Vedanta Limited announced on Thursday that its board of directors has approved a proposal to source 580 MW of green energy for its operations across India. The company announced the signing of a power delivery agreement with Sterlite Power Technologies Private Ltd, a special purpose vehicle for the supply of solar and wind-based energy.
"The board of directors has approved plans for the group to source 580 MW of renewable energy for its operations in India," Vedanta said in a regulatory filing that it had signed a PDA (Power Delivery Agreement) with Sterlite Power Technologies Pvt Ltd.
The miner stated that it intends to partially replace its existing captive thermal power capacities with renewable energy for smelting and related operations, as well as meet the power requirements of capacity expansion at Vedanta Aluminium Limited, Balco in Odisha, and Hindustan Zinc in Rajasthan.
The overall agreement calls for the purchase of 580 MW of renewable energy from the plant where Sterlite Power Technologies Private Ltd (SPTPL) and its affiliates are constructing a 1,960 MW hybrid-based renewable energy capacity.
Once the power is turned on, it has the potential to save approximately 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
"These projects will be built using a group captive model and the Build-Own-Operate (BOO) method. "The power delivery agreement will be for a period of 25 years from the date of project commissioning," Vedanta said.
The project will be funded on a debt-to-equity ratio of 70:30, with Vedanta Ltd and its subsidiaries owning 26% of the equity in the respective SPVs for a total investment of up to Rs 850 crore.
"This agreement is a significant step forward in our journey to become the natural resources sector's ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) leader. The project is on track to become one of India's largest renewable energy hybrid projects. It demonstrates the group's commitment to becoming one of the world's greenest natural resource companies," said Sunil Duggal, Vedanta's Chief Safety Officer and Group CEO.
