BII, CIP launch $300 million platform to support India's energy transition

British International Investment and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners have launched a $300 million renewable energy platform focused on India's clean energy transition

British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, and Danish global fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), through its Growth Markets Fund II (GMF II), on Monday announced the launch of North Star, a $300 million renewable energy platform in India.

 

The platform will support the country’s clean energy transition as it is designed to address the funding gap required to build and scale renewable projects in India and crowd in additional private capital. BII and CIP have each committed investments of up to $150 million.

 

“North Star will invest across solar, wind, and hybrid renewable energy, as well as storage projects, which are expected to generate more than 4 million MWh of clean energy annually and avoid about 4 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year,” BII said in a statement. 

 

This is the first investment made through British Climate Partners (BCP), a £1.1 billion climate finance initiative launched by BII last month as part of its new five-year strategy. “BCP is about mobilising institutional capital at scale to accelerate the energy transition in developing Asian economies, including India, where the need and opportunity are greatest,” said Rohit Anand, MD and Head of Asia Infrastructure, BII.

 

BCP is designed to mobilise large-scale institutional capital into climate solutions across fast-growing and coal-dependent economies in Asia, including India, as well as the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other South-East Asian countries.

 

India has set a target of 500 gigawatt of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2070, but it faces a significant climate financing gap of at least $160 billion a year until 2030. This combination of scale, ambition, and unmet financing needs led to India being selected as the first investment market under BCP.