news - Reliance Power secures USD 302 million financing for concentrated solar project

The innovative 100MW Concentrated Solar Power (“CSP”) Project located in the state of Rajasthan in India, owned by Reliance Power, has secured USD 302million in debt financing.

The Project is developed under Phase I of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which has set a target of 20GW solar power by 2020, will provide clean energy to India and support the diversification of its energy system which is largely reliable on thermal power. 

The Project is constructed on a turnkey basis by Reliance Infrastructure with Areva Solar as its solar technology partner. The project uses the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector technology (“CLFR”) developed by Areva. CLFR is a relatively advanced solar thermal technology in which rows of parallel mirrors reflect solar radiation onto a linear receiver. Water is pumped through the linear receiver and heated to steam, which drives the steam turbine and generator. The Steam Turbine and Generator are provided by Siemens.

Reliance Power’s CEO, J.P. Chalasani said: “We are proud to announce financial closure of our 100 MW CSP Solar Project at a site adjacent to our recently commissioned 40 MW PV project. The project is among the largest CSP Projects in the world and would prove to be one more step towards achieving our goal of developing one of the largest renewable energy portfolios in India. We are thankful to the international lenders community, including FMO, ADB, US-Exim and Axis Bank, to play a crucial role in financial closure of this project.”

FMO’s Director Energy, Huub Cornelissen said: “This landmark transaction developed by Reliance Power will support the energy matrix in India with cleaner and more sustainable energy. We are proud to be part of the financing of this innovative technology and pleased to work with investors who are also committed to renewable energy”.

About the transaction

Project debt financing is provided by Asian Development Bank (USD 103 million), Export-Import Bank Of The United States (USD 80 million), The Netherlands Development Finance Company FMO (USD 85 million, of which USD 15 million subordinated), Axis Bank (USD 14 million in INR) and another party (USD 20 million in INR). FMO also mobilized funding from the Interactive Climate Change Fund (“ICCF”), which funds are provided by a group of 11 European Development Finance Institutions

About Reliance Power

Reliance Power Limited, a part of Reliance Group, is India's leading private sector power generation company. The company has the largest portfolio of power projects in the private sector based on coal, gas, hydro and renewable energy, with an operating portfolio of 1200 MW. The company also has the largest captive coal reserves in the private sector, estimated at more than two billion tons. Besides, the company has purchased three coal mines in Indonesia and also has plans to develop coal bed methane based generation capacity.

About FMO

FMO (the Netherlands Development Finance Company) is the Dutch development bank. FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing and emerging markets by investing in ambitious entrepreneurs. FMO believes a strong private sector leads to economic and social development, empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life.

FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food & water. With an investment portfolio of EUR 5.9 billion, FMO is one of the largest European bilateral private sector development banks.

Press contact:

Paul Hartogsveld, Communications Officer (PR)

T: +31 70 314 9924                        

E: p.hartogsveld@fmo.nl