India to see a bloom in solar industry
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 05 July 2007, 19:30 IST
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Bangalore: With the Indian government announcing incentives for manufacturing solar cells and panels earlier this year, it has targeted meeting 10 percent of the country's power needs through renewable energy by 2012. This has spurred a flurry of announcements by companies looking to join the nascent solar industry here. Tata BP Solar, a joint venture between the Tata Group of India and BP Solar of the United Kingdom, operates one of the oldest solar-energy equipment manufacturing plants in India, near Bangalore. The plant is being expanded now, at an additional investment of $100 million. EDA industry veteran Prabhu Goel's Signet Solar has announced the most ambitious plans thus far?an investment of $2 billion over 10 years to set up three plants in India. Signet operates a plant in Germany and expects to leverage that experience to ramp production here. Signet will conduct R&D in Germany and India and try to drive down costs though product innovation, said Goel, Signet's chairman. The company is courting customers among photovoltaic system integrators and installers of solar farms. India based Moser Baer has announced building of a $250 million plant to make solar energy products in northern India using technology from Applied Materials. "The global photovoltaics market is on a high-growth curve, and sales are expected to grow by six times, to $40 billion, by 2010. We believe our expertise in related production technologies will help us get a leadership position in the global PV industry," said Ravi Khanna, CEO, Moser Baer Photo Voltaic. "When operational, the plant is expected to generate annual sales approaching $100 million, largely but not exclusively through exports. The photovoltaics business is not capital-intensive and promises a high return," Khanna added. U.S.-based Cypress Semiconductor, meanwhile, is reportedly considering a $50 million facility to make solar cells and wafers near the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, likely through SunPower, in which it holds a majority stake. SunTechnics Energy, a subsidiary of Germany's SunTechnics Gmbh, has a manufacturing plant in Bangalore and plans to expand it. Applied Materials offers equipment for manufacturing both crystalline silicon technology and thin-film solar panels. Local growth of the solar industry has benefited technology providers such as Applied Materials, which is poised to see a pickup in its business in India.