'We focus on investing in greenfield projects'

Swedish private equity firm EQT Partners and Singapore state investment firm Temasek set up the Indian renewable energy platform 02 Power in late 2019, joining a large number of foreign investors in the sector. At the time, they committed $500 million to 02 Power and said the platform would target 4GW of installed capacity. Since then, O2 Power has raised its capacity to 780 MW and is further set to increase it to 1,500 MIW by the end of March, its founder and CEO Parag Sharma said.

- Aman Malik

In an interview with VCCircle, Sharma talked about the company's capacity expansion plan and why it prefers greenfield projects versus making acquisitions. He also discussed the likely trajectory of tariffs on solar projects, policy moves and what would it take for companies like 02 Power to stop importing Chinese equipment. Edited excerpts: 

When the platform was started a target of 4GW was given. Are you about to reach half the target?

It was an estimate. When the platform was started, we did not know the wind-solar mix. So, we raised $500 million. It was an estimate that $500 million in a certain ratio will lead to almost 4GW.

In fact, even in alternating current (AC) terms, we will cross 2GW by March 2025, as we will commission 1,300 MW AC in that year as well. So, that will take us to 3.3-3.4 GW by the end of FY25. These are signed PPAS which we have to execute next year. We will keep adding more than IGW Greenfield every year.