MNRE Awards 4 Grants in 2nd Round of PACEsetter Fund

MNRE recently awarded grants to the four projects selected in the second round of PACEsetter fund programme.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has recently announced that it has awarded grants to the four projects selected in the second round of PACEsetter fund programme.

The PACEsetter fund was constituted by India and the USA in 2015 as a joint fund to provide early-stage grant funding to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative off-grid clean energy products, systems, and business models, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said in a statement.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy awarded Grants to the awardees of the second round of PACEsetter fund programme in a ceremony organised in Delhi. MNRE Secretary Anand Kumar and the US Ambassador to India Kenneth Ian Juster co-chaired the felicitation ceremony.

In the second round of awards, a total of 168 Expressions of Interest were received. Out of these, four projects were selected for award of grants.

The awardees include the Society for Economic and Social Studies, New Delhi, Customised Energy Solutions India Pvt Ltd, Pune, The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and Raghavendra Suntech Systems Pvt Ltd (RSSPL), Bengaluru.

Stressing on the importance of access to energy for all, the US Ambassador said that innovation in off-grid and clean energy will improve energy access.

Kumar appreciated the impact that the awarded projects would have on the common man. He also suggested that innovation realised through such projects could be replicated in other developing countries.

The mission of the Fund is to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative off-grid clean energy access solutions by providing early-stage grant funding that would allow businesses to develop and test innovative products, business models and systems. The Fund’s main purpose is to improve the viability of off-grid renewable energy businesses that sell small scale (under 1 megawatt) clean energy systems to individuals and communities without access to grid-connected power or with limited/intermittent access. (less than 8 hours per day).