USHER ECO POWER LIMITED (FMO-45042)

Regions
  • South Asia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • India
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Nov 19, 2015
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Usher Eco Power Ltd
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 14.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 14.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Other Related Projects
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Jul 7, 2018

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to FMO website, Usher Eco will become the first company in the world to set up a commercial scale silica extraction plant for producing "green" high quality precipitated silica from rice husk ash. This ash is generated by burning rice husk in the boiler of a rice husk fired biomass power plant. The financing will be used for setting up the silica extraction plant and to expand Usher Eco’s rice husk based waste-to-energy facility from 16 MW to 34 MW. 

The green silica extraction process is the result of close collaboration between the open innovation team of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and Usher Eco. The produced silica will be used by Goodyear to replace carbon black and traditional silica in the high performance tires. Compared to carbon black and traditional silica, "green" silica reduces rolling resistance. Lower rolling resistance, in turn, improves a car's fuel economy. FMO classifies this as a green transaction due to the environmental impact and the closed-loop production process, resulting in zero waste:

1. Paddy milling results in rice and rice husk

2. Rice husk (biomass) is used to generate energy

3. Ensuing ash is used as input for the silica extraction. The silica extraction process allows extraction without using aggressive chemicals and at significantly lower temperatures than under the conventional process

4. Remaining waste product can be applied as fertilizer.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No contact information provided at the time of disclosure. 

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF FMO

Communities who believe they will be negatively affected by a project funded by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) may be able to file a complaint with the Independent Complaints Mechanism, which is the joint independent accountability mechanism of the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment Corporation (KfW) . A complaint can be filed in writing, by email, post, or online. The complaint can be filed in English or any other language of the complainant. The Independent Complaints Mechanism is comprised of a three-member Independent Expert Panel and it can provide either problem-solving, compliance review or both, in either order. Additional information about this accountability mechanism, including a guide and template for filing a complaint, can be found at: https://www.fmo.nl/independent-complaints-mechanism

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How it works