Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj Group and India’s Aditya Birla Group have agreed to invest jointly in building and operating new solar power plants in India. The firms are the latest companies to plan solar investments in India ahead of an expected boom in clean energy projects after New Delhi hiked its solar energy target to 100 gigawatts by 2022, a 33-fold rise from current levels.

Abraaj and Aditya Birla will build a gigawatt scale platform that will bid for new solar projects tendered at national and state auctions. Abraaj will invest through one of its funds and Aditya Birla, a large Indian conglomerate, will invest through Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited. The companies did not detail the size of the planned investment.

This cooperation will give a fillip to the Aditya Birla Group’s renewable energy initiatives and contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of India as a whole.

Aditya Birla Group

• The Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate named after Aditya Vikram Birla, headquartered in the Aditya Birla Centre in Worli, Mumbai.
• It operates in 40 countries with more than 1.2 lakh employees worldwide. The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857.
• It is the third-largest Indian private sector conglomerate behind Tata Group with revenue of just over US$100 billion and RIL with revenue of US$74 billion.