Friday, February 21, 2014: Hindustan Cleanenergy, now known as the Moser Baer Projects, reportedly plans to do an IPO in the Indian stock markets, this year. The company, recently, also received a large investment by a US based Blackstone.
Moser Baer is building various solar farm projects, across India, as the company plans to complete a total of 500 MW capacity of solar power via many solar power units by the end of this year. It aims to double the company’s energy capacity by 2016.
The focus on the solar energy, specifically, came as India’s thermal power sector is heading towards a dull market and production. Obligations like the lack of fuel have led to low usage for new thermal power plants and furthering towards heavy losses. One of the major head-ahead of solar and wind energy, over thermal energy, is that they do not require any fuel source.
With the government focussing over the clean energy sources, the company shifted its focus on solar power. Many Indian states have reportedly charged up subsidies and leniency towards solar installations. The on-going low prices of solar panels have made solar energy highly attractive for most states.
Solar developers have evidently been making money, despite hard competition within the sector, itself. Due to toppling prices of solar components required to build solar plant, India reportedly has one of the lowest costs of installing solar power plants, mainly due to the low labour costs. Almost inexpensive imports from China also added to low solar prices. The price has gone down to Rs 6.5 to 8 per KwH in the previous year alone, from Rs 18 per KwH in 2010.
