German bank push for energy efficient homes
In a strong bid to promote energy conservation in the residential sector, German KfW Development Bank is providing a loan of euro 50 million to NHB (National Housing Bank ) for refinancing housing loans to buy energy efficient housing units. KfW has pushed a similar scheme in Germany, where it provided loans to the tune of euro 40 billion for 1.8 billion "green" housing units. This helped substantively bring energy consumption down in the residential sector in Germany. India currently has 246.7 million households but the focus of the NHB is to target households that want to purchase flats in '50-70 lakhs bracket. Ms Mili Majumdar, Director (sustainable habitat), TERI believes, "Since 24 per cent of the energy consumption is attributed to residential building, we see huge energy saving of up to between 30 to 50 per cent with the intervention of such a tool."