Page 13 - AsiaElec Week 21 2021
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AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec
Keppel eyes Warburg Pincus’
stake in India’s CleanMax
INDIA SINGAPORE’S Keppel Corp. is among suitors With S$6.6bn ($4.98bn) in annual revenue,
for Warburg Pincus’s majority stake in Indian Keppel is present in businesses such as off-
rooftop solar power producer CleanMax Enviro shore and marine, energy and environment,
Energy Solutions. connectivity, urban development and asset
The proposed transaction is valued at around management.
$200mn, with Rothschild handling the sale pro- The potential deal comes against the back-
cess, Indian newswire Mint reported. drop of distributed renewable energy generation
The potential transaction could rank among attracting strong investor interest, as the market
the largest so far in India’s solar rooftop space, has few developers with large portfolios. Clean-
underscoring growing consolidation in the com- Max’s operating capacity has jumped from 24
mercial and industrial (C&I) segment. MW in 2015-16 to around 805 MW now.
Considering the regulatory risks over green CleanMax’s portfolio includes 380 MW of
energy contracts and their enforcement in sev- large-scale solar farms in Karnataka and Tamil
eral states, investors are increasingly looking at Nadu that supply electricity to corporate cus-
the C&I space, as it is generally insulated from tomers and 220 MW of solar rooftop projects.
risks such as power procurement curtailment It has also expanded its portfolio in West
and tariff-shopping by state-run distribution Asia, with a 30-MW portfolio in the United
companies (discoms). Arab Emirates, and is exploring further expan-
In July 2017, CleanMax said it had secured sion in Southeast Asia. It also got its first project
equity financing of as much as $100mn from in Thailand.
Warburg Pincus. Despite the Indian clean energy space facing
CleanMax is backed by major development headwinds, deal activity has largely remained
lenders such as the International Finance Corp. unaffected by the pandemic.
(IFC) and UK Climate Investments LLP (UKCI), A case in point is Actis LLP being close to
a joint venture between Green Investment Group buying a majority stake in 500 MW of solar
and the UK government’s department for busi- projects in India owned by Finnish state-con-
ness, energy and industrial strategy. UKCI is trolled power utility Fortum as reported by Mint
managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real earlier.
Assets.
HYDROGEN
Sinopec to expand into green hydrogen
CHINA CHINESE state-controlled oil giant Sinopec said investment of CNY2.6bn ($405.58mn).
it would launch its first green hydrogen project, The plant would be developed in two phases
involving a 270-MW solar plant and a 50-MW of 10,000 tonnes each.
wind farm, in the Inner Mongolia region in 2022. The green hydrogen produced from the plant
The company also said it will focus on fossil will be supplied to a coal chemical project run by
fuel-based hydrogen, or grey hydrogen, output Zhong Tian He Chuang Corp., a joint venture set
over the next five years and set up 1,000 hydro- up by China Coal Energy Co., Sinopec, Shenergy
gen filling stations across the country, as part of and Inner Mongolia Manshi Group.
its goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. Sinopec is also planning to build a 20,000
Sinopec currently owns an annual hydrogen tpy green hydrogen plant in Kuqa city in China’s
production capacity of 3.5mn tonnes and is the north-western region Xinjiang, powered by a
country’s largest hydrogen producer with a 14% 1,000-MW solar power station.
market share, Reuters reported. As well as Sinopec, China’s other biggest
The new green hydrogen plant is set to be NOCs – Petrochina and CNOOC – are also
located in Ordos would be able to produce looking to diversify into wind and hydrogen
20,000 tonnes per year (tpy) through a total power, Rystad Energy recently noted.
Week 21 26•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13
