The Asian Development Bank is talking to European countries about an investment fund that would redirect $500 million of solar subsidies toward projects in developing countries where the money could be invested more productively.
“You can get a bigger bang for your buck if some of the subsidies used in those countries could be used in places like India or Pakistan, where solar radiation is much more intense,” WooChong Um, deputy director general of the bank’s sustainable development program, said in an interview today.
Germany, Spain and Italy are among the countries that have offered incentives, including special tariffs fixing the price at which producers can sell their power to the grid, to help boost solar-generating capacity.
The ADB aims to help install 3,000 megawatts of solar capacity over the next three years, Um said. Under the proposal, governments would be encouraged to spend part of what they would have spent on domestic subsidies to support the export of technology and equipment to develop projects elsewhere, Um said.
