Commercial trucks and luxury buses manufacturer Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has signed a power purchase agreement to procure 16.2 MW of renewable energy from Zelestra India to power its factory in Oragadam, near Chennai.

Zelestra will supply 29 GWh of renewable energy from its wind and solar assets in Tamil Nadu to Daimler’s factory annually.

DICV manufactures trucks and buses under the BharatBenz brand and Daimler Trucks’ brands of FUSO, Mercedes-Benz, and Freightliner at its Chennai factory.

Besides existing assets in India, Zelestra has a pipeline of over 5 GW of clean energy projects in seven states.

In October 2024, Zelestra (Ganeko Solar) was among the winners of SJVN’s auction to supply firm and dispatchable renewable energy. It was awarded 140 MW at a tariff of ₹4.25 (~$0.0506)/kWh.

Earlier this year, Daimler said it had achieved 100% renewable energy use at its Oragadam plant. Its solar project equipped with 15,000 solar panels had achieved a peak capacity of 4,300 kW, accounting for 17% of the company’s total renewable energy use.

In its 2024 annual report, Daimler said that all its production sites in India and Japan are aimed to be supplied with green power. “We also aim to convert our production sites in the USA to green power. All other production sites should follow by 2030 at the latest.”

By 2039, the company targets all production sites worldwide to become carbon-neutral. It aims to meet at least 55% of its energy requirements from renewable sources by 2030.

Daimler meets 70% of its electricity worldwide and 12% of district heating from renewable energy sources. During 2024, It produced 35,747 MWh of renewable energy.

The company relies on various contractual instruments promoting renewable energy use. These instruments include physical green power purchase agreements, virtual green power purchase agreements, B2B supply contracts with electricity suppliers, and electricity supply contracts with green electricity certificates.