Piramal, APG to invest USD 132 million in Essel Infra’s Solar IPP venture

Piramal Enterprises and Dutch pension fund asset manager APG Asset Management will invest USD 132 million to power the Essel Infrastructure’s Solar IPP platform across India.

Piramal Enterprises Limited will make the investment in Essel Green Energy, the solar arm of Essel Infraprojects Ltd through its Structured Investment Group.

Essel Green Energy Private Ltd currently owns 160 MWs of Solar IPP assets in 4 states of India, of which, 110 MW is operational and 50 MW is currently under execution. This investment will help Essel Group l propel its solar power agenda across India. Essel Infraprojects plans to ramp up its solar power capacity to 1,000 MW in the next 2-3 years.

“The strategic alliance formed in 2014 between PEL and APG committed US$1 Billion for investments in infrastructure companies and we see great potential in green energy as a segment. Given the Government’s focus on non-conventional energy and Essel Infra’s strong track-record, we are confident that the investment will yield good results,” said Jayesh Desai, Co-head, Structured Investments Group- Piramal Enterprises Ltd.

 Essel Infraprojects Limited CEO & Whole Time Director, Ashok Agarwal, said he is excited at the expansion opportunity this investment represents. “Essel Group has ambitious plans to expand its foot-print in the Green Energy field. With the impetus provided by the Central Government to solar energy we are upbeat about the outlook for the industry. APG and Piramal Enterprise’s trust in us, demonstrated through this investment makes us even more confident of powering the development agenda of an India on the move.”

The investment from Piramal, APG comes at a time when the government has set goal to increase its solar installations from below 5GW now to 100GW by 2022. The county currently has electricity grid capacity of less than 300 gigawatts.

Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi has championed solar power and helped launch a global solar alliance at the Paris climate summit to mobilize an attention-grabbing $1tn of funds worldwide by 2030.