New energy transition platform Jakson Green is targeting a commissioned operational fleet of 12.5 gigawatt (Gw) over the next 24 months, including 2.5 Gw of independent power producer (IPP) projects and around 9.5 Gw of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects.
The company’s portfolio includes 500 megawatt-hours of battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, along with 7 Gw of projects in the operations and maintenance (O&M) segment. While some projects are already commissioned, others are at various stages of development, construction, and commissioning.
The company is expanding its IPP portfolio, with around 1 Gw of projects fully financed and currently under execution. “The remaining IPP projects are under active discussion with lenders for financial closure. These projects have secured land, permits, connectivity, and power purchase agreements and are at an advanced stage of development,” Vice-Chairman and Global Chief Executive Officer Bikesh Ogra said in an interview.
The green energy firm aims to be among the leading IPP players over the next four to five years. “Every year, we will be participating in bids across central and state policies and also in the commercial and industrial segment,” he added.
Jakson is targeting 30 Gw of renewable IPP and EPC capacity by 2030. It is also building adjacent businesses within the energy transition space, including water desalination, for which it acquired technology from a Netherlands-based company.
It has also incubated a compressed biogas business within Jakson Green, along with biomass pellet manufacturing, biomass gasification, steam-as-a-service, and biomass gasification for producing syngas (synthesis gas) and biochar. “We want to create a lot of these plants as ownership-based projects over the next four to five years and create an O&M portfolio for all these assets under one bucket. We will manage these portfolios, whether they involve hydrogen, ammonia or renewable assets,” Ogra said.
For investment in all its new ventures, Jakson Green is following multiple paths to raise capital. For the IPP business, which includes renewable energy and BESS, it has established partnerships. “We divested a substantial amount of our shareholding so that we could get a premium and utilise it to develop more assets. That is how we want to recycle capital,” he said.
Discussions are also taking place on some of the other assets under the same model. “There are multiple partners lined up in special purpose vehicles to work with us once we have the developed portfolio in place. They will either come in as a substantial majority or majority partners,” Ogra said.
Recently, the company won a green ammonia project awarded by the Solar Energy Corporation of India, which is currently under development. The order would account for 85,000 tonnes of annual offtake. Ogra said the land for ammonia production in the Gopalpur Special Economic Zone has been acquired, and front-end engineering and design is complete. “We should start construction of the green hydrogen production project by the end of this year,” he added.
He also mentioned that land is currently being acquired for the renewable assets that will feed the hydrogen and ammonia production. Construction of those assets will begin in the first quarter of the next calendar year.
According to the offtake agreement, the commissioning deadline is the end of 2028, and supplies to agrochemical company Coromandel International will start in the first quarter of 2029. At the same time, the balance of the offtake supply would also be ready, he said.
The company has commissioned a few pilot projects, including a green methanol project that captures carbon from the flue gases of a thermal power plant, mixes it with hydrogen produced from electrolysers and puts it into a methanol loop. The project was delivered to NTPC.
On the country’s green hydrogen ambitions, Ogra said the objective is to convert 10 per cent of the actual hydrogen consumption of refineries, steel plants, cement plants, and fertiliser units, where hydrogen is used for ammonia, into green fuels. “We can see that traction happening over the next year to a year and a half,” he said.
Around 30,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of production capacity has been awarded. The government plans to bid out and auction around 200,000 tonnes of hydrogen in tranches of 5,000–10,000 tpa over the next 12–18 months, Ogra said. “The development cycle for these projects is 24–30 months, after which rollout and construction will begin,” he added.
In terms of price, green hydrogen is following the same trajectory as renewables, he said. “The first price discovered was around $3–4 per kilogram. It has come down substantially, with the last bid coming in almost 20–25 per cent lower than the earlier bid,” he said.
Observing that the cost of renewables and electrolyser technology drives the cost of green hydrogen, he said the technology is evolving in terms of the units of electricity consumed per kilogram of hydrogen produced. “Capital expenditure is becoming more efficient; the longevity of electrolysers in terms of age and number of operating hours is also increasing. At the same time, the costs of renewables and battery prices are consistently coming down,” he said.
