Japanese Jera Invests $200mn in Renewables

Japanese Jera has bought a 10% stake worth $200mn in Indian renewable energy firm ReNew Power Ventures, the Indian firm said February 14. Following the company’s founding six years ago, this latest investment round now values ReNew Power at $2bn.

ReNew Power has a commissioned capacity of 1.5 GW with an additional 1.8 GW of assets under construction across India. According to the company, in April 2016, it became the first company in India to achieve 1 GW of commissioned wind and solar energy capacity. Demand for power in India is growing fast as economic expansion gathers pace. The Indian government has set a target of introducing 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind power generation by 2022.

Jera in a separate statement said as a ReNew shareholder, it will seek to contribute to ReNew by making available technical, operational, project development, and management experience gained in the global power business.

“This is Jera’s first major transaction in the renewable energy space, and signifies the importance to Jera of developing a balanced overseas power generation portfolio that includes renewable energy. Adding to its renewable energy portfolio is an integral part of Jera’s plans to secure sustainable growth,” the company said.

Jera is a 50-50 supply and trading joint venture of Tokyo Electric and Chubu Electric, originally devised around optimising their LNG purchase and trading operations. It also has a major presence in the coal market, following a deal with EDF late last year and due to complete in April.

Shardul Sharma