Elevion Group to buy RWE's Belectric business in Europe, Israel

Elevion Group, the Netherlands-based energy service provider of Czech CEZ Group, is buying the European and Israeli business of solar PV plant developer Belectric from RWE AG (ETR:RWE), the German energy major said on Friday, confirming an earlier announcement by the German competition regulator.

The sale includes the operations of Belectric Solar & Battery, which provides third-party solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as well as operations and maintenance (O&M) services. Belectric's battery storage business is not part of the deal because the Essen-based energy group needs its capabilities to expand its battery storage operations and raise the group's installed battery capacity to 3 GW by the end of the decade. RWE is already taking part in battery projects with a combined capacity of over 0.6 GW.

Founded in 2001, Belectric is a 100% subsidiary of RWE Renewables and focuses on utility-scale solar power plants and energy storage systems. The company has built over 460 solar PV power plants with 3.85 GWp of installed capacity and has a further 685 MW under construction. It also provides maintenance services. After the sale to Elevion, the business will continue to develop projects and provide services in the solar sector.

With the divestment of Belectric, RWE aims to focus its solar operations on project development and operation while the construction of solar plants will be contracted. The group is currently working on solar projects of a combined 1.2 GW and has a development pipeline of 10 GW.

The announcement of the deal with Elevion comes after Germany's competition authority, the Federal Cartel Office, said in November, that CEZ had applied on November 11 for regulatory approval to take over Belectric.

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