Investment groups EQT and Temasek have linked to form O2 Power, which will target a 4GW presence in Indian renewables.
The new venture based in Guragon “will focus on developing utility scale renewable projects across solar, wind, and hybrid with good quality off-takers via both Greenfield project development and M&A”, said a statement announcing the launch.
The new renewables group will be led by CEO Parag Sharma, previously chief operating officer at leading Indian wind and solar developer ReNew Power, with fellow senior executives Peeyush Mohit as COO, Nimish Agrwal as head, solar and Rakesh Garg as head, wind. India’s Economic Times reported last year that a group of executives was planning to leave Goldman Sachs-backed ReNew Power to lead a new venture.
The team all have “strong local knowledge and proven track records of executing renewable energy projects in India”, said the statement.
Sharma said: “Besides capital from two of the most prominent investors in the world, we are looking forward to leverage their know-how and industry relationships to support the development of the O2 Power platform.”
EQT and Temasek, based in Stockholm and Singapore respectively, said O2 Power would give them a route into the Indian renewable energy sector that’s set to be the world’s second largest.
Funding for the venture was not disclosed but is reported to be an initial $500m.
The partners are the latest overseas investors attracted by India’s ambitious renewable energy targets, with 60GW of wind and 100GW of solar planned by 2022 and exponential growth beyond that.
However, the country has faced major hurdles on its path to those goals due to factors as diverse as financially distressed state power offtakers, land availability and a messy shift from a tariff-based to competitive development sector.
Those challenges were apparent as the Indian government announced it added just 2GW of new wind power last year to take the total to 37GW, leaving many analysts skeptical over its ability to hit the 60GW goal.
