CapitaLand India Trust commissions 21 MW solar plant for self-consumption

CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT), an Indian property trust listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd, has set up a 21 MW solar power plant for consumption by its assets in Tamil Nadu. The solar plant is located in Tamil Nadu and will generate over 30 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually and meet the power supply needs of two million sq ft equivalent of office space.

The power generated from the solar plant will be utilized predominantly for the common areas of  CLINT’s assets in Tamil Nadu. This will increase CLINT’s green energy usage by over 70%, reduce its carbon emissions by more than 17,000 tonnes, as well as reduce its need to purchase power.

The facility has an 8 MW expansion potential to bring the solar plant’s total size to 29 MW.

Sanjeev Dasgupta, chief executive officer of CapitaLand India Trust, said, “[The solar power plant] is central to CLINT’s decarbonization strategy and in line with our sponsor CapitaLand Investment’s (CLI) commitment to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions for scope 1 and 2 by 2050. We will continue to actively source green energy to power our portfolio and seek innovations to enhance our sustainability performance throughout our assets’ real estate life cycle, from investment to design, development, and operations.”

Vinamra Srivastava, CLI’s Chief Sustainability & Sustainable Investments Officer, said, “The expansion of our renewable energy solutions in India demonstrates CLI’s focus on execution towards achieving our 2030 Sustainability Master Plan targets. In 2022, 26 of CLI’s properties in 7 countries and 10 business parks in India were powered by renewable energy, mitigating about 33,500 tonnes of carbon emissions. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of 7,400 petrol- powered cars. We are piloting various technologies sourced from around the world and will remain nimble in adapting our decarbonization solutions across different markets to create a sustainable built environment.”

CLINT’s principal objective is to own income-producing real estate used primarily as business space in India. It also develops and acquires land or uncompleted developments primarily to be used as business space, with the objective of holding the properties upon completion. As of Sept. 30, 2023, CLINT’s assets under management stood at S$2.7 billion.

CLINT’s portfolio includes nine IT business parks, one logistics park, one industrial facility, and four data centre developments in India, with a total completed floor area of 19.2 million square feet spread across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai.