Greenco Group MD Anil Chalmalasetty and officials brief Bill Gates about the model of Greenco’s renewable project in Kurnool, at the venue of the G-20 Summit, in New Delhi on March 2, 2023. Photo: Special Arrangement
Ahead of the Global Investors Summit (GIS) in Visakhapatnam, the state of Andhra Pradesh and its green projects are on the radar of Bill Gates.
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation and co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, took special interest in learning about green initiatives in Andhra Pradesh, especially the green energy pumped storage project executed by Greenco Group in Kurnool I went. At the venue of the ongoing G20 Summit in New Delhi, Mr Gates took a briefing from Anil Chalmalasetty, Founder, CEO and Managing Director of Greenco.
Greenco is setting up a first of its kind Integrated Renewable Energy Storage Project (IRESP) at Kurnool. The 5,230 MW project with an estimated investment of $3 billion consists of a pumped storage (10,800 MW of daily storage), solar (3000 MW) and wind (550 MW). The project is targeted to be completed by 2024.
Mr Gates visited miniature models of the project displayed in glass enclosures at the G20 summit and sought details about the project. He was briefed about the project as well as the innovative green products Greenco is working on.
Greenco Group MD Anil Chalmalasetty and officials brief Bill Gates about the model of Greenco’s renewable project in Kurnool, at the venue of the G-20 Summit, in New Delhi on March 2, 2023. Photo: Special Arrangement
talking to Hindu Over the phone, Mr. Chalamalasetty said, “He [Mr. Gates] Surprised that we were able to do it in India on such a large scale, the result, and the products are for export to the outside world. And he is generally enthusiastic about Indian innovations in various fields. He said that apart from integrating pumped storage systems with the Central Transmission Utility (CTU), Greenco is also developing a suite of products in the area of intelligent energy cloud systems.
In pumped hydro storage projects (PHPs) like Kurnool, water is pumped from a low altitude reservoir to a high altitude using solar power and released from a higher altitude to generate electricity, mostly during night peak demand to complete.
Greenco is planning to come up with several PHPs across the country to meet the energy demand. Going forward, Greenco is working on big plans to manufacture green products for export. “We will manufacture green hydrogen and other derivatives such as ammonia and other high energy chemicals for export purposes,” said Mr. Chalamalasetti.
Greenco is also working on digitalization to enable any renewable energy generator to store energy and extract it whenever it is needed.