The first loan project in China funded by the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) is expected to start operation in August, the bank said Friday.

The 76 million U.S.dollars loan was given, in installment, to Shanghai Lingang Distributed Solar Power Project, with a maturity length of 17 years, under an agreement signed between the NDB, the Ministry of Finance and Shanghai municipal government in December 2016.

The loan will allow Lingang Industrial Area to have a solar photovoltaic power plant with a total capacity of 100 megawatts.

The solar power project will be divided into a number of smaller sub-projects that will be sequentially implemented over three years.

The New Development Bank was founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) during their fifth summit in Fortaleza in July 2014.

It formally opened in Shanghai in July 2015 and was created with the objective of financing infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries.

The bank approved its first package of loans worth 811 million dollars in April 2016.