Bank of America has extended a first of its kind local currency revolving credit facility of $ 50 million to Indian solar company Fourth Partner Energy. This, the bank said in a press release, is its first locally denominated loan for commercial and industrial solar financing in India.

The decision, taken by the lender as part of its ‘Environmental Business Initiative’ is aimed at accelerating the transition of India to a cleaner and more sustainable power generation base.

“The need to mobilise and deploy capital to drive a clean energy future is critical to accelerating the global transition to low-carbon, sustainable energy sources and advancing many of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals… India plays a vital role in curbing global emissions and Fourth Partner Energy is driving that change. Through innovative financing products like this one we can help scale projects that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as support India’s role in solar energy development,” said Anne Finucane, vice chairman of Bank of America.

Fourth Partner Energy, on its part, has executed distributed solar projects with a cumulative capacity of 200 MW across 23 states in India for over 150 corporate and government clients. Vivek Subramanian, co-founder Fourth Partner Energy said that the tie-up with a global institution like Bank of America will play a vital role in the expansion of the sector in the country.

The move is crucial as India, along with China, the United States and the European Union account for nearly 60 percent of the world’s carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. And with India promising to reduce its contribution relative to GDP by one third by 2030 under the Paris Agreement there exists a wide scope for development of cleaner energy sector.