Adani group wins the world’s largest solar energy tender of Rs 45,000 crore

Adani Green Energy, the renewable energy arm of Adani Group, has bagged “the world’s largest solar tender” from the Union government to construct an 8-gigawatt photovoltaic power plant. They are also planning to set up a 2-Gw solar cell and module manufacturing capacity in five years. This would entail an investment of Rs 45,000 crore at a time.

Adani Green Energy is now the largest renewable power generator in the country with 15 Gw of renewable capacity under various stages of development. ReNew Power with an 8.5-Gw capacity and Azure Power with a 6.5-Gw capacity occupy second and third positions respectively. Adani Green Energy has 2.5 Gw of operational and 3.5 Gw of under-construction solar and wind power capacity in the country.  It also has 1.3 Gw of solar cells and modules manufacturing capacity.

According to Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group, “The fact that renewable power will transition into becoming the world’s cleanest and most economical fuel is a foregone conclusion, and Adani Group intends to play a leading role in this journey”.

However recently Moody’s Investor Services had downgraded the rating of Adani Green Energy. “The downgrade of Adani Green Energy Restricted Group’s ratings reflects the group’s dependence on sovereign-owned entities, such as SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India), for more than 70 per cent of the offtake from its power projects. As a result, the ratings are constrained by the weakening credit profiles of the group’s off-takers,” Moody’s said.

Adani Green won the project in November last year when the Centre had awarded a tender for power-project linked solar manufacturing. Bids for 2 Gw of solar manufacturing and 6 Gw of linked solar power plants had been invited by SECI. Adani Green had submitted a bid for 1-Gw solar cell manufacturing and 4-Gw solar power plants. There was a greenshoe option for the bidders to increase their manufacturing and power generation capacity. Adani, under the greenshoe option, offered an additional 1.5 Gw capacity of solar cell and module manufacturing and 6 Gw solar power generation.