The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has offered a US$100 million loan to the Indian state of Gujarat to help speed up construction of its new large-scale solar power facilities.

ADB’s 25-year loan will finance the Gujarat Solar Power Transmission Project, funding a substation, transmission lines and other equipment to collect and distribute power generated by systems in the Charanka Solar Park in Gujarat’s Patan district.

These facilities are a boon to the PV industry in India, and Gujarat in particular, making it far more attractive, from a financial perspective, for private companies wishing to build large-scale PV plants.

“By putting in reliable power transmission facilities in the solar park, ADB will help draw in private sector developers, while providing a model which can be replicated to scale up solar power in a significant manner in India,” said Naoki Sakai, ADB’s senior climate change specialist.

The Charanka park, which hopes to eventually ramp up capacity to 500MW, is one of a number of large-scale parks planned in Gujarat to meet rising energy demands in the state. The parks will provide developers with the necessary permits and services to fast track system installation and also help the Indian government achieve its goal of generating 20GW through solar by 2022.