By Isabella Kaminski

FE Clean Energy Group, a private equity fund focusing on clean energy, has invested US$40 million (£25m) in NSL Renewable Power Private Limited (NRPPL), which is part of the Hyderabad-based NSL Group. NRPPL will use the capital to meet equity commitments for its wind, hydro and solar power projects.

NRPPL recently demerged from Nuziveedu Seeds and has since been lookig to raise capital to fuel its growth in the renewable energy sector. The company has about 162 MW of installed capacity in renewable energy comprising of 150 MW of wind power (including a 50 MW wind farm which is expected to be commissioned later this month) and two 6 MW biomass plants.

NRPPL is also constructing two medium-scale hydropower projects (100 MW and 44 MW) and two small-scale hydropower projects (5 MW and 6 MW) in Himachal Pradesh in Northern India. It recently entered into solar power generation and is currently constructing a 20 MW solar power project in Gujarat, which is expected to be commissioned by December 2011. NRPPL also has 7 wind power projects under development totaling over 700 MW, which it says will be implemented over the next two to three years.

Prabhakar Rao, Chairman of NSL Group, says: “We are excited about the investment by FE Clean Energy Group and value their association as our long-term partner. This investment will enable the company to ramp up capacity and facilitate further fund raising to achieve our vision of being a 1000 MW Company by 2015 in the renewable energy space.”

Anand Prakash, Managing Director of FE Clean Energy Group, says: “NSL’s diversified portfolio is ideally positioned to grow in the next few years and FE Clean Energy is very excited to join NSL on its growth journey to become the largest diversified renewable energy company in India.”