Indian solar firm Cobol raises $30M

Indian solar power firm Cobol Technologies said it raised Rs 151 crore ($30 million) in convertible debt by selling a minority stake to Bermuda-based Pangea Capital.

The money is expected to come from Pangea's Emerging Infrastructure Fund, which invests in public and private Indian companies in energy, oil and gas, roads, and telecom.

The debt is expected to convert to equity in March 2012, with the stake not to exceed 49 percent of Cobol. The company is equally owned by the Puris.

Founded in 2007, Cobol plans to build a 5-megawatt solar project in Uttar Pradesh

Cobol was founded by Deepak Puri and Ratul Puri, the directors of optical storage firm Moser Baer (BSE: MOSERBAER). Moser Baer plans to start commercial production this year on a 40 MW thin film solar line supplied by Applied Materials (see Moser Baer India to start PV production).

Moser Baer also plans to set up the country's largest solar farm, a 1-to-5 MW solar project in Rajasthan in western India (see Moser Baer to build $25M solar farm in India).