RIL invests in German co, 3rd solar deal within 3 days

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries (RIL) will invest in Germany’s NexWafe for 25 million euros (Rs 217 crore), marking its third deal in clean energy. A couple of days ago, RIL inked deals to buy Norwegian-headquartered solar panel maker REC Solar Holdings and India’s Sterling and Wilson Solar.

NexWafe develops and produces monocrystalline silicon wafers grown directly from inexpensive raw materials. By going directly from the gas phase to finished wafers, it obviates the need for costly and energy-intensive intermediate steps such as polysilicon production and ingot pulling on which traditional wafer manufacturing relies. The NexWafe transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this month.