BGR Energy to tie-up with German company for solar entry

Chennaibased BGR Energy is close to finalising a deal for getting into thesolar power industry, with Flagsol GmbH, a subsidiary of SolarMillennium of Germany. The Indian partner will hold 60 per cent stakein the joint venture that would be created. For starters, the jointventure is looking at setting up a 50-MW concentrated solar power(CSP) plant in Rajasthan. The plant of that size would call for aninvestment of about Rs 650 crore. Solar Millennium is a well-knownname in the solar thermal industry, and is the company that put upthe first CSP plant in Europe (at Andasol in Spain).

FlagsolGmbH is a joint venture between Solar Millennium AG (74.9 per cent)and another company called Ferrostaal AG (25.1 per cent). Based inCologne, Germany, Flagsol provides the technology for parabolictrough power plants. The Rs 4,763-crore BGR Energy has been in thebusiness of supplying ‘balance of plant' equipment for coal-basedpower projects – equipment such as coal and ash handling plants.Recently, the company has entered into the manufacture of boilers andturbines for supercritical thermal power plants, in collaborationwith Hitachi, Germany, a part of the Japanese Hitachi group.