Tuesday, April 29, 2008

First Reserve to invest $940m in solar energy

From the Financial Times:
First Reserve, the private equity group specialising in energy investments, on Monday announced plans to invest €600m ($938m) in a solar energy company it created through recent acquisitions in Spain and Italy....

Carbon too:

...The buy-out group has been on a spending spree in recent months, including its £906m ($1.8bn) buy-out of Abbot, the Aberdeen-based oil drilling rig operator, and its $1.5bn acquisition of CHC Helicopter, the Canadian oil services group.

Following its €261m purchase of Gamesa Solar, the Spanish solar energy company, and its acquisition of Ener3, an Italian photovoltaic plant developer, First Reserve said the €600m would be for capital expenditure at the company over four years.

It said the new solar energy company – its biggest renewable energy investment – would expand into wind power and deliver 400MW of power in four years. Two-thirds of the capacity would be operated by third parties and a third by Gamesa Solar....MORE