Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), a owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), has announced acquisition of 100 percent shareholding of REC Solar Holdings AS (REC Group) from China National Bluestar (Group) Co Ltd., for an Enterprise Value of USD 771 million. The acquisition is key to RIL’s new-energy vision to become a global-scale photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing player, with access to heterojunction technology (HJT). This also takes the conglomerate one step closer to its goal of generating or enabling generation of 100GW of solar energy by 2030, in line with India’s goal to produce 450GW of renewable energy by the same year.
Norway-headquartered REC, founded in 1996, has its operational headquarters in Singapore and regional hubs in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia Pacific. The company, with over 600 utility and design patents of which 446 have been granted and the balance is under evaluation, has always focused on research and development. RIL plans to use REC Solar’s industry-leading technology in its silicon-to-PV-panel giga factory in the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex, in Jamnagar, starting with 4GW per annum capacity and growing to 10GW per annum capacity over time. REC Solar has 5,000 MW of installed capacity in the Indian subcontinent and its solar panels have been subject to rigorous testing in India by third parties, and the panels clocked an average of 0.68% degradation in 3.8 years. REC’s website claims that its roof-mounted panels can last for at least 25 years.