MUMBAI: Adani Green Energy Ltd is turning to external contractors to execute projects, easing its long-held reliance on in-house engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as it pushes to meet an aggressive expansion target.
The company has tapped at least five contractors over the last six months, including listed firms Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Ltd, Bondada Engineering Ltd, KPI Green Energy Ltd and privately-held Amara Raja Infra Private Ltd, said a person directly aware of the matter.
Capacity push
The change comes as the company needs to add an average of 7.75 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity annually over the next four years to reach its goal of 50 GW by March 2030—nearly double the 3.4 GW it added on average over the past four years.
Until now, the company handled most EPC work in-house or through Adani Infra (India) Ltd, a privately held entity of the Adani group. In FY25, Adani Infra was tasked with managing infrastructure projects across the group’s listed companies to retain margins that would otherwise go to external vendors.
Sterling and Wilson, Bondada, and KPI confirmed their business with Adani Green Energy through press notes between November and January.
“We are pleased to partner with Adani Green Energy for the Khavda renewable energy complex, one of the world’s largest clean energy developments. Securing the EPC mandate for 475 MW is a strong endorsement of Amara Raja’s engineering and execution capabilities," said Nageshwar SV, business head, Amara Raja Infra.
L&T did not respond to Mint's queries on the subject.
In an investor call on 23 January, Ashish Khanna, chief executive officer of Adani Green Energy, had said the company was working with third parties to augment its capabilities. “We are the best and we continue to remain the best (at EPC). But we realize that for the scale at which we are going to go for, we do need other EPC—other contractors too at a scale which can work with us.”
“We have a road map of 30 gigawatt in the next 4 years, per se. And I think it is important that we take advantage of all the best resources which are available in this country to build these projects,” Khanna had then said.
When contacted, an Adani Group spokesperson said the company was on track to achieve annual and long-term goals. Adani Green Energy is India’s largest renewable energy company and has consistently outpaced the industry’s compounded annual growth rate since 2018, he said.
“Onboarding contractors is routine business operation, is publicly known and aligned to our strategic initiatives, which the company takes from time to time,” the spokesperson said in an emailed response.
The change in Adani Green Energy's strategy to contract out some of the EPC work to third-party vendors could be due to a shortage of in-house bandwidth for the scale of work it was carrying out, said Harshraj Aggarwal, executive vice president-institutional equity research at Yes Securities.
“In such a case, the company may choose to subcontract part of the work that is either low-margin or time consuming. The company may also be tapping vendors where it would need expertise that is not available in-house," he said.
Adani Green Energy has the largest operational renewable energy portfolio in India at 18,933 megawatts and is developing a 30 gigawatt renewable energy complex at Khavda in Gujarat. Once fully operational by its target deadline of 2029, the plant would generate enough electricity at peak solar hours to power Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru twice over.
The company’s shares have lost over a fifth since the beginning of 2026 amid a wider market sell-off, heavy curtailment of its power capacity due to grid shortages, and a broader pullback in investor appetite for renewable energy stocks.
Adani Green shares closed 3.08% lower on the BSE on Monday at ₹806.8 compared to a 2.22% slide in the benchmark Sensex, giving the company a market capitalization of just under ₹1.33 trillion.