The US solar major, SunEdison, will enter the Indian wind energy market, Pashupathy Gopalan, who heads the company’s Asia-Pacific operations, told Business Line on Wednesday.
He said this while answering a question on SunEdison’s possible wind foray in India, in the context of the announcement made by the company on Monday in the US that it had acquired First Wind, a company that is building a 521 MW wind farm in the country.
“We are working on various projects,” Pashupathy said. He said SunEdison own and operate wind power projects and put them list them through special investment vehicles called ‘yieldcos’.
YieldCo’s are vehicles similar to Real Estate Investment Trusts, with some legal differences. These vehicles are just emerging in the US, and the eight-odd yieldcos that have so far come up are all owners of renewable energy assets. In fact, SunEdison’s acquisition of First Wind was through its yieldco, TerraForm Power.
"The acquisition of First Wind transforms both SunEdison and TerraForm Power into diversified renewable energy companies and will make SunEdison the leading renewable power plant developer in the world," Ahmad Chatila, President and Chief Executive Officer of SunEdison in a press release issued on Monday. The acquisition, for a consideration of $ 2.4 billion, is one of the largest in the renewable energy industry.
Incidentally, in September, SunEdison had announced that it would form another yieldco which would focus exclusive on Africa and Asia (excluding Japan).
SunEdison is the largest foreign investor in the Indian solar market. The company owns over 100 MW of solar power plants and is about to sign power purchase agreements for another 200-odd MW. The company’s entering the wind market in India has been on the cards for some time, and whispers around it have been floating around ever since the US that it had converted itself from a pure-play solar company, to an energy company.