The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced that it will invest up to $125 million in Hero Future Energies, the renewable energy venture of Hero Group.

Hero Future Energies, currently established in nearly 10 States, is developing a 150-megawatt wind power asset and about 90-megawatt in solar power asset.

BTVI spoke to Sunil Jain, CEO and Executive Director, Hero Future Energies. Excerpts:

Can you eloborate on the the proposed investment?

We are running a process for raising equity and nothing is clear right now. IFC, as a part of its internal process, has to disclose any intentions of investments in any company.

And therefore it had disclosed in its website that an amount up to $125 million could be invested in Hero Future Energies.

So I would not say that there is a deal today, but I would say it is part of the process.

There is no number attached right now. I think this will get more clear by the end of October or early November.

It is up to us to decide what we want to take.IFC is one of the runners in the process.

Because of the IFC’s guidelines for its disclosures, it had mentioned that on its website. Being a multilateral financing agency of the US government, it has to do that.

Can you share some details on your project pipeline?

We have 1.4 gigawatt of projects in the pipeline.

We have won some extra solar projects under the Central government’s tenders.

So by March-April 2017, we will become a 1-gigawatt company.

Not exactly 1 gigawatt, but it is going to be around 965 megawatts.

These projects are under commissioning, both solar and wind.

So by the end of this financial year, we will have almost 550 megawatts of wind and 450 megawatts of solar.And in 2017-18 we plan to do another 400-500 megawatts ,which will take us to 1.5 gigawatts by March 2018.

We have another slightly under-developed pipeline which is also around 500 megawatts, which will be developed through 2017-18 to be commissioned in 2018-19. So we hope to become a 2-gigawatt company by 2019 or the middle of 2019-20.

Let’s also speak about the order Gamesa won from you.

It has won two orders from you in a period of one year...

So how is that going on?

We commissioned the first 100-megawatt self-developed project in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.

And with the cooperation of the Madhya Pradesh government, we probably commissioned the project well ahead of the time.

We value the relationship with Gamesa.

Since the relationship was very conductive and we were very happy with the way things were delivered in the project, we continued that relationship for another two projects of 170 megawatts in totality.

Of this, 120 megawatt is self-developed in Andhra Pradesh for which PTA (Preferential Trade Agreement) has already been signed and we hope to commission that project by March 2017.

A 50 megawatts project is in Karnataka where we hope to sell the energy to the consumers in Karnataka who are keen on buying green energy at a competitive pricing.

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