Bank of Baroda, AEREM Collaborate for Rooftop Solar for MSMEs

The Indian Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are increasingly moving towards the cause of renewable energy expansion in the country. In a fresh development, Bank of Baroda (BoB), one of India’s leading public sector banks, has announced that it has entered into an alliance with Aerem Solutions Pvt Ltd (ASPL) and its subsidiary, Aerem Finance Pvt Ltd (AFPL) for the financing of rooftop solar power projects. The solar projects are meant for the captive use by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
As per the terms of the agreement, Bank of Baroda will provide collateral-free loans and at rates that are affordable to the MSMEs for installation of captive solar rooftop projects.Aerem Solutions (ASPL) claims to be a revolutionary end-to-end platform that specialises in enabling quality rooftop solar installations for the MSMEs. Similarly, Aerem Finance (AFPL) is an NBFC registered with the Reserve Bank of India. This collaboration will encourage MSMEs to adopt solar energy, significantly reducing power bills and increasing profitability of the business as well as supporting the development and growth of the renewable energy market in India.Dhrubashish Bhattacharya, Head of MSME Business, Bank of Baroda, said, “Clean energy, sustainability, net zero emissions are not only buzzwords, they are now business imperatives. Solar energy is a clean, cheap and abundant source of energy. Bank of Baroda has introduced a collateral-free scheme to finance solar rooftop projects for captive use by MSMEs and this arrangement with AEREM provides the Bank access to progressive MSMEs who are keen to employ solar energy, thereby reducing their carbon footprint and improving profitability.”Anand Jain, Founder and CEO, Aerem, stated, “Aerem is on a mission to democratize the adoption of rooftop solar and build a better, greener and sustainable future. Our innovative SolarTech platform ensures quality rooftop solar systems, which combined with collateral-free finance enables significant reduction in power bills of MSMEs. We offer a fully digitalised, hassle-free and seamless experience to MSMEs.”

Recently, a financing arrangement worth EUR 150 million was reached by the German bank called Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the State Bank of India (SBI) to fund solar projects in India.