Investors

Japan’s Orix in 1GW Indian renewables joint venture

The Japanese financial group is teaming with IL&FS to co-develop a wind platform in India.

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Orix Corporation, the Japanese financial services group, is partnering with India's Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) to develop a wind energy platform with a total capacity of 1,004MW. 

Orix holds a 49 percent stake in the venture, which is based in India. 

The platform's portfolio of 26 plants spans seven states and comprises 775MW of operational assets, with the rest under construction. The power will mainly be sold to state utilities under a feed-in tariff scheme as well as to commercial-scale utility customers.

“The larger vision of the government to scale up investment in the sector is attracting long-term strategic partners like us to invest in India. We are very pleased that our partnership with IL&FS would diversify our portfolio into a fast growing country like India,” said Makoto Inoue, president and chief executive of Orix, in a statement.

India, now the world’s third biggest greenhouse gas emitter, is seeking to source 40 percent of its electricity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030. It aims to generate 100GW of solar and 60GW of wind power by 2022. 

“IL&FS has evolved as one of the larger and more dependable players in the renewable space with more than 1GW of operating and under commissioning capacity in wind, solar, and waste to energy projects,” said Ravi Parthasarathy, chairman of IL&FS. 

“With this experience and track record, the financial and strategic partnership of Orix in this sector will accelerate our initiatives significantly, given our current development pipeline of an additional 1GW in wind energy assets.” 

Orix has been a shareholder in IL&FS since 1993. The developer, which operates in sectors ranging from transportation and energy to urban infrastructure and maritime activities,is also backed by financial institutions including Life Insurance Corporation of India, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Housing Development Finance Corporation, State Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Unit Trust of India.