Reliance Looking To Acquire Norwegian Solar Module Firm REC Group: Report

RIL, headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, announced last month that it would be venturing into the clean energy business with an investment outlay of Rs 75,000 crore

After announcing its foray into the renewable energy business, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) seems to be in a mood to quickly expand the business as it now pursues to acquire REC Group, a Norwegian solar module maker, a Livemint report said citing sources. 

As per the report, REC Group has an annual solar panel production capacity of 1.8 gigawatts (GW) and has installed around 10GW capacity globally. The company was founded in 1996 and has regional hubs in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Indian conglomerate RIL, headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, announced last month that it would be venturing into the clean energy business with an investment outlay of Rs 75,000 crore and would build 4 gigafactories. 

Ambani had announced plans to set up the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex on 5,000 acres in Jamnagar. The complex will have an integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) module gigafactory.

Although India is planning to develop 175GW of renewable capacity, including 100GW of solar, by 2022, the solar equipment space is dominated by Chinese manufacturers such as Trina Solar Ltd, Jinko Solar, ET Solar, Chint Solar and GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. India has a manufacturing capacity of the only 3GW for solar cells and 15GW for solar modules, said the report.

Reliance’s entry into the growing solar industry has been a highlight for many industry analysts and competitors, although some have seen this as an opportunity to build partnerships and grow the indigenous solar ecosystem of the country. 

“We will aim to achieve costs that are the lowest in the world to ensure affordability of our solar modules,” Ambani said in his speech. “Reliance will establish and enable at least 100GW of solar energy by 2030. A significant part of this will come from rooftop solar and decentralized solar installations in villages.”

However, the rumoured acquisition efforts are yet to be officially verified by any of the two companies.