JLTM
- Mr. Manu Bishnoi, Director India, Technique Solaire
1. Please share an overview of your company's journey and business landscape in India
JLTM Energy (Technique Solaire, India) is a subsidiary of French company, Technique Solaire (Groupe JLT Invest), working in the field of renewable energy as an Independent Power Producer (IPP) since 2008. The group was founded by three French citizens, Julien Fleury, Lionel Themine & Thomas De Moussac and has a turnover of over € 240 Million & more than 250 employees as of December 2024. Bpifrance and Credit Agricole Regional Investment are shareholders at group level.
Technique Solaire is active in Solar & Biogas sector in France, India, French Caribbean islands, Netherlands & Spain with an operational portfolio of approx. 0.6GW and a pipeline of over 2GW in various stages of development. At group level, the target is to have an operational portfolio of 1GW by the end of 2025 & 4GW by the end of 2030 out of which India level target is to reach 1GW by the end of 2030.
In India, the company started its operations in 2014. At present, the company has nine operational solar ground projects in India supplying electricity to state electricity/utility companies (spread across Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & Goa). The total India portfolio is approx. 210MW with a pipeline of 150MW.
2. As a business leader, how do you see the emerging opportunities and potential growth areas for your company or sector in India?
Renewable energy is at the heart of Indian Government’s growth story. With 500GW of target set by the government until 2030, the sector is poised to grow. The kind of scalability and potential that India offers is comparable to no other territory in the world. The sector has its own challenges w.r.t. ease of doing business, execution & implementation of projects, regulatory and policy ambiguity. These challenges are being addressed by the government keeping in mind the energy security of the nation however one cannot rule it out completely and is a part and parcel of doing business.
We have grown both organically and inorganically in India and we intend to keep following the same strategy. The trends seen in the recent tenders are sensible and we are closely following this to resume our greenfield strategy and in parallel, we continue with our M&A activities.
3. Looking ahead, how do you see innovation and sustainable business practices shaping your company's growth strategy?
We are working in the renewable energy sector hence needless to say, sustainability is the key point for us. The world needs to continue decreasing greenhouse emissions and dependence on fossil fuels and that is why Technique Solaire as a group in only into renewable energy. In France, we are one of the leaders on the Agrivoltaics where we combine solar with agriculture and we intend work on some of it to brings such projects to India. At group level, we have a dedicated team on the innovation to explore new technologies and models related to our sector and see how best to adopt those commercially.
4. With an increasing emphasis on CSR, how do you integrate your CSR goals with your business strategy?
Our CSR goals are unrelated to our business, and we intend to keep it that way. Technique Solaire is active on CSR initiatives focussing on Child Education. This is something very close to our management’s vision and last year we adopted a government school nearby Noida, India to improve the infrastructure and we intend to undertake more initiatives this year on solarisation and digitalisation of the school. As we grow, we would continue to work on more of such initiatives.
5. How has IFCCI and its business network added value to your operations in India?
IFCCI has been very instrumental in adding value to India-France relationship and to businesses such as ours. IFCCI has helped us to understand the Indian market during the initial years & this platform brings together Indo-French network from time to time which helps us to learn and adapt from each other. The sectorial committees and business meetings also help in giving a stronger Indo-French voice/opinion to the local governments and departments. We are also working with IFCCI CSR Department for our CSR initiatives.
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