Page 12 - AsiaElec Week 34 2021

AsiaElec NEWS IN BRIEF AsiaElec

RENEWABLES

India’s ReNew Power

completes NASDAQ listing

Indian IPP ReNew Power has completed
its planned business merger with RMG
Acquisition Corporation (RMG II) and has
today began trading on the NASDAQ.
RMG II has become a wholly owned
subsidiary of ReNew Energy Global plc, with
the latter receiving $610mn in net proceeds
from the arrangement.
The deal has created India’s largest publicly
traded renewable energy company by total
electricity generation, ReNew said in a media
release.
Its board of directors will be comprised
of ten members. Six will be independent
directors as per the NASDAQ listing
standards and US Securities and Exchange
has long resisted large-scale development Greenpeace said. Commission rules.
in these areas to protect their landscape and Local planning agencies approved 24 new The board of directors will be led by
ecosystems. coal-fired power plants with a total capacity ReNew chairman and CEO Sumant Sinha
But with Environment Minister Shinjiro of 5.2 GW in the first six months of 2021, and will also include Robert Mancini, CEO of
Koizumi calling this year for greater Greenpeace said, Reuters reported. RMG II.
development of resources within such parks, The figure is down nearly 80% from a year “With a strong balance sheet, bolstered by
the push for geothermal energy has gained earlier, when new projects surged to help over $870mn of cash from the transaction,
momentum. The new phase of exploration China’s post-lockdown recovery, but it puts ReNew offers investors a unique way to
will stretch from Hokkaido’s ski country in the total planned capacity on China’s provincial play the continued and accelerating clean
north to Kyushu, famous for Beppu and other project lists at 104.8 GW, it said - enough to electrification trend seen across the global
hot spring resorts, in the southwest. power the whole of the United Kingdom. economy,” said Mancini.
The country aims to reduce greenhouse Earlier this month, a UN climate panel “We have the ability to do even more in
gas emissions by 46% between fiscal 2013 said global warming is dangerously close to bringing affordable, reliable, green, utility-
and fiscal 2030 on its way to achieving spiralling out of control and urged immediate, scale power supply to more people and
net-zero emissions by 2050. Energy from rapid and large-scale action to reduce businesses in India through implementation
underground heat is seen as contributing to emissions. read more of our proprietary software and AI-enabled
that goal in Japan, given its stability compared China, the world’s biggest energy consumer monitoring capabilities,” said Sinha.
with other renewable sources like solar and and source of climate-warming greenhouse ReNew has substantially bolstered its
wind. Government plans call for geothermal gas, has said it aims to bring carbon emissions portfolio this month with the acquisition of
accounting for 1% of electricity production in to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060. two operating renewable energy portfolios in
fiscal 2030. read more India – 260MW/330MWp solar projects in the
METI, which is responsible for Japan’s However, it will not start cutting coal state of Telangana and a 99MW hydropower
energy policy, will request 18.3bn yen consumption until 2026. Up to then, the facility in Uttarakhand, the company’s first
($166mn) in the fiscal 2022 budget for central government has pledged to “control” hydro asset.
exploration and development of new the number of new coal projects going into In addition, it has signed a power purchase
geothermal sources, up roughly 60% from operation. agreement (PPA) for a 400MW renewables
11bn yen allocated in 2021. “’Control’ doesn’t necessarily mean not project that will supply Round-The-Clock
approving new coal power plants, so we are (RTC) electricity supply, which the company
still seeing new approvals,” said Li Danqing, a claims is the first of its kind in India.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner in
COAL Beijing, adding that local authorities still have
the power to launch projects without Beijing’s
China’s provinces maintain authorisation. SOL AR
“The dynamic between the central and
100 GW coal plan local government is still the core problem,” Li Tata Power commissions
said. “That’s why we are advocating that the
China’s provinces are still planning to launch central government should supervise tightly 100MW solar power project
more than 100 GW of new coal-fired power and carry out specific policies to control the
capacity despite a decline in new approvals expansion of coal power capacity.” in India
in the first half of 2021, environmental group

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