While rankings are not sanctimonious, they do offer a great degree of truth. The World Economic Forum (WEF), in its latest report released two weeks ago, has placed India at the 87th position among 115 countries in the Energy Transition Index (ETI). 

In a country as vast as India, transitions can be painstakingly slow. But the Gujarat-based Adani Group has been taking some quantum leaps in its vision to drive clean energy transitions.  Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), a business unit of the Adani Group, recently acquired 100% interest in SB Energy India for a fully completed EV of USD 3.5 billion. 

For a company founded just over 5 years ago, it already has many milestones to its name. For instance, AGEL owns and operates the world’s largest single-location solar photovoltaic park – Kamuthi Solar Power Project (648 MW) in Tamil Nadu. In 2020, Mercom International, a US-based think tank, ranked the Adani Group as the number 1 global solar power generation asset owner.

Paradigm shift

India is the fourth-largest solar power producer in the world. 

The World Economic Forum estimates that by shifting towards renewables, the country can save over $90 billion in imports between 2021 and 2030. India made a commitment at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris that it would lead the Climate Change revolution and today, it is the leader among all the eight nations on track to meet their COP21 commitments.

A public-private affair

Gujarat’s Electricity Sector Transformation – a report, highlighted Gujarat as one of the leading models for India’s electricity transition.

Tenders related to solar power projects released in Gujarat have seen a host of Power sector producing companies like JSW, the Adani Group, Torrent Power, betting big on the opportunity.

The state’s installed capacity of renewable energy is expected to top the 12,000-Megawatt mark, as per Financial Express December, 2020 report. This has been made possible due to the constant propelling from the state government for the development of solar power project with special emphasis on the solar rooftop power. 

Gujarat has been the pacesetter in developing rooftop solar power panels, playing a key role in the establishment of 880 MW of rooftop solar energy during the pandemic. The state has a major share of 360 megawatt in the country’s rooftop solar addition. 

Private Power enterprises like Adani of Gujarat, Tata Power, SNJV, Madhav Infra, Sunkon and many more are looking at expanding their renewable energy footprint in the country as well as globally.

The group, rooted in Gujarat, has been rapidly investing in the sector & Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) has one of the largest global renewable portfolios of over 15 GW (giga-watts) of functional, under-construction and acquired renewable energy projects.

According to Adani Green Energy, the acquisition of SB Energy’s renewable portfolio of 4,954 MW – spread across 4 states, makes this transaction the largest acquisition in India’s green energy sector. SB Energy India is a joint venture between SoftBank Group Corp based in Japan, with a hold of 80% stake, and Bharti Group with 20% stake. 

With this acquisition, Adani Green Energy Ltd will have a total renewable capacity of 24.3 GW and an operating RE generation capacity of 4.9 GW, as per the company statement.

It added that the acquisition is a demonstration of the group’s intent to be a leading enterprise in the global transition to sustainable energy & makes AGEL one of the largest renewable energy ventures in the world. 

Discussing about the agreement, Gautam Adani, chairman of Gujarat-based Adani Group, said,“This acquisition is another step towards the vision we stated in January 2020, wherein we laid out our plans to become the world’s largest solar player by 2025 and thereafter the world’s largest renewable company by 2030.”

“The renewable energy platform that we are building will lay the foundation for attracting several other global industries that are increasingly looking to reduce their carbon footprint (as well as lay the foundation for opening up adjacent platforms that include Hydrogen and Storage). We are well on our way to achieve our stated solar portfolio targets four years before the deadline we set for ourselves,” he added. 

In January 2021, France’s Total announced a 20 percent minority stake acquisition in AGEL, along with a 50% stake in 2.35 GW ac portfolio that operates solar assets, for a total of $2.5 billion.

Last year in May, Adani Green Energy won the world’s largest solar bid from SECI, worth $6 billion. The agreement entailed building 8 GW of solar photovoltaic projects with a promise to set up additional 2 GW of domestic solar cell and module manufacturing capacity. 

Mercom Capital Group placed Adani at the number 1 spot for the top 10 global large-scale solar PV developers list. As of 2019, Adani’s solar energy portfolio exceeded the United States’ entire industry’s total installed capacity. If this pace is maintained, the company will likely displace 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide over the life of its assets. 

In late 2019, AGEL became the first Indian company to offer investment-grade US dollar Green Bonds, worth US$ 362.5 million, to foreign investors.

The company’s goal to commission twenty-five giga-watts by the year 2025 appears to be right on track. 

India’s power generation capacity addition in FY 2020-21 was 12.1 GW out of which, 7.7 GW came from renewable energy. From the total 7.7 GW of renewable energy capacity, 71% (5.5 GW) was acquired from solar (rooftop & grid-scale) energy sources alone.