The plant, which spans 220 acres and comprises 111,000 solar panels, will generate over 105 GWh of clean energy a year, supplying local businesses with affordable green electricity, avoiding approximately 92,000 tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions annually and supporting over 21,000 people in the surrounding area via the project’s community development initiatives.
CFM invested $1.9 million in development funding and $30 million in construction equity funding to the project via its Climate Investor One Fund (CI1), a blended finance facility of around $1 billion focused on renewable energy infrastructure in emerging markets.
Sulekal Solar has signed 10-20 year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with nine prominent off-takers, including local commercial and industrial businesses Biocon, Syngene, Anthem, SLN Coffee, Abhinandan Petro, Plasmx, Jaguar Petro and Bansal Forge.
CFM and AMPYR entered into partnership in 2019 to co-develop a 38 MW wind farm in Balenahalli in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka. In addition to the Sulekal Solar project, development is underway on a fourth project, a 200 MW solar initiative in Maharashtra. Construction is expected to begin in Q2 2024 with full commissioning expected by Q4 2025.
“CFM’s blended finance model and deep development, ESG and technical expertise combined with AMPYR’s extensive experience in the Indian renewables markets, means we are uniquely placed to develop sustainable infrastructure solutions in the country at speed and scale” said Rajkumar Roy, CEO of AMPYR India. “The success of our partnership is exemplified in the Sulekal project, which took just eight months to develop and 120 days to build – a precedent we hope to emulate in future projects.”
The project partners are working with community members in Sulekal village and its neighbouring villages Benkanhal, Kanakagiri and Tippanhal to establish a rural development program based on community needs and priorities. The villages have a combined population of 21,500. The programme focuses on health, sanitation and education and includes the installation of a water purification plant and storage facilities, health and waste management training and resources for local schools.
The Sulekal Solar project created temporary employment for 267 workers during the construction phase and over 30 permanent roles to operate the site. The project site land has been leased from 46 local landowners, creating additional revenue streams
CFM’s blended finance facilities offer an innovative “whole-of-life” solution by providing a single financing source for each of the respective development, construction and operational phases of a project’s lifecycle. CI1’s blended finance structure includes a concessional capital Development Fund to absorb risk and provide early-stage project development services and a tranched Construction Equity Fund to mobilise private investment into asset construction.
CI1 is supported by multiple public and private sector organisations, including development finance institutions, multilateral finance institutions, public sector banks and commercial investors from across the globe.
“With a population of 1.4 billion, India is the world’s second most populous country, driving a substantial surge in energy demand” added Andrew Johnstone, CEO of CFM. “It has abundant resources for solar and wind production and bold ambitions to achieve 500 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030. Through the AMPYR platform, we are delighted to be supporting the country as it transitions to competitive, low-carbon technologies, addressing growing energy needs while actively mitigating the impacts of climate change.”
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