DECENTRALISED ENERGY SYSTEMS INDIA PVT LTD.

DESI Power is a non-profit collaboration of TARA with DASAG India, dedicated to promoting renewable energy. It sets up Independent Rural Power Producers (IRPPs) at the rural level with local communities and entrepreneurs. Desi Power provides around 25% of the financing in the form of equity. The local partner provides 25% and the remaining 50% is provided by the market from "green" funding sources willing to accept below market return rates, or from regular commercial sources. The profitability and return on investment primarily depends on the precise terms under which the investment capital is obtained.

The first DESI Power station was set up at Orcha, Madhya Pradesh(India) in April 1996, as a joint venture between FREND a Swiss non-profit organisation that promotes renewable energy and TARA. Together they provided roughly 50% of the equity capital, which was 25% of the total investment. The rest of capital was fulfilled as a loan by the Small Industries Development Back of India (SIDBI) and as a subsidy from the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES). 

 

TARA is also a primary client of this power plant, purchasing the electricity to run operation and innovation in its techonolgy village, TARAGram, run under a Power Purchase agreement (PPA) with DESI Power.The manufacturing facilities at TARAGram emplow over one hundred people. They consist of a large handmade paper recycling unit, several enterprises producing microconcrete roofing tiles, mudblocks and other cost effective building materials, a charcoal briquetting unit, and a paper products unit. Additional production units are being continually added.

DESI Power Pvt Ltd, under an agreement signed on July 23, 1999 between the Governments of India and Netherlands, became the first power utility in India to get financing under the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC). The Dutch Ministry of Development Co-operation will provide investment capital in the form of a grant to DESI Power for it to set up six independent Rural Power Producers around the country.