Adani to invest $50-70 billion in renewable energy

Adani portfolio companies will invest over $50-70 billion in the renewable energy value chain and have committed 70 percent of planned capex until 2030 to energy transition.

Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group says that policies to manage and overcome the climate change crisis must be equitable and pragmatic. Speaking to business leaders on the sidelines of the UK’s Global Investment Summit at the London Science Museum, Adani stated that green policies and climate action not based on equitable growth will struggle in the long run. Decision-makers must consider the voices of the vulnerable when developing climate strategies and mitigation measures. He also suggested that a collaborative approach was needed wherein developed nations, which have emitted more greenhouse gases over time, shoulder greater responsibility and propose policies and targets that fairly address the needs of the developing world.

“While net-zero targets are much needed, a company’s sustainability initiatives must be aligned with the nation’s sustainability goals,” said Adani. “One must recognise that India has already demonstrated its commitment through the bold stand taken by PM Modi since the 2015 COP 21 summit and India has emerged as one of the most responsible major nations in the world when it comes to addressing climate change. However, at the heart of any nation’s sustainability journey lies the principle of equitable growth, and a net-zero number unaligned with a nation’s development agenda may end up creating greater disequilibrium across the global sustainability initiatives.”

Adani Transmission has also made the same commitment and the other portfolio companies are working towards committing to the 1.5-degree pathway. Adani is also incubating the first Indian data centre company that will power all its data centres by renewable power by 2030. Furthermore, AGEL will triple its renewable power generation capacity over the next four years – a scale and speed unmatched by any company in the world. Its renewable energy company AGEL is also consolidating its position as the world’s largest solar power developer, having achieved its initial target of 25GW four years ahead of schedule.

This transformation has multiple dimensions that will impact not just the world of energy but also the world of chemicals, plastics, mobility, computing, and metals. Achieving the vision of a greener world will heavily depend on the ability to produce hydrogen, which is both a source of energy and a feedstock for several downstream products that we use in our daily lives. This is what makes the world of energy transition so disruptive with the possibility to create completely new industries.

Over the next decade, the Adani portfolio companies in the energy and utility business will invest over $20 billion in renewable energy generation and the overall organic and inorganic investments across the entire green energy value chain will range between $50 billion and $70 billion. Over 70 percent of its planned capex until 2030 will be in sustainable technologies.

This includes investments with potential partners for electrolyser manufacturing, backward integrations for component manufacturing to secure the supply chain for the solar and wind generation businesses, and AI-based utility and industrial cloud platforms. When combined with India’s cost and locational advantages, this will enable Adani to produce the world’s least expensive green electron and be on track to become the world’s largest renewable power portfolio by 2030. This will make India the producer of the world’s cheapest hydrogen.