Davos 2023: India's ReNew Power exploring Egypt green hydrogen project

ReNew Energy Global

16/01/2023 12:34

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      Potential plant to ship out of Suez Canal Economic Zone
    

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      ReNew Power also looking at India green hydrogen 
    

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      Global recession could be positive for clean tech -CEO  
    

  
    By Maha El Dahan
       DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 16 (Reuters) - India's ReNew
Power, a unit of New York-listed ReNew Energy Global Plc  RNW.O 
is studying opportunities to expand into green hydrogen in
India, Egypt and elsewhere, its chairman and CEO said on Monday.
    The firm, which now generates nearly 1.8% of India's total
electricity annually, has a total capacity of 13 Gigawatts (GW)
of wind and solar, including projects in the works.
    ReNew Power is now studying green hydrogen opportunities,
specifically in Egypt, having signed a framework agreement
during the COP27 climate conference last year, Sumant Sinha told
Reuters in Davos at the World Economic Forum. 
    "We have not taken any investment decisions at this point in
time but we are doing development work to find if we can get to
that point," Sinha said. 
    The plant would be located around 200 kilometres south of
the capital Cairo and the green hydrogen would be shipped
through the Suez canal. 
    "The power will get shipped from wherever it is produced
through lines constructed by the Egyptian government to the Suez
Canal Economic Zone and then we would convert it to ammonia if
required, put it on a ship and send it out via Suez canal either
to the European side or Asian side depending on where the demand
is," he said. 
    A final investment decision on the project is due within 18
months from the signing of the agreement. 
    India, one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse
gases, wants to boost its renewable energy generation to 500 GW
by 2030 from a current output of about 120 GW, according to
government data.
    Of that, around 180 GW have already been auctioned for solar
and wind power projects. 
    ReNew Power's market share of new bids is around 12%, Sinha
said. 
    India also has plans to produce 5 million tonnes of green
hydrogen by 2030, which ReNew Power wants to be a part of. 
    India is the world's third largest power market with demand
growing at around 6% a year. 
    "India has very good natural resources also and we can ship
out of India just like we can out of Egypt." 
    FINANCING CLEAN TECH
    ReNew Power, which has been funded by investors including
Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADIA, has
raised more than $6.5 billion of capital, both equity and debt.
    Sinha said while financing was easy for his clean tech firm,
with India being a big market where corporates are "relatively
sophisticated", it has been harder for other countries,
particularly in Africa which need access to global debt markets.
    Sinha said that a weaker global economic outlook could also
mean cheaper input costs and falling interest rates, translating
into a better climate for clean tech companies. 
    "One of the big reasons why there is so much volatility in
the capital markets especially for clean tech stocks is because
interest rates are going up," he said.  
 (Reporting by Maha El Dahan; Editing by Alexander Smith)
 ((Maha.Dahan@thomsonreuters.com, @mahaeldahan;))