Sanjeev Agarwal, Partner, Energy Infrastructure at Actis, said global private equity investor Actis is actively looking to invest in the green hydrogen segment in India.
“We are studying this area very carefully. It is an area in which we are very actively looking to invest not only in India but also in other markets,” Agarwal said.
Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using an electrolyzer. Over the past few months, several Indian companies including Reliance Industries, Renew Power, Indian Oil Corporation, Adani Group and Greenco Group have announced plans in this segment.
Actis, which last month sold its renewable energy platform Spring Energy to Shell Overseas Investment BV for Rs 11,900 crore, has also roped in Bluepin Energy Pvt Ltd, under which it will develop renewable energy projects and store assets. is targeting an investment of $800 million to $1 billion. The Spring Actis Energy 4 Fund investment was.
Aggarwal said, “Bluepine is going to be our platform through which we are going to invest around $1 billion in India. While we did not have any C&I (commercial and industrial) offtaker in Spring, at Bluepine we will do.” Actis is also looking at new technologies like round-the-clock electricity or hybrids. “We will also be looking at storage options selectively. Therefore, the generation of BluePine is going to be more technology and demand driven. The market is changing and BluePine will adapt to these market changes.”
Actis has invested $800 million in Indian renewable energy over the past seven years to build 3 GW of solar and wind capacity across platforms such as Ostro Energy and Sprung Energy. Actis sold Ostro Energy to Renew Power in 2018.
In October 2021, Actis announced its latest fund, Actis Energy 5, which closed with $6 billion of investable capital for green energy.
On the current power crisis facing India, Agarwal said that this current situation is not only in India but is a global phenomenon. It also underscores that we need to move faster towards storage. “Once storage costs come down, renewable energy can act as a baseload capacity. Work is underway on battery technology but the cost is still high. However, I think that, at least for the next For four to five years or maybe even longer, coal will continue to be a very important part of the energy mix in India.”
https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/renewable/green-hydrogen-to-be-a-focus-area-actis-pe/91485319
