IFC in financing pact for biomass power plant in Kanyakumari

The International Finance Corporation, the commercial lending affiliate of the Word Bank, will provide a $6.25 million loan to renewable energy company Auro Mira Energy Company Private Limited, to build an 18 megawatt biomass-based greenfield power plant.

Auro Mira Energy's subsidiary, Auro Mira Bio Systems Kanyakumari Private Limited, is building the plant that will save 76,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, in Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu.

Auro Mira Bio Systems will use IFC's investment to create new renewable energy-based generation capacity to meet increasing demand for power in the power-starved state and will displace generation from diesel.

The project will use local agriculture wastes like rubber wood, plywood waste, cashew nut shells, saw dust, and coconut shells to fire the plant. Power will be sold to the grid, to commercial and industrial users, or to power-trading companies.

''Auro Mira Energy is developing a portfolio of renewable projects in India," says N Srinivasan, chief executive officer, Auro Mira Energy. "IFC's clean energy focus and support to the project will help the company attract other strategic investors and partners for its growth plans in the future.''

IFC's involvement with Auro Mira Energy as a long- term partner will help attract long-term finance at fixed interest rates in local currency needed to sustain the flow of resources into this critical sector. Auro Mira Energy wants to demonstrate its ability to develop commercially viable and sustainable renewable energy projects with minimum or no subsidies.