First renewable energy private trust in Asia-Pacific

German renewable energy company EPURON will team up with Indian companies in the non-conventional energy sector as part of its investment strategy for the Renewable Energy Trust Asia launched in December last year. In India, EPURON will develop greenfield projects as well as take up third-party projects.
RETA — the first renewable energy private trust in Asia-Pacific — was formed by EPURON Pte. Ltd, Singapore, a subsidiary of Conergy Group of Hamburg, Germany, and GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE, USA, to push investments in wind, solar, small hydro, biogas and biomass power generation throughout the region.
Renewable Energy Trust Asia is purely an investment vehicle that will focus on the $7-billion annual renewable energy markets of India, the Asean countries and South Korea. It plans to build a portfolio of some 200 mw through potential investments totalling $250 million (S$380 million) within the next five years.
"While RETA will look for cost-effective products and technologies with a proven track record in terms of performance, EPURON will look to cooperate with Indian companies to make significant inroads into the RE sector as this will have a positive effect to drive RETA's investment strategy," Martin Schaefer, Communications Manager, EPURON GmbH, told Projectmonitor in an email reply.
According to Schaefer, there are no proposed investments within any particular RE technologies. The investment will depend on the availability of promising projects and will not follow a special portfolio strategy. "Currently, there is no fixed mandate on the portfolio allocation. RETA will have a wide focus on any attractive investment that may surface throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As India is a focus market for EPURON, we expect that there should be substantial investment into this market," Schaefer explained.
EPURON will have the twin task of sourcing third-party projects as well as undertaking its own project development, debt financing and hardware acquisition of renewable energy projects, which it will manage on completion. On the other hand, RETA will acquire and operate projects from both EPURON and third parties and hopes to make its first investment within a year. Financial details are yet to be worked out.
Schaefer added, "EPURON will have a strong development team looking into various renewable energy technologies available in the country (jointly with Conergy)."
Conergy started offering a wide range of high-quality renewable energy solutions in India in July 2007. GE Energy Financial Services has already invested more than $4 billion in RE worldwide.