OREANDA-NEWS. January 9, 2012. Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Tata Capital, today, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work closely on the former’s Energy Efficiency Financing Platform (EEFP). Present at the occasion were Dr Ajay Mathur, director general, BEE, and Praveen Kadle, managing director and CEO, Tata Capital.

The EEFP, an initiative under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), seeks to create a mechanism for enabling mainstream financing of energy efficiency projects.

Dr Mathur said, “This MoU is an important step towards strengthening the EEFP, which is a platform to facilitate learning and experience sharing on removing barriers that have stunted financing of energy efficiency projects. Tata Capital’s concerted focus on this area is a positive signal to the market and private investors.”

In addition to its thrust on areas in financing of energy efficiency projects, the MoU will also provide a flexible, overarching framework under which collaborative activities and partnerships in the fields of utility-based demand side management, energy conservation building code, energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings, standards and labelling programme and energy efficiency in industries will be implemented in India.

Mr Kadle said, “The MoU will bring together the technical know-how and experience of BEE and the financial expertise of Tata Capital to help promote energy-efficient projects and environment-friendly technologies across the country. The MoU follows up on Tata Capital’s recent initiative of forming Tata Cleantech Capital, a company focused on offering financing and advisory services to small, mid-sized and large companies to promote clean technology.”

While the NMEEE estimates the overall energy efficiency investment market at around Rs74,000 crore, the combined capital of BEE funds will infuse over Rs170 crore in the energy efficiency market in the coming years.