The European investment bank ( EIB ) has signed a EUR 150 million long-term loan with the Indian renewable energy development agency (IREDA) to finance clean energy projects in India “Renewable energy has become economically and commercially viable. We have funds from world over for clean energy projects. The significant new EIB investment support signed today will strengthen expansion of clean energy generation across India,” said Power Minister RK Singh at a media briefing here on Saturday.This is the second line of credit extended by EIB to IREDA for financing clean energy projects in India.“This time we are doing the agreement without the sovereign guarantee and we are very optimistic that we will see the money back,” Werner Hoyer, president of EIB told ET on the sidelines of the event.Falling clean energy tariffs is a positive sign for India and not a matter of worry in terms of the financial viability of projects, he said.“This(falling tariffs) is a wonderful development because a couple of years ago, we would have been able to pursue these projects only with subsidies,” Hoyer added.Following this agreement, IREDA will use the funds to finance greenfield projects in India, Popli said.“The last line of credit from EIB had enabled about 600 MW projects in the last four years. With this line of credit as well, we will look at doing some 600-700 MW of clean energy projects in India,” IREDA Chairman K.S. Popli said.More than 1.1 million Indian households are expected to benefit from clean energy produced by renewable energy schemes financed by the new initiative, an official statement from EIB said.Support from global financial institutions has been an enabler in developing renewable energy projects in the country, said Anand Kumar , Secretary, ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE).“We need strong linkages with financial institutions and multilateral development banks to finance our renewable programmes. We want to go for innovative lines of funding,” Kumar added.In 2017, the EIB provided EUR 1.05 billion of new financing for solar energy projects around the world, with India remaining the leading recipient of the bank’s support since 2013.