NEW DELHI : Nasdaq-listed ReNew Power has announced that it has tied up with 12 international lenders, led by Rabobank, for a $1 billion project finance loan through external commercial borrowing (ECB).
In a statement, the company said that the $1 billion loan has been tied up through a special purpose vehicle and will be deployed for its hybrid round-the-clock (RTC) battery-enabled project.
ReNew has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for this project, which will include wind and solar farms set up across Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
The interest rate, after hedging, is expected to be lower than the company’s current average cost of debt on its balance sheet, it said.
Sumant Sinha, Founder, Chairman and CEO, ReNew, said: “This loan — the single-largest project finance in India’s renewable sector — highlights the interest of global lenders in ReNew as it helps spearhead India’s historic clean energy shift and shows its continued ability to access financing at much lower rates than several years ago, despite the current volatility in the currency markets and a rising interest rate environment.“
This also shows the financial community’s faith in ReNew’s growth plans, innovation, project execution abilities, and sound monetary management, Sinha said.
The RTC project will supply power day and night and compete against the baseload of fossil-fuel energy providers, such as coal.
In April, Mitsui & Co., Ltd, partnered with ReNew for the RTC project where it took a 49% stake. The project will provide power to SECI at the rate of ₹2.90 per unit to begin with, which will increase 3% annually for 15 years and then stabilize for the remaining 10 years of the 25-year PPA.
Last month, the company said that it has refinanced its 2024 maturity dollar-denominated bonds worth $525 million with amortising project debt from an Indian non-banking financial company.
ReNew has a gross total portfolio of 12.8 GW of renewable energy projects across India
The Goldman Sachs-backed company has massive expansion plans and in May it announced investing ₹1 trillion in total in both Maharashtra and Karnataka in renewable energy projects, including battery storage.
It has also announced its foray into the green hydrogen space. In April, along with state-run Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T), ReNew Power had announced forming a joint venture (JV) company to produce green hydrogen in the country with equal equity investment.
Last month, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Egyptian government agencies and a sovereign fund to set up a green hydrogen manufacturing facility at the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt.
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