Published on June 25th, 2015 |
by Smiti Mittal
The Indian government’s ambitious plans to significantly boost the installed renewable energy capacity over the next 7 years has received a major boost, with leading international and Indian companies coming together to pledge investment worth billions of dollars.
Japan’s multinational telecommunication giant SoftBank, Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing company Foxconn, and Indian business conglomerate Bharti Enterprises, have announced a three-way joint venture to invest $20 billion to set up solar power projects in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
This capacity implementation pledge is in addition to the 272 GW renewable energy capacity addition commitment made by foreign and Indian companies during an investors summit organised by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy in February of this year.
The solar power projects shall be executed through SBG Cleantech, a joint venture company in which the majority stake would be held by SoftBank, with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn as the minority stakeholders.
During a press meet on the issue, Softbank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said that the joint venture company will execute at least 20 GW capacity in India’s solar power market. The company will work with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up the solar power projects.
Earlier this year the state government has announced a fresh solar power policy with a target to add at least 5 GW capacity over a period of 5 years. The Andhra Pradesh government has already initiated auctions for solar power projects under the state policy, while the Solar Energy Corporation of India and NTPC Limited have already started the tendering process for large-scale solar power parks in the state.
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Tags: Andhra Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh Solar Power Policy, Bharti Enterprises Solar Power, Foxconn India, Foxconn Solar Power, India, India Solar Power, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, SoftBank Solar Power
Smiti Mittal works as a senior solar engineer at Mott MacDonald, a reputed engineering and management consultancy. She has conducted due diligence of several solar PV projects in India and Southeast Asia. She has keen interest in renewable energy, green buildings, environmental sustainability, and biofuels. She currently resides in New Delhi, India.