Partners Group plans to invest $300 million in Sunsure Energy
Partners Group AG, a Switzerland-based private equity (PE) firm, is planning to invest $300 million in leading rooftop solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm Sunsure Energy for a majority stake, two people aware of the development said.
The private equity firm plans to grow Sunsure, as a green energy platform, on the lines of how Actis Llp developed renewable energy platforms Sprng Energy and Ostro Energy.
Partners Group, which has around $131 billion of assets under management globally, is an investor in logistics firm Ecom Express Pvt. Ltd.
“Partners Group is looking to invest $300 million in Sunsure Energy,” said one of the two people cited above requesting anonymity. Some of the other clean energy platforms in India backed by private equity investors include Actis Llp’s Blupine Energy, KKR’S Virescent Infrastructure, European alternative asset manager EQT and Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte.’s O2 Power.
A Partners Group spokesperson, in an emailed response,
said, “We have no comment on this.” Sunsure Energy founder and chief executive Shashank Sharma did not respond to phone calls or text messages.
Founded in 2014, Sunsure focuses on large-scale rooftop and open-access solar plants that supply electricity to the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment. Open access allows large users of electricity to buy power from the open market instead of depending on a more expensive grid. These projects are generally insulated from risks such as power procurement curtailment and tariff shopping by discoms. Also, India has set up a 40 gigawatt (GW) solar rooftop target, with the overall investment in the renewable energy sector expected to the tune of around ₹30 trillion by 2030.
Moody’s Investors Service, in a report on Monday, said, “In India, renewables projects (solar PV and onshore wind) have already achieved grid parity, where generation costs can match coal-fired power over the project lifetime. Government policies are further encouraging renewables projects by giving them priority in power dispatch, reducing demand risk.”
Some of the marquee measures taken by the government to promote domestic renewable energy sector include imposing basic customs duty (BCD) of 40% on solar modules and 25% on cells with effect from 1 April, ₹24,000 crore productionlinked incentive (PLI) scheme for solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, and domestic content requirement in the ministry of new and renewable energy schemes. Also, being on the approved list of solar PV models and module manufacturers (ALMM) is mandatory for manufacturers’ equipment to be sourced for government-supported schemes and projects from where discoms procure electricity. The National Green Hydrogen Mission targeting fertilizers, refineries and city gas sectors is also expected to be a game-changer for India.