New Delhi: Attracted by the opportunities in India’s solar energy space, Finland’s Taaleri Plc is evaluating assets for acquisition here. This interest by the Nasdaq Helsinki-listed firm is reflective of the trend wherein overseas firms have led the race on aggressive tariffs to secure renewable energy project contracts in India. Taaleri Solar Wind fund is Finland’s first equity fund to invest in overseas green energy assets. Taaleri’s India playbook follows the investment thesis adopted by other overseas investors such as France’s Engie and Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp. It is the lower cost of foreign capital and the size of the Indian solar power generation market that has helped script India’s solar story. “Taaleri Plc is actively looking for acquiring solar power projects in India,” said a person aware of the firm’s India strategy, requesting anonymity. Another person, who also didn’t wish to be identified, confirmed the development.
The interest in the renewable energy space also seems to be buoyed by federal policy think-tank Niti Aayog’s projections of a 597-710 gigawatt (GW) capacity by 2040 in its new draft energy policy. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has set up an ambitious clean energy target of 175GW by 2022. Of this, 100GW is to be generated by solar projects and 60GW by wind projects. India’s scale of green energy play caught Taaleri’s attention. “The fact that renewable energy has become competitive when compared with conventional forms of energy production will for its part allow adherence to the commitments of the Paris agreement. That is why the production capacity of both solar and wind power is expected to grow phenomenally by the end of 2020. India, for example, has set a target to build 100 GW of new solar energy production capacity by the end of 2022,” according to information available on Taaleri’s website. Taaleri, whose operations are supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority, has three lines of businesses—wealth management, financing, and energy.
Queries emailed to Taaleri Plc spokesperson on Tuesday remained unanswered. India will require overseas investors to help reach its energy goals given the investment requirement of $3.6 trillion between 2015 and 2040, according to the International Energy Agency. These investors are queuing up in the backdrop of record solar power tariffs of Rs2.44 per unit. In one of the largest overseas investments in the Indian rooftop solar space, Warburg Pincus Llc will invest up to $100 million in CleanMax Solar, the on-site rooftop solar power developer said in a statement on Thursday. Mint reported on Wednesday about Engie being in talks with Singapore-based renewable energy developer Equis Energy to acquire projects from its India portfolio. Also, Moscow-based Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp., through its unit JSC OTEK, plans to acquire wind energy projects in India.
Source:LiveMint
