The Vedanta Group said it will source 600 MW of solar and 91 MW of hybrid renewable power through open access under the captive mode for its various operations across the country. The company disclosed it in a BSE filing.

The projects will be set up through special purpose vehicles (SPVs) of Serentica Renewables India. Vedanta would execute the power delivery agreements (PDA) with Serentica.

The solar capacity would be used for the Group’s aluminum operations in Jharsuguda, copper, and oil & gas operations across India.

Additionally, the power generated from the hybrid renewable project would be divided into 50 MW for aluminum operations, 16 MW for copper operations, and 25 MW for oil and gas operations.

In September last year, Serentica announced the plans to install 1.5 GW of wind-solar hybrid power projects across Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Maharashtra in India. Out of which, around 600 MW of round-the-clock clean energy was committed to various entities of the Vedanta Group. The capacity is scheduled to be commissioned in two years.

The projects will be built on the captive model and Build Own Operate (BOO) basis. The term of the power delivery agreement will be for a period of 25 years from the date of the commissioning of the project.

The project will be funded on a 70:30 debt-to-equity basis wherein Vedanta, and its subsidiaries will own 26% of the equity in the respective SPVs.

The SPVs are expected to start delivering the power within 24 months of the PDA signing.

The company said the projects would help secure a continuous power supply through renewable energy sources and insulate their business from commodity market volatility.

The move marks the beginning of action by the company to deliver on its goal of becoming net zero carbon by 2050 or sooner and using 2.5 GW of Round the Clock (RTC) renewable energy for its operations by 2030.

Vedanta aims to achieve substantial consumption of renewable energy for smelting and associated operations and meet power requirements of capacity expansion at Vedanta’s existing operation sites.

Once the power supply comes online, it has the potential to prevent about 38 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the PDA term.

Recently, in October 2022, Vedanta announced that it is scaling up its renewable energy sourcing to 1 GW and accelerating the transition of its operations to green energy. The company invited bids for an additional 500 MW of renewable energy. The company had invited bids to supply hybrid renewable power for its manufacturing facilities in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha.

In January 2022, the Indian aluminum producer announced that it had become India’s largest industrial consumer of renewable energy. The company led renewable energy procurement on India’s power exchanges like Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL).

In November 2022, Serentica Renewables Private received an investment of $400 million from the equity firm KKR to ramp up its clean energy portfolio and provide energy transition solutions to industries.