The five year Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) program builds on USAID India’s previous energy programs and aims to promote low-carbon growth via clean energy deployment, technology pilots, innovative financing mechanisms and capacity building of stakeholders. This initiative is part of the bilateral agreements signed between the U.S and India, one on energy efficiency technology commercialization and innovation with the Ministry of Power as the line ministry, and the other on renewable energy technology commercialization and innovation with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy as the line ministry. The PACE-D Technical Assistance Program, a component of the overall Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) program, was formally launched on July 31, 2012 and Nexant, Inc. is the prime implementation partner for the PACE-D TA Program.
One of the interventions identified under the program is the Microfinance Support Program (MSP).The key objective of the MSP is to enhance access to clean energy sources for rural and urban communities through the use of financial inclusion mechanisms such as microfinance. MSP aims to achieve this objective by providing Technical Assistance (TA) to MFIs. The TA package includes facilitating partnerships between MFIs and renewable energy companies; training and capacity building of MFIs (including business plan and strategy development, operational plan for pilot and scale-up); and linking MFI partners with potential investors.
At present, the program has partnered with seven MFIs. For our latest PACE-D TA impact data, click here.