British International Investment (BII), a UK government-owned development finance institution, has announced US$89 million of financings to expand renewables in India.

The investments include a 3.5 billion rupee (US$47 million) follow-on commitment to Fourth Partner Energy, bringing its total commitment to the renewable energy company to US$80 million. It will fund 294 megawatts of renewable power capacity in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam. BII is also providing 3.15 billion rupees (US$42 million) in debt to Thar Surya 1 Pvt Ltd, an Indian subsidiary of Italy’s Enel SpA, to help finance a 300MW solar project in India.

“We are pleased to put into action BII’s pledge to commit US$1 billion in climate finance to India over the next five years,” says Srini Nagarajan, managing director and head of Asia at BII. BII was formerly known as CDC, and was officially renamed on April 4.

Liz Truss, the UK secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs, says the revamped BII is at the heart of Britain’s financing offer to low- and middle-income countries, and the UK's ambitious plan to mobilize up to £8 billion (US$10.2 billion) of investment a year by 2025.