The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a pair of loans totaling $57.3 million to Solar Field Energy Two Private Ltd. and Mahindra Surya Prakash Private Ltd., respectively, to finance the export of American solar panels and ancillary services to India.
The solar panels, which are manufactured by First Solar Inc. of Tempe, Ariz., will be used in the construction of solar photovoltaic plants in Rajasthan, India. These transactions will support 200 U.S. jobs at First Solar's manufacturing facility in Perrysburg, Ohio.
Solar Field Energy Two, a Mumbai-based company wholly owned by Kiran Energy Solar Private Power Ltd., has been approved for a $23 million loan from Ex-Im Bank for the construction of a 20-megawatt (MW) solar facility in Rajasthan. Mahindra Surya Prakash, also of Mumbai and owned by Kiran Energy and Mahindra Holding Ltd., has been approved for a $34.3 million Ex-Im loan to build two solar facilities (one 20 MW and one 10 MW) in Rajasthan as well.
"These important transactions will finance the purchase of American products and services and support jobs in our innovative renewable-energy sector," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg. "On top of that, Ex-Im's financing will contribute to India's drive to embrace clean-energy sources."
In 2010, the Indian government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in an effort to add 20,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity to the nationwide grid by 2020. According to a 2012 report in the Wall Street Journal, nearly 300 million people in India live without electricity.
India is one of Ex-Im Bank's nine key markets and accounted for approximately $7 billion of the Bank's worldwide credit exposure as of the end of FY 2011. In FY 2011 and FY 2012 to date, the Bank authorized more than $330 million in financing for Indian solar projects.
In FY 2012 to date, the Bank has authorized approximately $380 million for renewable-energy exports of all types worldwide.
Founded in 1999, First Solar is the world's largest manufacturer of thin-film solar modules and has more than 1,900 employees in the United States, including 1,200 employees at its Perrysburg, Ohio, manufacturing and engineering center.