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Utpal Bhaskar

Malaysia’s Petronas eyes green energy projects in India

Petronas has set up a unit, Gentari, to speed up clean energy adoption.

According to the plan being discussed, Petronas may buy 49% stake from ReNew at the project level, the people said, seeking anonymity.

In June, Petronas set up a unit, Gentari Sdn Bhd, to accelerate the adoption of clean energy and build a renewable energy capacity of 40GW, supplying 1.2 mtpa of green hydrogen and setting up electric vehicle (EV) charging points across the Asia Pacific, with a focus on Malaysia and India.

The Malaysian company’s interest comes amid the Indian government introducing amendments to the Energy Conservation Act in Parliament to put in place enabling provisions to make the use of clean energy, including green hydrogen, mandatory and institute a regulatory framework for carbon trading.

“Petronas, through Gentari, will focus on three major verticals in India—EV, green hydrogen and renewables," said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity.

In April, Nasdaq-listed ReNew announced a similar agreement with Mitsui and Co. Ltd, with the Japanese company picking up a 49% stake in ReNew’s 1.3GW round-the-clock (RTC) project comprising three wind farms and one solar plus battery storage farm being built in Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.

Petronas’s first investment in India’s green energy space was in 2019 when it acquired Amplus Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd, one of India’s largest rooftop solar power producers.

Petronas recently signed agreements with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to invest around 60,000 crore to set up green hydrogen and ammonia plants.

While queries emailed to a Petronas spokesperson on Friday remained unanswered, a ReNew Power spokesperson declined to comment.

Last year, ReNew Power merged with NASDAQ-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) RMG Acquisition Corp. II (RMG II) to form ReNew Energy Global Plc.

Global oil companies such as French energy giant Total and Thailand’s PTT Group have already established a significant presence in India’s green energy sector as the conventional hydrocarbon space undergoes disruptions.

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Italy’s Eni SpA, Norway’s Statoil ASA and Russia’s Rosneft are also looking at opportunities here, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc interested in investing $500 million in the state-run Convergence Energy Services Ltd’s decentralized solar business.

ReNew has a total portfolio of 12.8GW, of around 8GW is operational. As part of its growth strategy, the firm founded by Sumant Sinha has joined hands with AES and Siemens-backed Fluence to form an equal venture for the energy storage business in India. ReNew has also partnered with state-run Indian Oil Corp. Ltd and Larsen and Toubro to form a tripartite venture for the green hydrogen sector in India. ReNew also plans to build a green hydrogen manufacturing facility in Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Recently, ReNew said it plans to invest 1 trillion in total in both Maharashtra and Karnataka in green energy projects.

Global investors have been eyeing India’s power sector, which witnessed electricity demand picking up after a dip during the second covid-19 wave. Also, the government is preparing an ambitious plan for the power sector as part of its Vision 2047 to meet the country’s enhanced energy demand to drive economic growth while ensuring access to cost-competitive, reliable and clean electricity, as reported by Mint.

Elsewhere in Mint

In Opinion, Manu Joseph replies to free-speech warriors. Mythili Bhusnurmath says MPC is out on a wing and a prayer. Long Story has a cheeky take on the jargon of stock market.

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