Spain's Zelestra plans $5 bn investment to set up 10 GW green power capacity
New Delhi: Spain’s Zelestra plans to invest $5 billion in India to build 10GW of wind and solar power capacity by the end of the decade, a top executive said, doubling its previous target of achieving 5GW by 2026. The company, backed by private equity firm EQT, may also enter India’s lucrative commercial and industrial sector as part of the expanded plan, chief executive officer Leo Moreno said in an interview. Typically, renewable energy projects raise 30% equity and 70% project finance, but given the strong backing from EQT, Zelestra won’t need to raise any external equity, Moreno said.
“We put our own equity to do all the development, and we invest our own equity when we build the projects. So, that creates an advantage for us in terms of the cycle and how much we can spend early to build," he said. Zelestra will look to achieve an equal mix of solar and wind projects in India in the long run, Moreno said.
Solar and wind combined, the cost of setting up these projects would be $550,000 per megawatt. The company is dreaming bigger for India at a time when the country is eyeing 500GW of renewable power capacity by 2030. The green transition is also aided by several schemes and regulations such as green open access norms, schemes for solar parks and rooftop solar and production-linked incentive programmes for solar modules and viability gap funding for battery energy storage systems.
Moreno said about 5GW capacity is already in the pipeline. This includes operational capacity 140MW and another 450MW under construction in Rajasthan, while power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been signed for another 450MW and construction for that capacity would start soon. Recently, it signed a 25-year PPA for the 450 MW solar project in
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