Blueleaf’s journey began with a 300 MW windsolar hybrid project in Madhya Pradesh, of which 250 MW is already commissioned, and the rest will be commissioned soon. Pratyush Thakur, Investment Director and Country Head (India) at Blueleaf Energy notes that a partnership with Jakson Green earlier this year will add 1 GW of additional capacity. Thus, the firm already has 1.3 GW in construction or operation. The company is working on several projects across the country—greenfield development in Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, as well as acquisitions of new projects, whether in early stage, late‐stage or operational development. He remains positive that the firm will achieve its target of 5 GW by 2030, if not sooner.
Integration of Sustainability into the Business Model
Stating that their core business model is to generate renewable energy, thereby contributing to the mitigation of greenhouse emissions by producing carbon dioxide free electricity, Thakur adds that sustainability goes beyond that. It means ensuring that whatever is done is sustainable in the long term for all stakeholders impacted. He says that stakeholders include shareholders (who provide capital and expect sustainable returns), workers on site, and communities in which the company operates. He underlines that the company does not take risks that might endanger the business, and has specific targets to operate in a healthy and safe manner, avoiding problems for employees or onsite workers. He emphasises that the company aims to be a good corporate citizen—the communities in which they are present should, if not enjoy their presence, at least not be annoyed by it.
Creating Value for Host Communities
Thakur acknowledges that land issues are broad and that many peers remark on the difficulty of acquiring land for solar and wind projects. He points out that the scale of land aggregation for large scale projects is humongous. For example, the Bikaner project requires 3,000 acres, which he describes as equivalent to multiple villages combined. He says their first preference is land that is wasteland or unusable, with no farming activity, so as to minimise negative impact on communities. If farmland must be acquired, they ensure market‐rate compensation is paid, and that the landlessor will be in a better economic position than before. He also emphasises that not only landowners but neighbouring communities receive contributions: the company has an active community engagement team which meets community leaders, schools, hospitals, Anganwadis to assess needs. In their first project they conducted a four month community needs assessment with a local NGO, identified gaps, and designed a programme of interventions to help local communities improve their quality of life.
Importance of ESG Compliance and Green Taxonomy for Financing
Describing ESG compliance and green taxonomy as very crucial, Thakur explains that from the beginning, the company has kept this high on the agenda, under guidance of the shareholder (a fund managed by Macquarie Group). The fund specifies investment principles and Macquarie has developed its own greenscoring methodology; any project investment must undergo rigorous assessment of its green impact, and no investment is approved unless the project justifies proper green impact. ESG and green impact reporting are core to the investment decision process. After investment, third party agencies assess the company’s commitments and compliance. At the project level, an environmental and social impact assessment is conducted before any development activity. That assessment determines whether the site has significant negative environmental impact—if yes, they do not proceed; if minor impacts are identified, they build in mitigation measures (e.g., bird spikes on transmission lines if birds are a concern; dust control during construction). For wind turbines, they conduct full assessment of shadow areas and flicker areas. He stresses that very detailed work happens at both project and corporate levels to ensure that their ESG commitments are not only met but surpassed.
Flicker and Shadow Areas
Thakur explains that when a very tall wind turbine is built, the blades may be around 90 metres in radius; the shadow cast can be significantly longer depending on time of day. If people live beneath those shadows, they may experience irritating effects from the shadow or flicker of sunlight on the blades. Therefore, they ensure that chosen locations are ideally far away from any habitation. If there is habitation within, say, 200-250 metres of the turbines, they work with the inhabitants and adjust their homes or living spaces so that they do not experience negative effects on health or wellbeing. Thus, sites election is critical; if a site is close to habitation, they mitigate the impact accordingly.
Addressing the Critical Mineral Challenge in Renewable Energy
Lithium and silicon are very important parts of the value chain since lithium is used in batteries and most BESS (battery energy storage systems) today are lithium based, says Thakur. He notes that most lithium processing happens in China, although mining occurs in several countries (Africa, Australia, South America), which makes it more diversified. He admits he does not see many short-term solutions. What they are doing now is at the lower end of the value chain—battery assembly, making battery enabled systems, managing systems—they are trying to localise that in India. A Performance Linked Incentive plan by the government supports several companies in this area. But upstream value chain development is strategic and not easy to fix immediately. He emphasises that diversification of input sources is very crucial for any company or industry and he expects policymakers to be looking into this.
India’s Progress on the Panchamrit commitments
Thakur states that India has made progress, especially in adding renewable energy capacity. One of the targets is to generate 50% of electricity from renewables. Earlier this year, India announced that in terms of installed capacity, more than 50% is non-fossil or renewable. However, if one looks at generation rather than capacity, non-fossil sources contribute only about 20-25%. That needs to go up. With respect to the 500 GW by 2030 target, he feels there is a risk: India is currently around 250 GW, which is about the halfway mark. At current rate (say 3040 GW per year) another 120-200 GW might be added, so we might fall short unless there are positive surprises. He identifies the bottleneck as transmission capacity which has not kept up with generation capacity, causing project delays. On the overall emissionsintensity reduction by 45%, he feels that is possible with the government and industry focussing on it. But total emissions will continue to rise because India is a developing country and needs 67% or higher economic growth for several decades to achieve the goal of becoming a developed country by 2047; that means significant economic activity and associated emissions. He says that catering to societal aspirations for better living standards while also mitigating the enormous risk of climate crisis poses a huge challenge. He adds he doesn’t have a simple answer, but emphasises that progress should be tracked rather than fixating solely on hitting exact target numbers.
