Renew Power plans to double power generation capacity to 10,000 megawatt in five years

Renew Power, India’s largest clean energy firm, plans to double its portfolio of running plants and projects under implementation to 10,000 megawatt (MW) in five years, an ambitious growth plan that has cheered its major investor Goldman Sachs.

An investment of around Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 5.67 billion to US$ 7.09 billion) is required for expansion, going by the average cost of projects in the industry. Though, no financial details were shared by the company. The projects vary across the country, depending on the cost of land and the intensity of sunlight or wind.

Mr Sumant Sinha is leading the Renew Power’s aggressive expansion project, which is part of the growing corporate interest in the sector in which Mr Gautam Adani is also expanding his presence with the aim of becoming the world’s biggest renewable energy company with a capacity of 25,000 MW.
"This year despite the impact of COVID-19, the government has been actively bringing out new bids in the renewable energy space and companies have responded enthusiastically," said Renew Power chairman and managing director Mr Sumant Sinha.

According to Goldman Sach’s MD of merchant banking division Mr Michael Bruun, these growth prospects are exciting. "We are excited about our investment in Renew and the journey ahead as the company continues to grow and becomes more integrated across the value chain," Mr Bruun said.
Around 48.6 per cent share in Renew Power are held by Goldman Sachs, which has backed the company for a long time. The company has also raised debt and equity from other major global investors including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, JERA and Global Environment Fund. The company has attracted foreign direct investment of over US$ 1.4 billion from various investors since its inception 10 years ago.

Renew has the country’s largest operation capacity of 5,600 MW, which along with capacity in the pipeline adds up to 10,000 MW.

In May 2020, Renew won a first of its kind 400 MW round-the-clock (RTC) bid, which promises an 80 per cent plant load factor (PLF) annually at Rs 2.90 (US$ 0.04) per unit. In order to ensure the PLF efficiency, company plans to set up a plant with capacity higher than 1 gigawatt (GW), bringing the total to 2 GW in the past six months. These will be online in the next two years, Mr Sinha said.

Around 800 MW, out of the 2 GW, worth of bids were won during the COVID-19 period.

The RTC bid will allow RE companies to provide stable power to the grids, plugging a major challenge against coal-based power plants and other conventional energy sources.