India X Cleantech — September 2021
Originally published on Future Trends.
Welcome to another issue of our new India x Cleantech series! On a monthly basis, we are pulling news from across clean technology sectors in India into a single, concise summary article about the country.
Cleantech Investments
Reliance Invests In US Energy Storage Company
A newly-formed subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, one of India’s leading industrial conglomerates, has invested in a US-based energy storage company. Reliance New Energy Solar, along with Paulson & Co., Bill Gates, and other investors, invested $144 million in Massachusetts-based Ambri Inc. Reliance New Energy Solar invested $50 million in the transaction.
ReNew Power To Invest $384 Million To Acquire Solar, Hydro Power Assets
One of India’s leading renewable energy companies, ReNew Power, has announced plans to acquire solar and hydro power projects in the country. The company will spend Rs 28.5 billion ($384 million) to acquire 260 megawatts of solar power capacity and 99 megawatts of hydro power projects.
Canadian Pension Fund Invests $219 Million In Azure Power
International Finance Corporation and its infrastructure fund sold a 19.4% stake in NYSE-listed Azure Power. The stake has been acquired by Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS). CDPQ remains the majority shareholder in Azure Power. The company has 2 gigawatts of operational solar power capacity and another 5 gigawatts capacity under construction.
Electric Mobility
Tata Motors Launches Tigor EV
Tata Motors unveiled its second electric passenger vehicle, the Tigor. The new car has a 26 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack which can be charged in less than an hour. The car is expected to have a range of around 300 kilometers (186 miles) per charge.
Tata Motors Looking To Raise $1 Billion For Its Electric Mobility Business
Tata Motors is reported to be in talks with leading global PE investors to raise $1 billion for its electric mobility business. According to media reports, the company has approached Blackstone Group, TPG Capital and KKR & Co. for investment in the EV business. The company plans to launch 10 electric vehicle models by 2025. It currently offers two.
Odisha Announces Incentives For Electric Vehicles
The government of Odisha recently announced its electric vehicles policy to attract manufacturers as well as buyers. The state has exempted electric vehicles from road tax and registration fees. Buyers will also be eligible for subsidies of up to $1,360 for buying electric cars. Battery manufacturing units can get up to $136,000 in capital investment support from the government.
More Than Half A Million EVs Registered In India In Last Three Years
The Ministry of Heavy Industries reported that more than 500,000 electric vehicles have been registered in the country since 2018. These vehicles have benefited from government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME India). The second phase of the FAME scheme, launched in April 2019, will offer Rs 100 billion ($1.4 billion) in subsidies to EV buyers. The government expects to facilitate the purchase of more than 1.5 million electric vehicles under this scheme.
Renewable Energy & Batteries
India Achieves 100 Gigawatts Of Renewable Energy Capacity
On the 12th of August, India’s minister for power and renewable energy, RK Singh, announced on Twitter that the country had achieved the milestone of 100 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. Solar energy is the largest technology by installed capacity, accounting for 44%, followed by wind energy at 39.5%. Bioenergy accounts for 10% of the installed capacity, while small hydro power projects (less than 25 MW capacity) account for 5%. The rest of the capacity is contributed by waste-to-power capacity. If large hydro power projects are also accounted for, the renewable energy capacity increases to 146 gigawatts.
ReNew Power Signs 400 Megawatt Deal To Supply Round-The-Clock Renewable Energy
The Solar Energy Corporation of India signed a power purchase agreement with ReNew Power for 400 megawatts of solar-wind hybrid power. The company will set up 900 megawatts of wind and 400 megawatts of solar power to meet its obligation to provide round-the-clock power. An undisclosed capacity of battery storage would also be installed.
NTPC Commissions 25 Megawatt Floating Solar Power Project
India’s largest power generation company, NTPC Limited, announced that it commissioned a 25 megawatt floating solar power project in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The project is located at the reservoir of NTPC’s Simhadri thermal power plant. This is the largest floating solar power project in India. NTPC is also working on another floating solar power project with 100 megawatts of capacity.
Engie Commissions 200 Megawatt Solar Power Project
A subsidiary of French utility Engie has commissioned a 200-megawatt solar power project in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The project is part of the Raghanesda solar power park and the company’s second-largest solar project in the country. The company expects annual generation from the plant to be around 550 million kilowatt-hours, resulting in the reduction of around 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Engie’s India solar capacity now stands at 1.1 gigawatts. The company also has 280 megawatts of wind power capacity operational.
Acme Solar Plans 3.5 Gigawatt Green Hydrogen Project In Oman
Solar IPP Acme Solar Holdings has announced intentions to set up a solar-wind hybrid project in Oman to produce green hydrogen. The company plans to set up 3 gigawatts of solar power and 500 megawatts of wind energy to produce 900,000 tonnes of green ammonia every year. Construction of the project will entail an investment of $3.5 billion and would be ready over the next three years.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Invests $100 Million In Amp Energy
Amp Energy will receive equity investment of more than $200 million with at least half of it coming from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. The investment would be used for the company to develop 1.7 gigawatts of solar and solar-wind hybrid capacity.
Tata Power Commissions 324 Megawatt Tracker-Based Project In Gujarat
Tata Power has commissioned a 324 megawatt solar power project in the western state of Gujarat. The project uses single-axis trackers supplied by New York-based GameChange Solar. The project is the largest to use single-axis trackers in India.
Tata Power Wins $52 Million Solar Battery Storage Project
Tata Power Solar Power Systems announced that it secured rights to develop a 50 megawatt solar power project with a 50 megawatt-hour battery storage system. The project will be located in Ladakh and is expected to be commissioned by March 2023. This would be India’s first co-located large-scale battery storage project.
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Environment
Siemens Energy shares jump 13% after guidance raise and leadership change at embattled wind turbine unit
Siemens Energy shares soared as much as 13% on Wednesday after the German renewables firm raised its forecast for the year and announced that the CEO of its troubled wind turbine unit will be replaced amid “comprehensive restructuring measures.”
It said in a statement that Jochen Eickholt at Siemens Gamesa informed the board that he will step down from his position as CEO by mutual agreement on July 31, and be succeeded by Vinod Philip.
“In a very difficult situation at Siemens Gamesa, Jochen laid the central foundations for the urgently needed reorganization and new start within Siemens Energy. It is only fair to emphasize that the causes of the quality problems did not fall under his tenure as CEO,” said Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch in a statement.
It said that Gamesa had initiated comprehensive restructuring measures and “steps for long-term strategic development” in order to boost operating margins.
Strong demand for power grid equipment amid the company’s “success” in stabilizing the wind business led Siemens on Wednesday to raise its forecast for the year.
Power-generating Siemens 2.37 megawatt (MW) wind turbines are seen at the Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility California, May 29, 2020.
Bing Guan | Reuters
For the full year, the company now expects a comparable revenue growth between 10% and 12% and a profit margin before special items between negative 1% and positive 1%. It previously forecast comparable revenue growth between 3% and 7% and a profit margin before special items between negative 2% and positive 1%.
Shares of Siemens Energy traded 11.3% higher at around 9:45 a.m. London time.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday, CEO Bruch said Siemens Energy had enjoyed a “good quarter,” citing “very positive” order momentum in energy. However, he warned the company still needed to work through some quality issues.
“We are tackling the things in wind. We have been working over the last two years on a lot of things. Jochen launched a lot of the right activities in terms of this operational turnaround. We knew it was going to take years for us to really get it back on track,” Bruch said.
“Going forward, we are going to be active in onshore and offshore. We are going to focus the business on offshore more. We hammer down on the volume product in offshore,” he added.
A tough 2023
Siemens Energy suffered a rough 2023. Problems with manufacturing faults at Gamesa forced the parent company to a 4.6 billion euro ($4.94 billion) loss for the fiscal year. An investigation into quality issues was launched at the wind turbine division.
In June, during a particularly turbulent time for the stock, Siemens Energy scrapped its profit forecast and warned that the costly failures at Gamesa could drag on for years.
The wind industry has expanded rapidly over the past two decades, lowering costs to rival — and sometimes undercut — those of fossil fuels, while boosting efficiency with ever-bigger turbines and reducing reliance on state subsidies. But the issues last year led investors to worry that Gamesa’s problems might be a symptom of a wider problem for the industry.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Siemens Energy reported a net income of 108 million euros for the last quarter and raised its outlook on “stronger growth and positive cash development.”
— CNBC’s Elliot Smith contributed to this article.
Rivian has released its Q1 2024 results, slightly beating analyst estimates on revenue, which grew sharply year-over-year, but with wider losses than expected and only slight gross margin improvement as it still hopes to turn some quarterly profit by the end of the year.
Electric truck maker Rivian announced its results after the bell today, capping off a quarter that has seen difficulty for some EV makers.
Rivian previously announced that deliveries remained flat between Q4 and Q1 at 13,588 units, but were up 71% since the same quarter last year. Rivian says it achieved 5.1% market share in US EVs in Q1, quite a feat for a company that sells only upmarket vehicles, with the R1S being the best-selling EV over $70k
Q1 tends to be a down quarter for vehicle deliveries, so year-over-year numbers are often used – though with EV makers experiencing rapid growth, quarterly numbers can still be useful.
Analysts estimated that Rivian would bring in $1.175 billion in revenue this quarter, with a loss of $1.15 per share.
Rivian’s actual results, announced today, show that it beat the analysts with $1.204 billion in revenue, but had wider losses than expected at -$1.48 per share. Revenue improved by 82% year-over-year. Rivian ended the quarter with $7,858 billion in cash, down from $9,368 billion at the end of Q4 2023.
Gross margin on vehicles improved slightly, with a loss of $38,784 per vehicle as opposed to $43,372 per vehicle in the previous quarter. The gross margin improvement shows progress, but gross margins are still worse than they were in Q2 and Q3 of last year, at -$32k and -$30k respectively.
However, Rivian has just completed a plant shutdown, which started on April 5, and thus isn’t captured in this quarter’s results. The plant reopened on May 1.
This shutdown was focused on retooling to improve margins, and Rivian says it could increase efficiency by 30%. Rivian sees “significant progress” on cost optimization already, and says that it expects slight positive gross profit in Q4 of this year. We’ll expect to hear more about how the shutdown went on the company’s earnings call at 2PM PDT/5PM EDT today.
It’s also the first earnings call since Rivian’s R2/R3 unveiling event. These are Rivian’s two upcoming vehicles, with which it plans to move downmarket and into higher volume spaces. The R2 will start around $45k in the first half of 2026, while the R3 timeline and cost have not yet been announced.
Along with that event, Rivian announced that it would move production forward for the R2, by building it at its existing plant in Normal, IL, rather than a planned future plant in Georgia. This will bring Normal’s production numbers up to 215k units of total capacity per year across all products.
The main reason for this is to reduce capex in the short-term by $2.25 billion, saving the company cash in a time where fundraising is more difficult than it has been in the past. Rivian also recently cut 1% of jobs in service of these cost savings.
As part of today’s release, Rivian also reduced capex guidance for 2024 to $1.2 billion, down from $1.75 billion. It expects to save money in 2025 and 2026 from the decision to move R2 production to Normal, as well.
Otherwise, Rivian reaffirmed its full year 2024 guidance of 57,000 units production and a $2.7 billion loss, though it expects slight gross profit in Q4.
Rivian (RIVN) closed down 0.77% today, after opening high in response to rumors about a partnership with Apple, but giving back the gains throughout the day. RIVN is currently down 2-3% in aftermarket trading as we await the earnings call, where we expect a question (and likely non-answer) about the Apple rumors.
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Shenzhen, the home of Chinese EV giant BYD, says it’s become the first in China to have more supercharging plugs than gas pumps.
As Electrek reported in April, BYD received direct government subsidies of “at least” $3.7 billion to grow its EV business and undercut the competition with aggressively low pricing. So all those cheap EVs need to be fast-charged, and what better place to expand than BYD’s home city?
In June 2023, Shenzhen unveiled its first fully liquid-cooled supercharging prototype station as part of its “City of Supercharging” plan, in which it set a goal to build as many supercharging stations as gas stations by 2025. And these “superchargers” aren’t just DC fast chargers – they can charge EVs to 80% in just 10 minutes.
Shenzhen had 362 supercharging stations as of April 30, according to the latest data released by the city, but it didn’t say how many gas pumps there are. They’ve been conveniently sited in commercial complexes, bus stops, and industrial parks.
According to data from the Southern Power Grid Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau, Shenzhen’s EV charging volume reached 670 million kilowatt-hours in Q1 2024, an 11% increase year-over-year. So, the city has to plan carefully so as not to overburden the grid as both EVs and superchargers rapidly come online.
The city of 12.5 million people has been an electrification leader for some time; in 2017, it completely electrified its bus fleet with more than 16,000 electric buses, and its taxis became electrified in 2019.
China leads the world in renewables and EV growth, but it’s also the No 1 emitter of harmful greenhouse gases.
Read more: In 2023, investment in clean energy manufacturing shot up 70% from 2022
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