A new solar and wind power-focused platform in India, backed by US$500 million in equity from multi-billion-dollar asset managers EQT and Temasek, will be led by former big names from Goldman Sachs-backed clean energy developer ReNew Power.
The EQT Infrastructure IV fund, from the European alternative asset manager, and Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek this week announced the establishment of O2 Power, which will target more than 4GW of wind and solar capacity in India. The new venture will be headquartered in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, in northern India.
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It will be led by CEO Parag Sharma, who was formerly COO at ReNew Power for seven years, overseeing the Goldman Sachs-backed firm as one of the dozen or so companies to utterly dominate large-scale Indian renewable energy deployment across wind and solar, particularly under the renewable energy pushes of Narendra Modi’s government.
Sharma commented: “We are excited about joining forces with EQT Infrastructure and Temasek. Besides capital from two of the most prominent investors in the world, we are looking forward to leverage their know-how and industry relationships to support the development of the O2 Power platform.”
He is joined at the top of 02 Power by an experienced management team consisting of Peeyush Mohit as COO, Nimish Agrwal as head of Solar and Rakesh Garg as head of Wind, all with ample experience in executing renewable energy projects in India.
“India presents significant investment opportunities being the second-largest renewable energy market in the world,” said Fabian Gröne, partner at EQT Partners and investment advisor to EQT Infrastructure. “This is not only EQT Infrastructure’s first investment in India, it is also well in line with our ambitions to contribute to a cleaner future.”
EQT has more than €62 billion in raised capital and around €41 billion in assets under management across 19 active funds, while Singapore-headquartered Temasek had a net portfolio value of around US$231 billion as of 31 March 2019.
Last December, ReNew Power signed off on a joint venture partnership with South Korea’s GS E&C to help develop a 300MW PV project in the Indian state of Rajasthan.