ReNew has sold a 300 MW solar plant in Rajasthan to India Grid Trust at an enterprise value of $199 million. The headline number is the one that fills the press release. The number ReNew actually banks is far smaller, about $82 million in cash. The gap between the two says more about how Indian solar is financed than about the price.
Key takeaways
- ReNew announced on 8 January 2024 that it signed a share purchase agreement to sell a 300 MW operating solar project in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, to India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) at an enterprise value of $199 million; Enerdatics understands the transaction completed by 24 February 2024.
- After the outstanding project debt transfers to IndiGrid, ReNew expects a cash inflow of about $82 million, including change-in-law proceeds, plus a further earn-out of about $8 million linked to change-in-law payments.
- The ReNew Solar Urja plant in Jaisalmer was commissioned in December 2021, delivered a net plant load factor of 27.42 percent in 2022-23, and sells its output to Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) under a 25-year PPA.
- The SECI tariff for the Jaisalmer plant is fixed at $32.59 per MWh at the exchange rate on the deal's announcement date, and Enerdatics calculates the plant's 2022-23 revenue at about $23.5 million.
- At $0.66 million per MW, the IndiGrid purchase of ReNew's Jaisalmer plant sits exactly on the $0.66 million median of five priced operational Indian solar deals Enerdatics records in 2023 and 2024, and at about 8.5 times annual revenue.
Why is ReNew's cash so much smaller than the deal value?
Because most of the enterprise value is debt that moves with the plant. Enterprise value counts the whole capital structure, equity plus the debt sitting inside the project company. When IndiGrid takes the shares, it takes the loans with them, and ReNew is relieved of them rather than paid for them.
Leap's record states that after the transfer of outstanding debt, ReNew will receive about $82 million, a figure that already includes change-in-law proceeds. Change-in-law compensation is the payment Indian generators can claim when a change in taxes or duties after bidding raises their costs. Another roughly $8 million is due as an earn-out once the plant receives its first change-in-law payment.
So the equity value ReNew crystallises is well under half of the headline. That is normal for a contracted, leveraged asset. It does mean that the $199 million and the $82 million answer different questions: what the plant is worth, and what ReNew takes out of it.
What is IndiGrid buying in the Jaisalmer plant?
A long, flat revenue line. The plant sells its full output to SECI, the central government agency that runs India's national renewable tenders, under a 25-year PPA. A fixed tariff with a sovereign-linked buyer is close to a bond in revenue terms. The main variable is how much the plant generates.
On that, the record is reassuring. The plant was commissioned in December 2021 and had about two years of operating history when the deal was signed. Its net plant load factor, the share of the theoretical maximum output it actually produced, was 27.42 percent in 2022-23. That figure, more than the tariff, is what sets the size of the revenue line, because the tariff is fixed and generation is not.
Multiplying that load factor by the 300 MW capacity and the $32.59 per MWh tariff gives about $23.5 million a year, the revenue Enerdatics calculates for 2022-23. Against the $199 million enterprise value, that is about 8.5 times revenue. With roughly 23 years of the contract left at signing, the buyer is paying for a long stream of predictable income.
Why does the price per MW land on the median?
Because the asset is about as standard as Indian solar gets. A single utility-scale plant, a SECI contract, a fixed tariff in the low thirties of dollars per MWh, and a short but clean operating record. Those are the features that most priced operating deals in the market share, and they cluster tightly.
Enerdatics records 16 operational Indian solar transactions announced in 2023 and 2024, and only five asset deals among them carry a value that converts to a price per MW. Their median is $0.66 million per MW, and the interquartile range is unusually narrow, from $0.65 million to $0.68 million. The closest comparable is a 312 MW deal at $204 million, or $0.65 million per MW, in November 2023. At the edges sit a 420 MW deal at $0.48 million per MW in December 2024 and a 472.5 MW deal at $1.03 million per MW in September 2024. ReNew's $0.66 million is the median itself.
That tight band is the useful finding. In many markets operating solar prices spread widely because contracts, ages and tariffs vary. In India, where many operating plants sell to central agencies at auction-set tariffs, priced deals for comparable plants converge. A buyer comparing two such plants is mostly comparing load factors, tariffs and remaining contract life.
What does the deal signal for India's operating solar market?
It signals that capital recycling is now a routine part of the business model for India's large developers. ReNew framed the sale as a way to enhance shareholder value by recycling capital into higher-return opportunities. Selling a de-risked operating plant to a yield-focused owner and redeploying the equity into new projects is the same playbook seen in Europe and the US.
ReNew has repeated it at greater scale since. Its sale of 1.4 GWp of operating solar to RPSG Group's Purvah Green applied the same logic to a far larger portfolio. On the buying side, platforms such as Serentica have also been assembling operating capacity, as in its acquisition of Statkraft's 1.44 GW Indian portfolio.
For IndiGrid, an infrastructure investment trust that buys and holds contracted assets, the acquisition was funded through a mix of equity, internal accruals and debt, according to Leap's record. JSA acted as IndiGrid's legal adviser. The transaction was subject to conditions in the PPA before closing.
Frequently asked questions
How much did India Grid Trust pay for ReNew's Jaisalmer solar plant? The deal carried an enterprise value of $199 million for the 300 MW plant, or about $0.66 million per MW. ReNew expects about $82 million in cash after the project debt transfers, plus an earn-out of about $8 million.
Who buys the power from the ReNew Solar Urja plant? Solar Energy Corporation of India, under a 25-year power purchase agreement at a fixed tariff of $32.59 per MWh at the January 2024 exchange rate.
How does the ReNew to IndiGrid price compare with other Indian solar deals? It matches the $0.66 million per MW median of five priced operational Indian solar asset deals that Enerdatics records for 2023 and 2024.
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