China Light and Power (CLP) group’s Indian branch has pooled the financing it has already received for four wind power projects in India into one single account. The financing was through Standard Chartered, IDBI bank and IDFC and is for an already existing debt of Rs 8.5bn. The reason for the refinancing is the pool structure, which CLP believes has more advantages for wind projects over traditional finance. “In a traditional approach to finance is that each project is project financed and what happens is that both the borrower and the lender run the risk of project default,” a spokesperson for CPL explains to GTR. “With the pool structure, even if one or two of the pool projects fail or struggle in a given year, they don’t suffer. Other projects that are doing well will compensate for the drop in performance on one or two other assets.” This serves to reduce the risks to lenders, thereby reducing the interest rate that borrowers are charged. CPL has over 1000MW of wind power across India and over 400MW is still to be commissioned. CLP intends to commission it over the next four to six months. “It’s something that is happening in the wind industry in India for the first time and it is something that we are going to follow for all of other wind projects,” the spokesperson says.