CleanMax plans ₹50,000-crore investment in Andhra Pradesh to power 2 GW green compute factory

Mumbai: Betting on the growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres, CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions Ltd plans to invest nearly ₹50,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh to build an integrated clean energy ecosystem comprising 3 GW of renewable energy capacity and 1 GW of pumped hydro storage to power a 2 GW green compute factory.

The company on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB), Government of Andhra Pradesh, for the proposed investment. The integrated power infrastructure will support a compute factory being developed in Kurnool district in collaboration with AI cloud provider Neysa, which will anchor the facility with 1 GW of IT load.

The proposed energy infrastructure will combine wind and solar generation with pumped hydro and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to ensure round-the-clock electricity supply to the compute facility. CleanMax will also develop and operate a dedicated distribution network within the park to deliver power.


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The projects will be developed in phases, with at least 1.5 GW of renewable energy capacity targeted for development by 2029. Under the proposed arrangement, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) owned and operated by CleanMax will apply to the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) for a distribution licence to establish a dedicated power distribution network for the compute factory.

The company said the integrated model would align power generation, storage and distribution with the computing facility's electricity requirements, allowing clean energy infrastructure to be developed alongside the growth in power demand.

The compute factory will also adopt direct-to-chip cooling technology to limit water consumption and rely on water supplies allocated for industrial use by the local administration.

As part of its social responsibility commitments, CleanMax will work with United Way of Hyderabad to upgrade infrastructure at local primary schools and Anganwadis. It will also partner with Pratham Education Foundation to train local youth for entry-level jobs at compute facilities and provide specialised training in advanced cooling and power systems to final-year students at industrial training institutes and engineering colleges.

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Neysa will additionally provide computing resources to leading research institutions in Andhra Pradesh.

"Compute is becoming one of the largest new sources of power demand, and it needs clean energy that is available every hour of the day. In Andhra Pradesh, we are planning generation, storage and distribution integrated with the compute load they serve, rather than one after the other," said Kuldeep Jain, founder and managing director of CleanMax.

He said Andhra Pradesh's clean energy policy framework and wind and solar resources made it suitable for developing the integrated model at scale.