Global investment firm KKR has launched its new renewable energy platform called Stellar Renewable Power to develop and operate utility scale solar power plants and storage facilities, with offices planned in India and Dallas, Texas.

Specifically, Stellar’s business model will be to source opportunities through greenfield development and acquisitions of early-stage assets from other developers. It will operate on behalf of KKR’s Asset-Based Finance (ABF) strategy. KKR said funding for the platform’s activities will come from separate insurance accounts it manages.

A statement from KKR does not identify any pipeline or geographical focus regions or timeline to start work on the projects.

The new platform will be headed by Vijay Venkatachalam who is credited by the company of having managed nearly 7 GW of utility scale solar capacity in the US and India. Venkatachalam will build the team for Stellar over the next few months.

“As the need for renewable energy continues to grow substantially, we look forward to working together with Vijay and his team to source and develop high-quality solar energy investments that are a strong fit for our long-term capital,” said Christopher Mellia, Managing Director at KKR.

It follows the company’s October 2020 announcement for the launch of a renewable energy platform in India called Virescent Infrastructure to be headed by Sanjay Grewal. Back then, KKR said it had more than 10 GW of total operational renewable energy capacity globally (see India PV News Snippets: SECI, Avaada, Infosys, KKR, BPE).