BP has invested US$70 million in a green growth fund launched by EverSource Capital, an India-focused fund manager co-founded by BP-backed solar firm Lightsource BP.
The investment will be made into EverSource’s Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF) and used to support the fund’s bid to scale up commercially viable, low carbon energy solutions throughout India.
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GGEF has a target of raising US$700 million, just under half which is made up of anchor investments from India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund and the UK government’s Department for International Development. Finance raised is then used to invest in operating companies in the renewable energy, energy storage, e-mobility and energy efficiency sectors, amongst others.
To date, two of its main investments have been heavily renewables and solar-focused. Ayana Renewable Power, which has a target of deploying 6GW of utility-scale renewables by 2025, is joined by Radiance Renewables, a provider of residential and C&I-scale renewables, which aims to have an operating portfolio of 1.5GW within four years.
EverSource Capital was founded in 2018 as a 50:50 joint venture between Lightsource BP and India and South East Asia-focused investor Everstone Group.
Dhanpal Jhaveri, chief executive at EverSource Capital, said BP’s global expertise in low carbon energy value chains would be an added benefit towards realising its targets.
Dev Sanyal, executive vice president for gas and low carbon energy at BP, said BP was committed to “reimagining energy in India”.
“Our investment in GGEF is aligned with our strategy of investing in integrated low carbon energy using innovative partnerships and business models. It provides a unique platform for bp to accelerate its ambition in India and to co-invest in a variety of zero and low carbon energy solutions in the country,” he said.
Sashi Mukundan, president at BP India, meanwhile specifically namechecked solar power as an area of activity, stressing that the company’s investment in GGEF is aimed to “rapidly scale-up commercially viable low carbon solutions” while describing the portfolio and scale of investments GGEF has made so far as “extraordinary”.
News of the investment comes just days after it was confirmed that BP had also entered into a partnership with JinkoPower, the project development arm of ‘Solar Module Super League’ leader JinkoSolar, to target China’s C&I solar market.