Focusing on data centres, backward integration in solar supply chain: Sinha

Sinha also said the company will seriously consider entering the nuclear energy sector in future once more clarity is achieved on specific areas

Renewable energy (RE) company ReNew will focus on capturing the huge business opportunities presented by the growth of data centre demand in India, apart from further integrating backward into the solar power supply chain, Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sumant Sinha said on Wednesday. He also said the company will seriously consider entering the nuclear energy sector in future, once more clarity is achieved on specific areas.

 

Speaking at Manthan 2026, a flagship event initiative of Business Standard here, Sinha said three factors are currently driving investors' optimism in the Indian renewable energy space — a receptive government, focus of policy planners on grid management, and the trend of large corporates increasingly supporting clean energy capacity creation.

 

"Many more and large corporates are today executing capacity and a lot more people are raising capital. That momentum is definitely showing up on the financing side too. The country executed 18 gigawatt (Gw) of new renewable energy capacity two years ago. Last year (2024), that number went up to 25-30 Gw, and in 2025, that number stood at 50 Gw. That means we are actually scaling up very rapidly now, and we are likely to start going further at the rate of 60-65 Gw from this point on," Sinha said.

 

He said data centre is definitely going to be a very exciting opportunity for the company to look at because of India's advantage of a single national grid, and a vibrant and large-sized domestic IPP (independent power producer) industry. "This opportunity can help India become an exporter of energy as it moves forward. We are now seeing a lot more conversations happening on setting up large data centres. For us, the least that we will do is to be a clean power supplier to these data centres, and for data centres, it will be much cheaper to buy power from us, rather than buying from discoms. In addition, we will see what other kinds of partnership opportunities are there," Sinha said.

 

When it comes to forward integration, ReNew will also look at business opportunities in areas like Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia, apart from data centres. "Apart from our core IPP business, where we build and operate wind farms, solar farms, and battery systems, and round-the-clock power solutions, we are also present in solar panel and solar cell manufacturing. We are also going to backward integrate into wafers, ingots, and, depending on government policy, perhaps into polysilicon as well. So, that is something we are looking at," he said.

 

“Nuclear is coming up in a big way in 5-7 years from now. We see ourselves as a supplier of clean energy to India, and we will be doing whatever works within that framework,” he said.

 

Sinha also suggested that the government look at tweaking the design of production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for solar modules. He said the PLI benefit given to manufacturers as a cost-reduction was too small to actually help them. Sinha said the industry is currently discussing the issues with the ministry to make the scheme more efficient.

 

He also said a host of reform initiatives have pushed the domestic renewable energy industry forward. Alluding to India’s path of electrification through clean energy, Sinha said the country’s move towards electricity is much more advanced than most other countries, which have gone through the same development paradigm. This is because India is electrifying its energy system relatively faster at a low per capita income level, leading to lower emissions per capita.

 

Sinha also said that India' renewable energy capacity is set to rise to 3,000 Gw by 2050, and 6,000 Gw by 2070, from around 140 Gw of renewable energy contributed by technologies like solar and wind, based on the assumption that energy demand is growing at 4 per cent. "Today, the country has more than 500 Gw of power capacity from all sources. We have to also achieve the target of 500 Gw capacity based on non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. So, when we add 3,000 Gw of renewables by 2050, that would be more than five times of what is our total capacity today. That is the scale of capacity we have to set up from renewables in the next 25 years," he said.

 

Commenting on the future of carbon market in India, Sinha said the country's carbon market is an industry on its own but requires clearer guidelines for development. "The onus on industries that need to decarbonise must be made clear. Once that happens, the carbon credit market in India can start. But the true value of the carbon market will come if we can link ourselves more closely to overseas carbon markets, like the Japanese or the European Union (EU) markets. Dialogue is ongoing with those countries and once that happens, there will be many more projects in India focused on qualifying for carbon markets in other parts of the world," Sinha said.