UK-based end-to-end solar energy solutions provider and independent power producer (IPP) Solargise plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in Karnataka.
The company has set a roadmap to produce 3.6 gW of solar power in India by 2022, utilising materials and components sourced from the country. Talking to Deccan Herald, Solargise India Director (Finance) Satish Vankadhari said, “We started as an IPP, and began a project of generating and supplying 150 mW of power in Rajasthan and Gujarat as part of our phase-1 development. From this year, we want to generate 300-600 mW each year, hoping to touch 3.6 gW in the next five years.”
Supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ mission, Solargise is setting up manufacturing plants for 500 mW of solar photovoltaic cells and 500 mW of third generation solar photovoltaic modules with patented technology. The state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will come up at the Dabaspet Industrial Area, near Bengaluru, for which the company’s promoters led by founder and chairman Raj Basu, have committed an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore. “We have acquired around 14 acres of land in Dabaspet, where the new facility will house a climate chamber for module reliability testing and R&D centre for energy storage solutions, and will employ 200-250 people. We’re planning to operationalise the said phase-1 plan by April 2017,” Vankadhari said.
Solar power is a burgeoning topic in India, a country blessed with over 300 days of sunshine. The government’s solar energy mission has also upgraded the needed 20 gW of solar power generation to 100 gW by 2020. “India is proactive in making impact towards climate change, and every village can be powered by solar energy. As a company, our objective is to develop the entire end-to-end value chain from quartz-to-wafer (the entire process from sourcing quartz up to manufacturing panels), sand-to-power solutions in India. India is rich in 99% pure quartz, which is ideal for manufacturing all the components needed here,” Vankadhari said. Until now, most of the components needed for generating solar energy has come from China.
As part of building the entire value chain, the company plans to invest an additional $3.5-4 billion in another facility, as part of its phase-2 plans (sometime next year), going beyond mere cell and module development. While Vankadhari did not divulge much details about the required investment, he, however, hinted at several options including institutional support along with the promoters’ fund, which may be considered at the needed time.
