Virescent Renewable Energy Trust completes the acquisition of 50MW operating solar asset from Godawari Green Energy

US investor KKR-backed Virescent Infrastructure today announced its renewable energy-focused infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), Virescent Renewable Energy Trust (VRET), has completed the acquisition of a 50MW operating solar asset from Godawari Green Energy Limited (GGEL).

GGEL operates the 50MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. The project was commissioned in June 2013 and benefits from a 25-year power purchase agreement with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN).

Sanjay Grewal, CEO of Virescent, said, “The acquisition is in line with our investment strategy to aggregate assets with long-term contracts with credible counterparties. With this acquisition, VRET now manages 500MW of operating solar assets across India. This is VRET’s fourth acquisition in the last 18 months. It has also acquired solar portfolios from Shapoorji Pallonji, Sindicatum as well as Focal Energy.”

The CSP plant features state-of-the-art parabolic trough technology. CSP stations with parabolic trough technology are steam-driven power stations that generate electricity from heat. Parabolic mirrors arranged in long rows concentrate the solar radiation onto the receiver, inside which a carrier liquid is heated to almost 400 degrees Celsius. The heat, in turn, is used to raise steam that drives a conventional steam turbine and creates electricity.

The extraordinary aspect about CSP electricity is its dispatch ability in the form of heat. The energy can easily be stored and fed into the grid when power is really needed, be it day or night, cloudy or sunny. This facilitates load management in grids – a factor destined to be of increasing importance as the contribution of solar energy to India’s electricity mix rises.