Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
support further expansion and commercialization
of clean technologies.
Aloe Private Equity (www.aloe-group.com)
manages a number of Environment Funds that is
dedicated exclusively to investing in businesses
that can make a positive contribution to society,
both socially and environmentally whilst simul-
taneously providing significant financial returns
to its investors. The relationship is strategic, in
the sense that Aloe invests in companies with
proven products or solutions that benefit from
Aloe's expertise in the international expansion
of environmental businesses into the developing
countries with a particular focus on Asia. Two
examples of recent investments made in India are
discussed below: Greenko Group and Polygenta.
legal requirements. In Greenko's favour, it utilizes
tried and tested renewable energy solutions thus
reducing the technical risks and by purchasing
off-the-shelf components from local suppliers
Greenko is not exposed to IPR risks.
At the country level it was necessary for Aloe
to understand the demand and supply of electricity
within India and form a view on the direction of
future Indian Government policies so that Greenko
would be in a position to capitalize on these new
policy driven opportunities. When assessing
market demand Aloe utilizes forecasts from a
variety of sources including the International
Energy Agency and cross references them against
anecdotal evidence. This includes factors such as:
•
Growth predictions, although the current
financial crisis has led economists to re-
duce their 2009 GDP growth forecast for
India to 7.7%, the Indian economy is still
growing and is therefore expected to con-
sume more energy after compensating for
improving electrical efficiencies;
Greenko Group plc,
Indian Clean Energy
From a standing start in February 2006, Greenko
Group plc (www.greenkogroup.com) has devel-
oped in excess of 159MW of operating renewable
energy capacity and has licenses for an additional
421MW of secured clean energy generating capac-
ity in India, generating enough energy each year
for over 4.5 million local people. Its sources of
clean energy are primarily from biomass & run
of the river hydro projects spread across the en-
tire country. Indian government policy was one
of many risks that Aloe Private Equity had to
understand, analyze and assess before proceed-
ing with its initial investment. These policy risks
were evaluated at three levels, company, country
and internationally.
At the company level, Greenko must comply
with Indian laws - this includes everything from
Health & Safety work practices to environmental
policies. Government policy also influences the
permitting procedures for the development of
new renewable energy facilities. Through local
knowledge and experience Aloe was able to evalu-
ate Greenko's development pipeline in terms of
•
Estimates from the Indian Ministry of
Power indicate that 44% of Indian house-
holds were still without electricity in 2006
(i.e. there is still unmet demand). Energy
shortages within India are expected to con-
tinue until at least 2015 when the first of
the large 4000MW coal fired power plants
are due to come-online;
•
India has lower per capita power consump-
tion than other comparable economies.
The modeling of this evidence provides valu-
able risk management insights into the increasing
market demand in India and the positive direction
of Government policies. On the supply side, the
Indian government has specified renewable energy
targets and subsidies to help achieve these targets.
Recently the Ministry of New & Renewable En-
ergy (MNRE) announced a new wind incentive
of $0.01/kWh.
