ABB, Siemens eye renewable energy sector in India

According to reports, Global majors such as ABB and Siemens aim to tap India’s renewable energy sector for power equipment and automation business. ABB, the Swiss-Swedish power equipment and automation company, is eyeing orders from solar power developers with two recent acquisitions in the solar technology space.

“We are already in the invertor market in the solar sector,” said Bazmi R Husain, managing director, ABB India. “In December, we acquired stake in the US-based GreenVolts, which makes solar photovoltaic panels with 40% conversion efficiency. In India general conversion rate is 20%. We also acquired a company called Novatec, they offer solar thermal technology. We are going with all of them.”

Siemens, the competitor of ABB, also eyes major share in the solar invertor market. Solar plants generate direct current (DC) and needs invertors to convert it into alternate current (AC) to connect it to the power grid. EPC players such as Moser Baer, Tata Power and Lanco are target customers for Siemens and ABB.

Siemens also sees potential in automation of solar plants. “India’s solar mission plan is very promising,” said Karl-heinz Kaul, global CEO, Siemens Industry Automation Control Equipment. “We expect this will expand the solar power capacity in a big way. We see potential business in automation of solar plants as well as in sale of equipment such as solar tracker.”