Renewable energy firm Hero Future Energies sets sights on green hydrogen and global expansion

Hero Future Energies, which has a portfolio of about 1.8 GW of wind and solar energy plants, intends to get into the production of green hydrogen. “We have been working on it for the last two years; we hope to start developing a project in the next few months,” Srivatsan Iyer, Global Chief Executive Officer, Hero Future Energies, told businessline recently. 

He did not disclose details of the plans but said that the “first project would probably be in an existing use case, where hydrogen is already being consumed.” 

Iyer further noted that “there are places in India where hydrogen can be produced and consumed viably,” adding that the company would first like to “get comfortable” with the technology. 

Hero Future Energies is enthused by the assurance of tenders by the government company, SECI, that ask for the supply of firm and dispatchable electricity with hydrogen as the means of backup storage. 

Deals

It is noteworthy that in July, Hero Future Energies signed MoUs with the government-owned financiers, PFC and REC, for raising ₹3,100 crore of debt from each, over the next five years. Also, in September 2022, it was agreed between the Hero Group and KKR, a leading global investment firm, that the two entities would together invest $450 million in Hero Future Energies. Earlier, IFC, the investment arm of the World Bank had taken a stake in the company. Iyer said that the Hero group would continue to hold the majority stake in the company. 

The entire stake of the Hero group is held by the two entities owned by the Munjal family, BCIPL and BMOP—the two companies together, incidentally, own 34 per cent in Hero MotoCorp, the flagship, automobile company of the group.  

• Read: Hero Future Energies raises $3 b in dollar bonds

Raising turnover

Hero Future Energies operates through three wholly-owned subsidiaries — Hero Wind Energy Pvt Ltd (HWEPL), Hero Solar Energy Pvt Ltd (HSEPL) and Hero Rooftop Energy Pvt Ltd (HREPL). In 2022-23, it achieved a turnover of ₹1,539 crore and reported a loss of ₹325 crore, compared with a turnover of ₹1,430 crore and net loss of ₹576 crore in the previous year. Iyer said that the company had set itself a target of raising its turnover five times over the next five years. This will come from operations both in India and abroad. 

In India, Hero Future would focus on the ‘commercial and industrial’ market as well as the “new age tenders”, such as for peak time power supply, round-the-clock power supply and the upcoming ‘load-following’ supply of power. Typically, a renewable energy company gets a better tariff in these markets. For example, in June, Hero Future won a 120 MW peak time power supply through a SECI tender, where it bagged the project quoting a tariff of ₹4.77 a kWhr. The project is likely to come up in Andhra Pradesh, Iyer said. 

He said that in the C&I market, a renewable energy company would get about ₹3.40-3.80 a kWhr, but the customer might pay around ₹2.50 more, depending on where the plant is located, due to open-access charges. 

Hero Future Energies is, however, also interested in putting up projects abroad. It recently received a letter of award from Bangladesh for a project which entails building an artificial water body in which fishing can be done, and a 50 MW solar plant over it. It has signed another MoU with Bangladesh to put up 100 MW of ground mounted solar plants.  

The company has a 1 MW rooftop solar plant in Vietnam and a 50 MW ground-mounted plant in Ukraine and is now keen on building solar plants in the UK. 

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