Despite the potential of distributed renewable energy (DRE)-enabled livelihood interventions to improve livelihoods by increasing productivity, reducing drudgery, and augmenting the income of rural communities, private and commercial sources, including banks and financial institutions (FIs), have shown limited interest in financing such interventions.

Drawing on stakeholder interviews, success stories, and a review of the existing literature, this working paper provides a first-cut assessment of how private and commercial sources can enable affordable and accessible financing for DRE-enabled livelihood activities in India.

We highlight a set of five key strategies for scaling and mainstreaming private and commercial finance: building banks’ and FIs’ capacity, supporting diversified financing products, exploring aggregation models to decrease transaction costs, promoting data sharing, and providing low-cost finance by blending public and private sources.