After real estate, Ajay Piramal has turned his focus on to renewable energy. On Tuesday, Piramal Enterprises Ltd (PEL) said it will, in collaboration with Netherlands-based APG Asset Management, invest ₹900 crore ($132 million) in Subhash Chandra’s Essel Green Energy Private Ltd.
Essel Green Energy currently owns 160 MW of independent solar power projects in four States, of which 110 MW is operational and 50 MW is currently under execution. The company plans to ramp up its solar power capacity to 1,000 MW in the next 2-3 years.
Essel Green had recently installed a 50-MW solar project in Uttar Pradesh. The Centre has set a target of installing 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity and 60 GW of wind power capacity by 2022.
Jayesh Desai, Co-head, Structured Investments Group, Piramal Enterprises Ltd, said: “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.” Piramal and APG had in 2014 formed an alliance under which they plan to invest $1 billion in infrastructure firms.
APG represents over 30 per cent of all collective pension schemes in the Netherlands and managed pension assets of more than €400 billion as of January.
“We view India as an attractive renewable energy market with favourable growth dynamics,” said Hans-Martin Aerts, Head of Infrastructure Investments, Asia Pacific, at APG.
Over the last one year a number of national and international firms have announced investments in the renewable energy sector, including, SunEdison, SoftBank and Enel.