Andhra seals $12 bn Brookfield investment deal for green energy projects

Leading global investment firm Brookfield on Friday evening signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Andhra Pradesh, lining up investments to the tune of around $12 billion in multiple green energy projects across the state.

 

“This includes a clean energy-powered 3 GW data centre and additional clean energy projects across the state. Brookfield will also explore opportunities in module manufacturing and its supply chain, green molecules, hospitality, global capability centres, commercial real estate, infrastructure, ports, mobility, logistics hubs and industrial townships,” Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu posted on the X platform, after signing the deal late in the day. The deal was signed as part of the ongoing CII Partnership Summit held in Visakhapatnam.

 

Brookfield is one of the world’s largest investors in renewable power, with about 46 gigawatt (GW) of installed capacity and a development pipeline of approximately 200 GW. “I am delighted by their plans for Andhra Pradesh and assure them that the government will provide the speed of doing business needed to turn their vision into reality,” Naidu added.

 

In September this year, Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Minister Nara Lokesh had visited the London office of the global private equity fund with over $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM) to meet its president Connor Teskey to discuss further investments in the state. The aggressive renewable plans come as Lokesh also pitched for further investments in various sectors, including AI-ready data centres and real estate in the state.

 

The Brookfield deal is one of the largest investments lined up in the state in recent times, after Google’s $15 billion investment plans over the next five years in setting up an AI hub, which will include the country’s largest data centre in partnership with Adani Group. This AI hub will be Google’s largest outside the US and will include a 1 GW data centre campus. On Friday, Adani Group said that it has plans to invest around Rs 1 trillion in the state over the next ten years, spread across multiple sectors. 

 

On Thursday, ReNew Energy Global Plc (ReNew), a leading decarbonisation solutions company, announced that it will invest Rs 60,000 crore ($6.7 billion) in Andhra Pradesh to set up multiple green energy projects in the state, taking its total fresh investment in the state to Rs 82,000 crore ($9.3 billion).

 

Early this month, state-owned non-banking finance firm REC Ltd sanctioned Rs 7,500 crore funding for a Brookfield-owned project in Andhra Pradesh. This is considered the single largest sanction by REC for a private project.

 

Evren, a clean energy platform launched by Brookfield in India as a joint venture with Axis Energy, is developing this hybrid project of 1.04 gigawatt at Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh at an investment of Rs 9,910 crore, out of which REC will be providing Rs 7,500 crore. Brookfield owns 51.49 per cent of Evren, which has lined up over 3 GW of projects in Andhra Pradesh, spread across Kurnool and Anantapur.

 

Out of the total 1,040 MW project, 640 MW will be wind and 400 MW solar. Evren is planning around 11 GW of projects nationally, out of which over 3 GW worth around Rs 50,000 crore will be in Kurnool and Anantapur. This 3 GW project is the first phase of the company’s plans in Andhra Pradesh. Out of the total 11 GW, around 9 GW will be coming up in Andhra Pradesh.

 

Other major green energy investments in recent years include Tata Power (Rs 6,000 crore), NTPC Green (Rs 2.08 trillion), Vedanta’s Serentica (Rs 50,000 crore) and SAEL Industries (Rs 6,000 crore), among others.