BHEL inks pact with Abengoa for solar power projects

State-run power equipment-maker BHEL today said it has signed an agreement with Spain's Abengoa to set up solar power projects in India.

"BHEL and Abengoa of Spain have joined hands to develop state-of-the-art solar power projects in India," a company statement said.

However, the statement did not divulge the financial details of the agreement.

The agreement was signed in Seville, Spain, by BHEL Chairman and Managing Director B P Rao and Abengoa Solar Chairman and CEO Santiago Seage.

The agreement will enable both the organisations to leverage their capabilities in offering EPC solutions for solar power projects in India, as well as give them the opportunity to explore cooperation on energy projects in other parts of the world, the statement said.

The agreement is significant in the context of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission launched by the government, which aims at the establishment of 20,000 MW of solar power generation capacity by 2022.

Through this agreement, BHEL and Abengoa aim to significantly reduce global warming through the use of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies that harness the energy of the sun for power generation, thereby reducing the consumption of polluting fossil fuels.

Apart from the power sector, BHEL also caters to other core sectors like industry, transportation, transmission, oil and gas, defence and renewable energy. The company has a presence in over 70 countries around the globe.

Abengoa is a global organisation with interests in the solar, bio-energy, environmental services and power generation sectors. The group has a major presence in Spain and other European Union countries, the USA and Latin America, apart from Africa and Asia.