NEW DELHI: Waste-to-energy maker SAEL is exploring new ventures such as solar with battery storage and pumped hydro storage to further solidify its position in the renewable energy sector.
In an interview with TNIE, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Varun Gupta discussed the company’s plans to invest up to R 35,000 crore over the next two-and- a-half years.
SAEL recently raised $1 billion for renewable energy projects. Apart from solar and waste to energy, in the future, the company may foray into solar with storage, pumped hydro, etc.
Currently, the company has four gigawatts of utility projects and 2.3 gigawatts of module manufacturing capacity. “To achieve completion of our four-gigawatt capacity, our capital expenditure (CapEx) would be roughly around R18,000 to R 19,000 crore, which will be spent by June 2025. So, in the next 15 months, we would have incurred a CapEx of close to R 18,000 crore.
Meanwhile, we continue to build, targeting a capacity of about another 3000 megawatts of utility projects in the next 12 to 15 months. This will bring us close to seven gigawatts of projects across solar and investor energy, requiring a combined CapEx between R30k crore and R35k crore, to be spent by around December 2026,” Gupta said.
“Adding on 2.5 gigawatts of module manufacturing, we will become a 10 gigawatt renewable player in the industry, positioning us among the top four in the industry,” he added.
On the company’s plans to get into battery storage, he said, “We are right now going to get into solar with storage. We are evaluating pump storage. Then you will also get into it eventually.”