International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank is mulling over to $30 million (about Rs 135 crore) debt-equity investment in clean energy firm Shalivahana Green Energy (SGEL), which focuses on bio-mass and hydro-electricity space.

The Secunderabad-based firm might be raising $15 million in an equity round from IFC, besides it will also look to raise $15 million in debt for one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries from IFC, taking the overall funding to $30 million.

Shalivahana has assets across biomass, hydro and wind energy generation. It currently has an installed capacity of 47 MW spread across five plants and with projects worth another 200 MW under various stages of implementation.

The company is currently constructing three new biomass power plants that will bring additional capacity of about 45 MW by March 2011. It currently has another 2 biomass projects of 23 MW each under its subsidiary Rake Power Limited (RPL), which already has an existing 10 MW installed capacity.

These two new plants, located in Jharkhand and Orissa, are expected to cost $25 million each. The loan from IFC, which will have a tenor of up to 12 years, will be made to Rake Power.

Apart from debt and equity investment, under the IFC Post-2012 Carbon Facility the World Bank arm plans to forward purchase up to three million Certified Emission Reductions from Shalivahana’s projects.

The firm had earlier received funding from Axis Private Equity and an arm of infrastructure major Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). While IL&FS Energy Development Company has a 20 per cent stake in Shalivahana, Axis Infrastructure Fund holds another 29.9 per cent stake currently. Axis PE and IL&FS invested Rs 90 crore ($18 million) in Shalivahana back in June 2009. Shalivahana Group, promoted by M Komaraiah and family, is also engaged in other businesses like civil construction, education and cement production.

According to a recent World Bank Report, more than three-fourths of electricity production depends on coal and natural gas. At current usage levels, India’s coal reserves are projected to run out in 45 years. India already imports 10 percent of its coal for electricity generation, and the figure is projected to increase to 16 percent by 2011.

“With about 150 gigawatts of known resource potential of which only about 10 percent has been developed, renewable energy can be an important part of the solution to India s energy shortage,” it added.