Ebene, Mauritius, September 8, 2019: Azure Power Global Limited (NYSE: AZRE) (the “Company”), a leading independent solar power producer in India, today announced certain operational and financial updates.
This is not an offer to sell or purchase nor the solicitation of an offer to sell or purchase securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state or jurisdiction in which, or to any person to whom such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
Operational Update
Overview
Our mission is to be the lowest-cost power producer in the world. We sell solar power in India on long-term fixed price contracts to our customers, at prices which in many cases are at or below prevailing alternatives for these customers. We are also developing micro-grid applications for the highly fragmented and underserved electricity market in India. Since 2011, we have achieved an 85% reduction in total solar project cost, including an 86% decrease in balance of systems costs, due in part to our value engineering, design and procurement efforts.
Indian solar capacity installed reached approximately 29.4 GW at the end of June 2019 with a target to achieve 100 GW of installed solar capacity by 2022. Solar power is a cleaner, faster-to-build and cost-effective alternative energy solution to coal and diesel-based power, the economic and climate costs of which continue to increase every year. Through its use of solar power, we estimate that the Company has avoided the release of approximately 4.9 million tons CO2, which is equivalent to the byproduct of burning approximately 3.4 million tons of coal.
Founded in 2008, we developed India’s first utility scale solar project in 2009 at Awan, Punjab. Our operational rated capacity has grown at a CAGR of more than 87% since March 2012, and as of June 30, 2019, we operated 41 utility scale projects and several commercial rooftop projects with a combined rated capacity of 1,609 MW. Additionally, in July 2019, we commissioned 50 MW of the Rajasthan 5 solar power project and in September 2019 we commissioned 130 MW of the Maharashtra 3 solar power project, bringing our combined rated capacity to 1,789 MW.
We conduct our rooftop solar business under the brand “Azure Roof Power”. We believe that we have one of the largest rooftop portfolios in India and our customers include large commercial real estate companies, a leading global chain of premium hotels, distribution companies in Smart Cities, warehouse owners, train corporations and water supply companies. We entered into an arrangement for US$ 135 million, which we believe is the largest solar rooftop debt warehousing financing in India, with a consortium led by International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group and attracted the participation of leading institutions, including FMO - the Dutch development bank, Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique (Proparco) – the French development finance institution, and Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG (OeEB) – the development bank of Austria.
Utility scale solar projects are typically awarded through government auctions. We believe the strong demand for our solar power is a result of the following:
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