Mahindra's renewable energy arm aims to be $1 billion entity

Mahindra Susten expects to have 350 MW of EPC installations by the end of the year

Mahindra Group's renewable energy arm aims to become a $1 billion entity in next two to three years with one gigawatt (GW) of owned solar energy capacity along with another 3 GW of third party projects.

Mahindra Susten, which expects to have 350 MW of EPC installations by the end of the year is looking to scale up its own solar energy capacity from the current level of 80 MW.

The company, which is a portfolio of Mahindra Partners, the private equity arm of the Group, is looking at consolidating its solar energy base in states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.

"We started off by winning a project of 5 MW and in last three to four years we have progressed. Our expectation is to have 350 MW of EPC and another 80 MW of our own assets by the end of the year," Mahindra Partners Managing Partner Parag Shah told PTI here.

Elaborating on the road ahead, he said: "We are now looking at owning assets on our own and to have a total of 1 GW capacity in next two to three years," he added.

This, Shah said, "would allow us to have EPC size of 2-3 GW considering the capacity that our team would have."

On the revenue side, he said: "Currently we are at the $150-200 million level and our target is for the renewable energy arm of the group to become a $1 billion entity in the next two to three years."

On the investment front, Shah said: "The total size of the project we are talking is about Rs 4,500 crore and usually in this kind of business, 80 per cent is debt and 20 per cent if equity. So from the Mahindra Group we are looking at about Rs 1,200 crore equity infusion."

Mahindra Susten CEO Basant Jain said the company has also been focussing on enhancing its R&D activities and focus on innovations for distributed solar products, micro-grids and hybrid products in order to tap rural areas where availability of power is a big issue.

"Solar rooftops, diesel genset solar hybrids, telecom tower solutions are areas we have been working on for places where there is no electricity available," he said.

Mahindra Susten will look to synergies from group firms like Mahindra Finance and the reach of the farm equipment division in rural areas in order to expand its business, he added.