Reliance Buys REC Solar Holdings From China’s Bluestar For $771 Million

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance New Energy Solar (RNESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), has acquired REC Solar Holdings AS (REC Group) from China National Bluestar (Group). An RIL assertion mentioned the transaction is for an Enterprise Value of $771 million.

While the REC Group relies in Norway, it was managed by the Chinese government-owned China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina), which holds 79.5 per cent stake in China National Bluestar (Group) Company. Bluestar had acquired REC Solar in 2014 for $640 million.

“REC is headquartered in Norway and has its operational headquarters in Singapore and regional hubs in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia-Pacific. The 25-year-old company has three manufacturing facilities-–two in Norway for making solar grade polysilicon and one in Singapore making PV cells and modules,” the RIL assertion added.

Back in 2014, REC Group was going through excessive prices and worth competitors from different Chinese photo voltaic gear producers. The choice to shift operational headquarters and manufacturing amenities out of Norway was aimed toward reducing prices.

According to a report by Jefferies India, REC is the one firm globally to commercialise tech that consumes 75 per cent much less energy than Chinese corporations. “REC has implemented the Fluidized Bed Reactor (FBR) tech for producing polysilicon on a commercial scale. The FBR process consumes 75-80 per cent less energy than the traditional Siemens process that Chinese players use. REC’s plants have a long operating history of reliability and quality,” the report mentioned.

According to RIL, REC has over 600 utility and design patents, of which 446 are granted and steadiness are below analysis. “It always had a strong focus on research and development and now, coupled with Reliance’s world-class innovation, scale, and operational excellence, will further accelerate path breaking technological developments and introduction of new products,” RIL mentioned.

In January 2021, China’s Patent Office upheld the validity of REC’s cut up cell and junction field know-how patent. According to REC, this know-how, that was developed in-house, is a key characteristic of REC Group’s superior photo voltaic panels. REC Group had raised the dispute to guard its mental property by means of a patent infringement lawsuit in opposition to Korea-based Hanwha Q Cells in February 2020.

More lately, in May this yr, REC introduced the launch of its TwinPeak 4 Series, the fourth technology of its premium photo voltaic panels for residential and industrial rooftop installations.

REC can at present produce 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of photo voltaic panels yearly. It has round 10 GW of put in solar energy technology capability all over the world.

“Reliance will strongly support REC’s planned expansions including 2-3 Gw Cells and Module capacity in Singapore, brand new 2 Gw Cells and Module unit in France and another 1 Gw Modules plant in the US,” the RIL assertion mentioned.

“In India, Reliance plans to use this industry leading technology in their fully integrated, metallic Silicon to PV Panel manufacturing giga factory at Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex, Jamnagar initially starting with 4 Gw per annum capacity and eventually growing to 10 GW per annum,” the assertion added.

Commenting on the acquisition, RIL’s Chairman Ambani mentioned, “It (the acquisition) is in line with our strategy of investing in new and advanced technologies and operating capabilities aimed at achieving Reliance’s goal of enabling 100 Gw clean and green energy before the end of this decade.”

“Together with our other recent investments, Reliance is now ready to set up a global scale integrated Photovoltaic Giga factory and make India a manufacturing hub for lowest cost and highest efficiency solar panels,” Ambani added.