The SoftBank Group is tying up with infrastructure conglomerate IL&FS to develop more than 20 gigawatts of solar capacity in India by 2025 to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious renewable energy road map for the country, reported Economic Times.
This comes less than two months after the Japanese group teamed up with China’s GCL System Integration Technology for a $930 million (Rs 6,350 crore) India solar power venture.
The English Daily reported that SB Energy, the power and energy investment arm of SoftBank, and IL&FS’ wholly owned IL&FS Energy unit have agreed to jointly develop grid-connected solar projects across the country. A formal announcement on the joint venture is expected shortly.
SoftBank in 2015 had made a commitment that it would invest up to $20 billion along with Foxconn Technology and Bharti Enterprises in solar projects in India, which has a goal of generating 100 GW of solar power by 2022.
For these projects, it has made an initial investment of Rs 4,000 crore. “We truly believe that India’s developmental agenda would be fully realised through technologyled businesses. Government of India’s thrust on renewable energy is an important component of this agenda and SoftBank is eager to be a stakeholder in this endeavor. Our partnership with IL&FS leverages on the respective strengths of both institutions and will efficiently ground our target rollout plan,” SB Energy executive chairman Manoj Kohli said to ET, confirming the plan.
