Green energy developers offer to sell 5 GW to Amazon

Industry Outlook Team | Saturday, 11 February 2023

Leading green energy developers have submitted proposals to supply electricity to Amazon totalling 5 gigawatt (GW), in one of the largest such sourcing exercises in India.

The 35 firms that have responded to Amazon’s request for proposals include the Adani Group, ReNew Energy Global Plc, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), Actis’ Blupine Energy, European alternative asset manager EQT and Temasek Holdings Pte.’s O2 Power, Global Infrastructure Partners’ Vena Energy, Twinstar Overseas Ltd’ Serentica Renewables and Finland’s state-run Fortum, two people aware of the development said.

While the offers received were for 5 GW from solar, wind and wind-solar hybrid projects, the e-commerce giant may contract around 700 MW capacity in this round.

“All major developers have submitted their proposals," said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity.

“It’s at a very preliminary stage," said the other person, who also did not want to be named.

Amazon is building a portfolio of wind and solar power to sell on local electricity exchanges, having secured a category-III power trading licence that allows it to trade as many as 4,000 million units (MUs) in a financial year, as reported by Mint earlier.

Amazon has established AEI New Energy Trading Pvt. Ltd and signed power purchase agreements totalling 920 MW with Vibrant Energy, ReNew Energy Global, Amp Energy India and Brookfield Renewable.

Spokespersons for Amazon, ReNew Energy Global Plc, Macquarie Group, and Actis Llp declined to comment. Queries emailed to the spokespersons of Adani Group, O2 Power, Vena Energy, Serentica Renewables and Fortum on Tuesday remained unanswered till press time.enters Vietnam with hybrid teaching model

BrightChamps, a global live-learning platform, has launched a new "phygital" approach for acquiring life skills in Vietnam.

The BrightChamps Next-Gen Hub programme combines online and offline training to teach coding, robotics, financial literacy, and communication skills. It aspires to be a one-stop shop for children to master all non-academic life skills.

The first hub will open in Ho Chi Minh City on February 19, with a second following in May 2023.

Ravi Bhushan started BrightChamps in 2020. The Indian edtech firm, valued at US$650 million, recently paid US$15 million for the acquisition of the Vietnam-based startup Schola.

"Life-skills programmes that teach children critical skills they will need as members of the global workforce will help children develop into people who are well-equipped to be members of the global workforce," said Bhushan, who is also the CEO of BrightChamps.

The new service also contributes to Vietnam's continuous efforts to improve vocational education's competitiveness and quality.

Furthermore, the release mentioned that BrightCHAMPS Next-Gen Hubs aim to support the Vietnamese government’s bid to upskill kids and help them become global citizens. “We offer blended courseworks in entrepreneurship, finance, tech, coding, communications, robotics and AI, half of which will be through live 1-on-1 classes online, and the other half at the Hub, in small groups of kids with similar learning goals, speeds and needs, through our proprietary adaptive learning algorithm,” Nhu Tranh De Tranh, head, BrightCHAMPS Next-Gen Hub project, Vietnam, said.

Amazon’s interest in India’s green economy comes at a time when the country’s energy demand has been growing.

India has an installed renewable energy capacity of 166 GW, and the government plans to increase non-fossil energy capacity to 500GW by 2030.

India has set out to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, and reduce carbon intensity by 45% from 2005 levels.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech emphasized upon India’s energy transition trajectory and allocated ₹35,000 crore for capital investments towards energy transition and energy security.

She also announced viability gap funding (VGF) for 4000 MWh (megawatt hour) Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

Amazon plans to become carbon-neutral by 2040, and has a renewable energy portfolio of 20 GW. The firm is the largest corporate buyer of clean energy in the world and grew its renewable energy capacity portfolio by 8.3 GW in 2022. It aims to power its operations with renewable energy by 2025.

“Renewable hybrid energy systems can play a key role in helping India accelerate the decarbonization of power generation, lowering the cost of electricity in the medium term. These hybrid energy systems also maximize clean energy use on the grid by combining two technologies with different generation profiles, reducing variability in renewable generation, and improving grid stability," Amazon said in a 31 January statement.

The Economic Survey has also emphasized India’s position as a favoured global green energy investment destination.

“India is progressively becoming a favoured destination for investment in renewables. As per the Renewables 2022 Global Status Report, during the period 2014 -2021, total investment in renewables stood at US$ 78.1 billion in India. Investment in renewable energy has been close to or higher than US$ 10 billion per year since 2016, except for a dip in 2020 likely due to various Covid-19 restrictions," the Survey presented on 31 January said.

“The company’s renewable energy purchases continue to add new wind and solar projects on the grids that power Amazon’s operations, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, Amazon fulfillment centers, and physical stores around the world," Amazon statement said.