Deutz Completes Blue Star Power Systems Acquisition, Growing in Power Generation Market
Deutz has completed its previously announced purchase of all the shares in Blue Star Power Systems Inc. Headquartered in North Mankato, Minn., Blue Star Power Systems develops, produces, and sells electric generators.
“We are delighted to welcome the team at Blue Star Power Systems to our Deutz family,” said CEO Dr. Sebastian Schulte. “We are strengthening our business and accelerating our efforts to build up our decentralized energy supply activities under our Dual+ strategy. This means we can put Deutz on a broader and more resilient footing.”
For Deutz, the acquisition is an important step from a component manufacturer to a solutions provider. Deutz engines have long been used in generator sets, and now the company is laying the foundations for offering complete solutions for local power generation.
“We are proud of what we have built up together as a team here at Blue Star Power Systems,” said founder Doug Fahrforth, who will continue to run the company until 2026. “We are pleased to be able to take our business to the next level as part of Deutz. Drawing on our extensive product range and strong branch network, we will expand globally and enhance our portfolio of sustainable products.”
Deutz anticipates that the acquisition of Blue Star Power Systems will provide additional profitable revenue ranging from more than $100 million to $150 million per year. Building on this, revenue in the energy business is expected to increase to approximately €500 million by 2030 through both organic growth and growth by acquisition.
By taking this step, Deutz is pursuing expansion in the increasingly important field of decentralized energy supply, in which gensets play a key role. The main drivers of growth in this field are the greater frequency of severe weather events, rising global demand for electricity against a backdrop of aging infrastructure, and a rapidly increasing proportion of renewables that is leading to fluctuation in electricity generation.
The growing significance of data centers and micro-networks is also supporting the global market for gensets, which is predicted to increase in volume to $34.5 billion by 2030. This equates to an annual growth rate of 5.9 percent.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.