AGEL to invest $5 bn on expanding RE capacity at Khavda by 2026

Adani Green Energy (AGEL) will invest around ₹41,400 crore, or roughly $5 billion, in expanding the solar and wind power capacities at its flagship renewable energy (RE) park in Gujarat by 2026.

The renewables arm of the mining-to-energy Adani Group is setting up the world’s largest RE plant with 30 gigawatt (GW) of renewables capacity by 2030 near Khavda village in Kutch district.

Earlier this month, AGEL became India’s first company in the renewables space to surpass the 10 GW mark with an operating portfolio of 10.93 GW. It aims to achieve a capacity of 45 GW by the end of this decade.

• Also read: Adani Green plans $4-4.5 billion in overseas bond issuances over 4 years

Khavda expansion

The latest expansion will increase the capacity of the Khavda project, which is spread over an area roughly the size of Mumbai or five times that of Paris, to 11 GW in the next two years from 2 GW at present.

Speaking to the media, AGEL MD Vneet Jaain said, “In FY25, we are planning to deploy 4 GW at Khavda. We have already completed 2 GW. So, we will have 6 GW by March 2025. Then every year we have a plan of setting up a minimum 5 GW.”

When asked about investments, he said the total investment in Khavda is around ₹1.5 lakh crore. Generally, as a thumb rule, solar requires around ₹4.5-4.6 crore per megawatt (MW) and wind about ₹6.5 crore.

As for financing, Jaain said the company has chalked out the entire road map.

“We have a complete programme. As in how much we will get every year through internal accruals, how much equity is required or how financial closures will happen. Then how we will go for domestic loans or how we will go for ECBs and how we will convert into bonds. So, the whole, up to next 7-8 years, up to 45 GW, which we have planned for 2030. Complete financial plan is there, year by year and quarter by quarter,” he added.

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The total investment in Khavda is around ₹1.5 lakh crore, of which the company will spend ₹26,000 crore on wind power for setting up 4 GW and ₹1.17 lakh crore will be on setting up 26 GW of solar capacities.

Based on Jaain’s break up, AGEL will require around ₹18,400 crore for setting up 4 GW solar capacity in FY24. Similarly, for FY26, the company will require another ₹23,000 crore for another 5 GW.

Assuming that the upcoming capacities till 2026 at Khavda are entirely for solar power, the minimum investment required for the expansion will be ₹41,400 crore, which amounts to $4.97 billion at today’s exchange rate.

Manufacturing push

Besides setting up renewables, the Group is also establishing a comprehensive RE manufacturing ecosystem across wind, solar, electrolyser and allied equipment at Mundra in Gujarat.

The manufacturing ecosystem push is through Adani New Industries (ANIL), which is a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises (AEL).

Jaain, who is also a Director at ANIL, said that the company will expand its manufacturing capacities till 2027.

“We are going ahead with the expansion of our manufacturing capacities. Right now, we have 1.5 GW of wind manufacturing capacity. We have started 2.5 GW additional. Solar side, we are finalising how much expansion we should go for immediately and then how much in phases.

Ultimate aim is to go for a minimum of 5 GW in wind and 10 GW for solar with a complete manufacturing ecosystem. For wind, I personally believe that we are adding 1 GW by March 2025 and maybe 2.5 GW by March 2027. For solar, we can say in 3.5 years from now. For this, over ₹30,000 crore is the investment,” he added.

(The reporter was in Ahmedabad at the invitation of Adani Green Energy)

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