ETMarkets Management Talk | AI and data centres are powering CleanMax's next growth engine; 42% of portfolio now comes from the segment, says Kuldeep Jain

India's artificial intelligence and data centre boom is creating a new and potentially massive demand cycle—not just for chips and computing infrastructure, but for clean and reliable power.

For CleanMax, one of India's largest renewable energy companies focused on commercial and industrial customers, Data & AI has already emerged as the fastest-growing business segment. Nearly 42% of its contracted renewable power sales capacity now caters to Data & AI customers, with the segment growing nearly tenfold over the past two years.

In an interaction with Kshitij Anand of ETMarkets, Kuldeep Jain, Founder and Managing Director of CleanMax, says the rapid expansion of hyperscalers and data centres is fundamentally changing the scale and nature of renewable energy demand.


As data centres operate round the clock, customers are increasingly moving beyond plain-vanilla solar towards integrated wind, solar, hybrid projects and energy storage solutions.

The opportunity could be enormous. According to Jain, every 1 GW of data centre IT load can translate into nearly 1.5 GW of continuous power demand, requiring around 6 GW of renewable capacity along with significant energy storage investments.

With its contracted renewable power sales capacity reaching nearly 6 GW and partnerships with global technology giants including Google, Meta and Apple, CleanMax is positioning itself at the intersection of two of India's biggest structural growth stories—AI infrastructure and clean energy. Edited Excerpts –

Q) CleanMax has built a strong position in India's C&I renewable energy market. What are the biggest growth opportunities you see over the next 3–5 years, and how large can the C&I market become?

A) As India's largest renewable energy player for the commercial and industrial sector, we're witnessing a massive shift in this space. India is the world's third-largest power market, and more than half of that demand comes from C&I consumers. The corporate renewable energy market is still underpenetrated, accounting for less than 10% of corporate India's power consumption, highlighting the scale of the opportunity ahead.

We're already seeing that opportunity translate into growth. Our contracted capacity has more than tripled since March’24 to 6 GW. Within that, conventional C&I demand alone has more than doubled from 1.6 GW to 3.5 GW, as industries expand their operations and move a larger share of their power consumption to renewables.

At the same time, 42% of our portfolio caters to Data & AI players. Having partnered with global technology majors like Apple, Amazon, Meta and Google over the years reflects both this trend and the strong market potential ahead.

The value proposition is also compelling. Renewable energy can reduce power costs by 30–45%, lower carbon emissions, and help businesses achieve their ESG and Net Zero ambitions. We expect this segment to continue growing strongly.

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Q) Your contracted renewable energy portfolio has grown significantly. What is the current order pipeline, and how much additional capacity do you expect to contract over the next 12–24 months?

A) Our contracted portfolio, consisting of renewable energy power sales (own or co-own assets under long-term PPAs and Group Captive structures) and renewable energy services (EPC and O&M for customer-owned assets), that has more than tripled over past 2 years.

RE Power Sales contracted capacity reached ~6.0 GW as of 30 June’26. Of this, 3.5 GW is operational, with the remaining 2.5 GW contracted and under execution.

CleanMax's total contracted capacity, including the RE Services segment, stood at 6.8 GW as of 30 June 2026, with 1.6 GW contracted during the trailing twelve months.

We continue to build at pace and are on track to meet our guidance of ~1.5 GW of capacity additions for FY 2026–27, reflecting the strength of both customer demand and our execution pipeline.

Q) How is the mix between solar, wind and hybrid projects evolving in your portfolio? Are customers increasingly looking for round-the-clock renewable power rather than plain-vanilla solar?

A) The portfolio is roughly 70% solar and 30% wind. The generation mix is more balanced because wind typically delivers higher utilisation than solar.

Wind-solar hybrid projects are gaining ground rapidly because they generate power more evenly through the day and improve overall output. That's driving demand towards hybrid and open-access Group Captive models. BESS is increasingly becoming the next layer of that transition, making round-the-clock clean energy more feasible.

Q) How do you see the recent partnerships with large global technology companies changing the scale and nature of CleanMax's business?

A) Technology companies require larger, longer-duration and expansion-led clean energy roadmaps. They're increasingly looking for integrated solutions across wind, solar, hybrids and newer procurement structures. That raises both the customization and sophistication of every engagement for us.

Our Data & AI customer base comprises two types of customers: (1) hyperscalers, where we hold a 35%+ market share of deals signed since 2024 and (2) colocation providers, with more than 40 deals across multiple customers.

Being the partner they turn to isn't a one-off win. It's a position that compounds because, as they expand, we grow with them.

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Q) Data centres and AI-related businesses have emerged as a major source of renewable energy demand. How significant could this segment become for CleanMax, and what are customers asking for that is different from traditional C&I clients?

A) Data and AI has become the most powerful demand story in our sector and the build-out has years of steep growth ahead. We're exceptionally well positioned to win that demand with strong relationships and proven execution in the C&I market. For CleanMax, this is now our fastest-growing segment 42% of our contracted RE Power Sales capacity, up nearly tenfold in two years.

That is reflected in the partnerships we've already signed: Google (125 MW), Meta (900 MW), a ₹100 crore co-investment partnership with Apple, repeat business with STT GDC (130 MW+ relationship), and deals with Iron Mountain, PDG, L&T data centre, STT, NTT, Equinix, Cisco among others.

Every 1 GW of data centre IT load translates into ~1.5 GW of continuous power demand. Meeting that reliably takes around 6 GW of renewable capacity backed by 2 to 4 GWh of storage, roughly ₹40,000 crore of renewable investment for every gigawatt of data centre load.

And the companies driving this build-out have made carbon-neutrality commitments across their entire value chain. Operations run 24x7, so they need scale delivered through wind-solar hybrids, and increasingly through newer instruments like VPPAs and I-RECs that let them meet enterprise-wide decarbonisation goals across geographies.

Q) CARE Ratings upgraded CleanMax to AA-/Stable from A+/Positive. What does the upgrade change for you in terms of borrowing costs, access to capital and ability to fund the next phase of expansion?

A) As our portfolio has grown, our credit quality has steadily improved, and the move to AA-/Stable reflects our strengthened financial profile and growing scale.

The upgrade reflects a broader multi-year trend of improving credit quality as our portfolio has scaled and diversified. This is translated into a lower cost of capital: our weighted average cost of project borrowing has fallen from 9.2% as of April 1, 2025, to 8.4% as of June 30, 2026.

Q) If we speak again 12 months from now, what are the key business milestones you would want CleanMax to have achieved in terms of contracted capacity, operational capacity, customers and profitability?

A) Our FY27 guidance is ~1.5 GW of capacity additions. Our FY28 guidance is a minimum run-rate EBITDA of ₹3,000 crore. We'd also expect to continue growing beyond our current base of 593 C&I customers, alongside continued expansion in Data & AI.

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