The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a pair of loans totaling $57.3 million to Solar Field Energy Two Private Ltd. and Mahindra Surya Prakash Private Ltd., respectively, to finance the export of U.S.-made solar panels and ancillary services to India.

The solar panels - which will be manufactured at First Solar's Perrysburg, Ohio, facility - will be used in the construction of solar photovoltaic plants in Rajasthan, India.

Solar Field Energy Two, a Mumbai-based company wholly owned by Kiran Energy Solar Private Power Ltd., has been approved for a $23 million loan from Ex-Im Bank for the construction of a 20 MW solar facility in Rajasthan. Mahindra Surya Prakash, also of Mumbai and owned by Kiran Energy and Mahindra Holding Ltd., has been approved for a $34.3 million Ex-Im loan to build two additional solar facilities - one 20 MW project and one 10 MW project - in Rajasthan.

In 2010, the Indian government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in an effort to add 20 GW of installed solar capacity to the nationwide grid by 2020.