States-Centre cooperation key to achieve 500GW installed RE capacity goal by 2030, says ReNew’s Sumant Sinha

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State governments with industry and the Union government acting in concert would be the key determinant for achieving 500 GW of installed non-fossil fuel power generation capacity by 2030, Sumant Sinha, chairman and CEO of ReNew Energy Global, told Moneycontrol in an interview.

As a step towards meeting India’s ambitious target of having 50 percent of its electric power capacity coming from renewable energy sources, the state governments on September 16 submitted Shapat Patras (or pledges) to the Union government, listing their respective renewable energy capacity addition ambitions.

“States are a big part of achieving this target. The participation of states is very important because most of the execution is happening there,” said Sinha.

“A lot of people are getting involved in the process. The central government, states, developers, bankers, agencies within the government. All of them have to work very closely with each other. Collaboration between all of us has to be very strong for us to be able to meet this target,” he added.

At the Fourth Global Renewable Energy Investors Meet and Expo (RE-INVEST), states and Union territories (UTs) pledged respective renewable energy capacity targets. Gujarat pledged additional renewable energy capacity addition of 128.60 GW by 2030, the highest among all states. Andhra Pradesh committed to adding 72.60 GW of capacity followed by Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with 62.73 GW, 57.71 GW and 47.63 GW, respectively.

Developers too were part of it. ReNew committed to adding 40,000 MW of additional renewable capacity while Reliance Industries, NTPC and Adani Group pledged 1,00,000 MW, 41,300 MW and 38,800 MW, respectively. On their part, banks and financial institutions committed to augment financing by $386 billion, or Rs 32.45 lakh crore, by 2030 for the development of such projects.

Growth plans

Nasdaq-listed ReNew plans to expand its portfolio, adding 1.9-2.4 GW capacity in the current financial year, said Sinha. The company aims to grow its solar manufacturing and green hydrogen business as well, he added.

“For this year, we will add between 1.9 GW and 2.4 GW of total green capacity. In addition to that, we have 10GW of commissioned capacity and another 6 GW of PPAs (power purchase agreements) have been signed. There is another 6 GW of bids that we have won, we are waiting for PPAs to be get signed; this will get executed later,” said Sinha.

He added that the company has commissioned a solar cell and module manufacturing plant and is also looking at customers for green hydrogen. The renewable energy company has commissioned two module manufacturing plants in Rajasthan and Gujarat, with a total capacity of 6.4 GW.

ReNew is also looking at options to raise funds for its solar manufacturing business. “We have an active asset recycling programme and as part of that we look to sell assets and if it fetches good value, then we have to sell it,” said Sinha, regarding raising funds for the solar business.

ReNew is currently one of the largest renewable energy companies in India with an almost 10 percent market share.