11 May 2025
Business Standard
Interviews
Green energy major ReNew is set to unveil a ~22,000 crore
renewable project at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh on Friday.
Touted as the largest renewable energy (RE) complex at a single
location in India, the facility will have a generation capacity of around 2.5
giga-watt (Gw) and will include a battery energy storage system (BESS) of 1
gigawatt hour (GWh) in two phases.
A government source said State Industries Minister Nara
Lokesh would attend the groundbreaking ceremony on May 16. The company did not
respond to questions from Business Standard.
This will be one of the first major investments in the RE
sector since the launch of Andhra Pradesh’s Integrated Clean Energy Policy in
October 2024, which fast-tracked approvals and
lined up new incentives.
The first phase of the project, with an investment of ~14,000 crore, will comprise 500 megawatt (Mw) each of solar and wind energy, along with a 1 GWh BESS. The second phase will involve an additional ~8,000 crore, including 500 Mw each of solar and wind energy.
Since the policy’s rollout, Andhra Pradesh has attracted
investment proposals worth around ~4 trillion from both domestic and international
players. “This is the largest RE project in India at a single location, over
multiple phases. This investment signifies the re-entry of RE majors to the
state after a five-year hiatus. Moreover, it is the re-entry of ReNew, which
had one of the largest capacities (777 Mw), affected by power-purchase
agreement cancellations under the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government,” said the
official said.
According to a white paper on the state’s power sector, no
renewable capacity was
added in Andhra Pradesh between 2019 and 2024. Major investments lined up since
the new government took charge include Tata Power (~49,000 crore), multiple
projects by NTPC Green (~2.08 trillion), Vedanta’s Serentica (~50,000 crore),
SAEL Industries (~6,000 crore), and Brookfield (~50,000 crore), among others.
The policy in October mainly targeted large-scale promotion of RE, pumped
storage power, green hydrogen, and its derivatives through the optimum
utilisation of available resources.
According to a Central Electricity Authority Road map, of the
500 Gw generation capacity target from non-fossil fuel resources by 2030, 86 Gw
of RE potential is in South India. Of this, around 51 Gw has been identified in
Andhra Pradesh — Anantapur (20 Gw), Kurnool (23 Gw), and Kadapa (8 Gw).
“Based on the favourable developments, ReNew is committed to
making significantly larger investments in AP and contributing to the
decarbonisation efforts by the state as well as the nation,” Sumant Sinha,
chairman and chief executive officer of ReNew, told Business Standard recently,
without divulging further details. “The state government has come out with very
progressive policies and streamlined processes to enable the development of large-scale
clean energy capacities,” he had said.
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