Chennai based BGR Energy is close to finalising a deal for getting into the solar power industry, with Flagsol GmbH, a subsidiary of Solar Millennium of Germany.

It is learnt that the Indian partner will hold 60 per cent stake in the joint venture that would be created.

For starters, the joint venture is looking at setting up a 50-MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Rajasthan. The plant of that size would call for an investment of about Rs 650 crore.

Solar Millennium is a well-known name in the solar thermal industry, and is the company that put up the first CSP plant in Europe (at Andasol in Spain).

Flagsol GmbH is a joint venture between Solar Millennium AG (74.9 per cent) and another company called Ferrostaal AG (25.1 per cent). Based in Cologne, Germany, Flagsol provides the technology for parabolic trough power plants.

The Rs 4,763-crore BGR Energy has been in the business of supplying ‘balance of plant' equipment for coal-based power projects – equipment such as coal and ash handling plants. Recently, the company has entered into the manufacture of boilers and turbines for supercritical thermal power plants, in collaboration with Hitachi, Germany, a part of the Japanese Hitachi group.

BGR Energy has been in the news recently, having won orders worth Rs 3,600 crore from NTPC for the supply of five sets of turbine-generators – an order that it won against competition from players such as BHEL, L&T-Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Alstom.

Mr B.G. Raghupathy, BGR Energy's Chairman, told Business Line that the company has big ambitions in the renewable energy space too.

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