The India Innovation Lab for Green Finance – a group of public and private investors and finance experts on clean energy and green growth in India – continues to make progress on analysis and development of four innovative ideas for green finance instruments,   with the aim of launching them for implementation in the fall of 2017.

The four instruments, selected from a pool of 72 submissions in February, are:

Solar Investment Trust: A mutual fund-like instrument to increase availability of equity, possibly at a lower cost, to small-scale residential and industrial rooftop solar projects.

The Matchmaker Service: A platform to match qualified investors with a pipeline of climate-related investment opportunities for cities in India, with a pilot project of city fleets of electric buses.

Sustainable Energy Bonds: Bonds to drive finance to sustainable energy projects by attracting impact investors looking for debt exposure and offering them a set of instruments that provides return as well as standardized impact measures.

Solar Agro-Processing Power Stations: An enterprise to deploy solar off-grid systems for agro-processing in villages, with a lower cost of financing that combines a pay-as-you-go model with risk guarantees. This instrument was also selected in December as a finalist for the India Lab’s sister initiative, the Fire Awards.

The India Innovation Lab for Green Finance is a public-private initiative in India that identifies, develops, and accelerates innovative solutions to drive more investment for green growth in India. The India Lab has been endorsed by the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. It is hosted and funded by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, with additional financial support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Oak Foundation. Climate Policy Initiative in Delhi serves as the Secretariat and analytical provider.