Adani Green tops solar power list: report

The week has started on a strong note for the Adani Group. On Monday, the group announced that it was acquiring a 74% stake in Mumbai International Airport Ltd—buying out the GVK Group’s 50.5% stake; 10% held by the Airport Company of South Africa; and 13.5% held by South Africa’s Bidvest; the Airports Authority of India would hold the remaining stake. On Tuesday, group firm Adani Green Energy issued a press release which said that according to Mercom Capital Group, it had emerged as the world’s top solar developer based on operational, under construction, and awarded (contracted) projects. On Wednesday, shares of Adani Green hit an all-time high of ₹546 on the BSE, buoyed by the news.

According to Mercom Capital, Adani Green’s solar portfolio of 12.32 gigawatts (GW) exceeds the total installed capacity of the U.S. in 2019 and will and will displace over 1.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide over the life of its assets, the release said.

But group chairman Gautam Adani has bigger plans. “Building partnerships with major industrials, data centre providers, and global integrated energy players that seek to reduce their carbon footprints will also continue to further accelerate our growth,” the release quoted him as saying.

Adani said that there was a lot more to do “as the world transitions into an increasingly decarbonised energy landscape. We anticipate that over the next decade several existing business models will be impacted as a result of the disruption caused by the intersection of plummeting cost of renewable energy and the ability of technology to rescale industries.”

According to the Mercom report, the global solar photovoltaics market grew 15% year-on-year in 2019, with the addition of approximately 120 GW. China, with 30 GW installed capacity, was the largest solar market, followed by the U.S., India, Japan, and Vietnam. The top five markets collectively accounted for 57% of the solar PV capacity installed in 2019.

“Adani’s solar pipeline includes projects which are under-construction and awarded portfolio cumulatively accounts for 10,057 MW,” the report noted, adding that approximately 10% of their pipeline is expected to be completed by 2020, and the total by 2023.

Adani Green, which started operations in 2015 and went public in 2018, also took top spot in terms of under-construction and awarded capacity. According to the release, their online solar and wind projects made up a total of 14.62 GW, and it wants to achieve an installed generation capacity of 25 GW of renewable power by 2025. Shares of the company were trading at ₹546, up nearly 10%, on the BSE during late afternoon trade on Wednesday.