Reliance eyes acquisition of Norway solar module maker REC

Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning to acquire Norwegian solar module maker REC Group as part of the company’s Rs 75,000 crore push into clean energy, informed two people aware of the development. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, had declared plans to establish the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex on 5,000 acres in Jamnagar at the company’s annual general meeting last month. The green energy complex will have an integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) module giga factory. Norway’s REC Group, with a yearly solar panel generation capacity of 1.8 gigawatts (GW), has established around 10GW capacity globally. REC, founded in 1996, has regional hubs in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. Although India intends to develop 175 GW of renewable capacity, including 100 GW of solar, the solar equipment space is controlled by Chinese manufacturers like Jinko Solar, Chint Solar, ET Solar, Trina Solar Ltd, and GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. India has a manufacturing capacity of only about 15 GW for solar modules and 3 GW for solar cells. In 2020, Ambani had shared the aim to build the next big Value Creation Engine for Reliance and India – New Energy and New Materials business and declared the company's 15-year commitment to growing into a net carbon zero by the year 2035. Image Source Also read: Anant Ambani appointed as Director for two Reliance solar divisions Also read: Adani Green's acquisition of 100% stake in SB Energy gets CCI nod