Singapore's DBS launches green loan for wind turbine farm in China

SINGAPORE, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's major banking group DBS on Wednesday announced a 500-million-Chinese-yuan (some 70 million U.S. dollars) green loan facility to develop a 100-megawatt wind turbine farm in central China's Henan Province.

The project is expected to generate about 270 gigawatt hours of renewable energy, which can power 90,000 households and avoid 212,600 tons of carbon emissions annually.

The loan will be issued under the People's Bank of China's (PBOC) Carbon Emission Reduction Facility and represents the first successful transaction in the program by a Southeast Asian bank, according to the DBS.

The PBOC will provide financial institutions with funds equal to 60 percent of a loan's principal at an annual interest rate of 1.75 percent under the program.

The program enables participating banks to offer low-cost loans to fund sustainable development projects in China, including clean energy, energy saving, environmental protection and carbon emission reduction technologies.

The DBS is the only Singaporean bank to be selected for the program, the bank said.