ImpactAlpha, February 22 — The government-owned India Renewable Energy Development Agency made the debt investment in Husk Power Systems, using a line of credit from German development bank KfW.
Husk, based in Bihar, India, and Fort Collins, Colo., got its start in 2008 with biomass-based systems that used rice husks and agricultural waste to power off-grid communities in India and Africa. Plummeting costs for solar technology spurred the company to pivot to hybrid biomass-solar systems (for context, see “FMO backs Husk Power System’s minigrid expansion”).
Husk aims to bring about 1,300 grids online in India and Africa by 2025.
The debt financing will finance 140 minigrids in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where Husk has worked since 2008. The new investment “demonstrates the government of India’s vision in making microgrids an integral part of its net-zero goal put forward at COP26,” said Husk’s Manoj Sinha.
