ Training Program. The data collected suggests that loans for solar lighting increased by over 565% after the bankers attended the SFCBI training sessions. Further, there was also an increase of approximately 115% in loans made for solar hot water systems. The following table is a summary of 170 Branch Managers surveyed by the SFCBI team. These Branch Managers represent a sample of those who participated in the Pilot Phase of the Training Program.

A two-day conference on Capacity Building for Solar Financing in India was held on September 9 and 10, 2002 at the India Habitat Center in New Delhi. The conference wrapped up the three-year project and focused on what the team had achieved and learned about solar energy financing, especially as it applies in the banking and microfinance sectors.

The project assisted five budding entrepreneurs with developing business plans through a special fund called SPEED (Solar Projects and Enterprise Development).

To know further about the program, please visit www.sfcbi.com craeted as one of the project activities.