Indian government plans $1b renewables fund

Speaking at an event ahead of the ahead of the latest installment of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, Goyal added that the government would also seek to raise $4 billion per year over the next 3-4 years for a clean energy fund.

Participating in the event alongside Prakash Javadekar, who hold the environment and forests portfolio, Goyal said the government was confident of meeting its target of 175,000 megawatts in renewable energy capacity by 2022, the Press Trust of India reported.

As part of the 2015-2016 Union Budget, India said it wanted to install 60 gigawatts wind power capacity and 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2022 - more than six times the current installed capacities of approximately 22 GW and 3 GW, respectively. The renewables share of overall power capacity is expected to be 15%.

A handful of greenfield renewables platforms that have gained traction in India - with the support of private capital - and are gradually turning their big ambitions into meaningful scale. GIC Private recently agreed to acquire one of these, Greenko, for $252 million. However, a similar deal that would have seen SunEdison buy Continuum Wind Energy was called off earlier this month.

Capital is still entering the space, with Actis announcing a $230 million renewables platform in February, while The Abraaj Group said in October that it would work with Aditya Birla Group to build a platform focused on developing solar power plants.

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