Brookfield to invest $845 million in its second JV with Axis Energy Ventures

Mumbai: Brookfield Asset Management and Axis Energy Ventures on Thursday announced their second joint venture (JV), housing some of the Indian cleantech company’s wind and solar projects, with up to $845 million investment from the Canadian investor.

In 2019, the two entities set up ABC Renewables, a similar renewable energy platform, which has developed over 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind assets so far.

Brookfield will invest from the Brookfield Global Transition Fund II for the power projects by Axis coming up in various parts of the country, a joint statement said.

Brookfield is among the world’s largest renewable and infrastructure investors, and has been investing aggressively in India. In just a year, it has expanded its energy assets (both operational and under construction) in the country fourfold to 16GW and has invested over $3 billion here so far.

“Under this strategic partnership, both partners will leverage their expertise and resources to jointly provide curated energy solutions to various industry participants, including government entities, corporate customers and emerging industries such as green hydrogen,” the release said.

“We foresee strong growth in India on the back of the government’s target of 500GW of renewable energy by 2030 and its stated objective of energy security. This demand will be increasingly fulfilled by scaled renewable assets combining multiple technologies, such as solar, wind and storage,” said Nawal Saini, managing director at Brookfield.

“Through this new platform, we will together accelerate the development of renewable energy projects in India with a strong commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. This exciting partnership marks a significant milestone in our mission to accelerate India’s transition to clean and sustainable energy sources,” said Kataru Ravi Kumar Reddy, chairman and managing director of Axis Energy Group.

As a cleantech company, Axis Energy Ventures has focused on developing, owning and operating wind, solar, wind-solar hybrid and renewable energy projects along with storage solutions through battery, pumped hydro, etc. Axis Energy Group has a renewable development portfolio of around 10GW across the country at various stages of implementation.

At an industry event earlier this week, renewable energy secretary Bhupinder Singh Bhalla said India added 15GW of renewable energy in FY23, which would touch 25GW in FY24 and 40GW in FY25. He also pointed out that India contributes only 4% of the global carbon dioxide load despite constituting 17% of the world’s population, signalling the huge opportunity that lies ahead.