India is the biggest market in APAC for BrightNight and the company is developing close to 2 GW here in the first target. It recently partnered with AC Energy, part of Ayala group, a 189 year old conglomerate in the Philippines.
New Delhi : US-based clean energy developer BrightNight, which recently secured commitment of $250 mn from ACEN to execute 1.2 GW renewable energy projects in India, will mobilize more funding in the second round to expand capacity to 2 GW across Indian states.
“Our recent partnership with AC Energy (ACEN) and capital commitment from them is enough for executing 1.0-1.2 GW capacity from our initial pipeline. Post which, we would raise additional capital either from existing shareholders or new investors,” CEO Sajay KV and COO & CFO Naveen Khandelwal told ETEnergyworld .
India is the biggest market in APAC for BrightNight and the company is developing close to 2 GW here in the first target. It recently partnered with AC Energy, part of Ayala group, a 189 year old conglomerate in the Philippines. AC Energy has a vision of commissioning 20,000 MW by 2030 and has around 4,000 MW of attributable capacity so far.
“So, we are very happy that we have a strategic and like-minded partner working alongside us. AC Energy has committed USD $250 mn in this first round, with additional $40 mn for the LCs and the bank guarantees,” Sajay KV and Khandelwal said.
THE LARGER PICTURE
BrightNight is a purpose-built and dispatchability focused global renewable energy developer. It was started in 2019 by CEO Martin Hermann. The company has two global operational hubs, first being US, the global head-quarters, and second one is APAC. In APAC, it is present in four countries including India, Australia, Philippines and Bangladesh.
The company has marquee investors and partners working with it in different parts of the world including GIP and Cordelio Power (a CPPIB investee company) in US, Total Eren in Bangladesh and AC Energy in India.
THE INDIA STRATEGY
The executives said the company has a robust development strategy for its India projects pipeline. One of the major aspects of that strategy is early stage development of the projects, including securing right land parcels in time. The company wants to invest time, money and resources in early stage development before bidding for PPAs or starting discussions with C&I customers.
BrightNight’s planned 2 GW projects capacity is spread across Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nādu and Karnataka. All of these are hybrid projects which can be converted into RTC or peak power projects.
“We are keeping this modularity in mind while acquiring the land for the projects. The other important thing is that wind will play a major role in these projects, from the point of view of more generation hours on daily basis, which has implications for the sizing of the battery and ultimately the project cost and Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE),” Sajay KV said.
