Sian Crampsie
Lightsource Renewable Energy and UK Climate Investments have created a partnership to develop and buy renewable energy assets in India.
UK Climate Investments, part of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group, and Lightsource will jointly target the greenfield development and acquisition of utility scale solar assets in India with the shared ambition of creating high-quality de-risked investment opportunities in one of the world’s fastest growing solar markets.
The partnership will mobilise the large scale deployment of institutional capital through Lightsource, the companies said.
The seed asset for the partnership will be Lightsource’s 60 MWp solar energy project in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which has just reached financial close. The two partners are aiming to develop and build a total of 300 MW of solar photovoltaic projects.
As part of the agreement, Lightsource will provide operations and asset management services for the platform in the long-term, building on the company’s experience providing these services in Europe.
Nick Boyle, CEO for Lightsource said: “The UK Climate Investments partnership, and our first Indian project reaching financial close, are significant milestones in the growth of Lightsource.”
Martin Stanley, Global Head, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets commented; “This first investment for UK Climate Investments will provide the necessary sponsor support for the first project in a very promising series of potential solar investments in India, in line with UKCI’s investment mandate. Working with the UK’s leading solar developer, we will look to stimulate a positive transformational impact by bringing industry-leading best practices of risk mitigation and management to the local market.”