Solar Power India

Businessworld
Dhanya Krishnakumar

Under the national semiconductor policy, the Centre agreed to bear 20-25 per cent of the capital expenditure of a semiconductor manufacturing or associated facility, including solar cell fabrication units (fabs), during the first 10 years. This led to spurt of interest and investments in solar energy, which is based on photovoltaic cells.

Photovoltaic refers to the creation of voltage from light. SPV systems directly convert sunlight into useful electricity. This process is called the photoelectric effect. The energy generator in a PV system is the solar cell, which are essentially thin wafers of silicon. These cells when connected in series and parallel constitute a solar panel.


That was the trigger for many players to rush into the solar photovoltaic (PV) space. With over $7 billion worth investments in PV units sanctioned in the new Fab City that is coming up in Hyderabad, and close to Rs 600 crore set aside for R&D in this area in the Eleventh Plan, the government’s solar programme is finally showing signs of growth.

The project phase itself takes about two years and only then will we get a clear picture of how much actual installed or generation capacity many of the players really have. India’s theoretical solar power reception just on its land area is about 5,000 trillion kWh per year. The daily average solar energy incident over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/sq mtr. with about 2,300-3,200 sunshine hours per year, depending on location. This is far more than current total energy consumption. Which, even assuming 10 per cent conversion efficiency for PV modules, will still be a thousand times greater than the likely electricity demand by the year 2015.


Tata BP Solar recently signed an agreement with Calyon Bank (Credit Agricole CIB) and BNP Paribas to raise Rs 3.1 billion to fund its solar cell expansion project from the present installed capacity of 128 MW to 300 MW by 2012. Players such as California-based Signet Solar are also planning three PV manufacturing units in India at an investment of over $2 billion. Moser Baer is investing close to $1.5 billion; Titan Energy Systems is planning an investment of $750 million, Nanotech Silicon India $2 billion, and Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation $1 billion.

Reliance Industries has also approached the government with plans to set up a semiconductor wafer fabrication plant and solar PV module unit at a total outlay of over Rs 30,000 crore.

Moser Baer India is the first company to invest about $1.5 billion in thin-film photovoltaic and has plans to ramp up to 600 MW over the next two years from the existing project capacity of 40 MW. This will be done in partnership with Applied Materials. Moser Baer India's thin-film photovoltaic manufacturing capacities for crystalline silicon and thin film technologies are coming up in Greater Noida and Sriperumbudur.

At the current 20 per cent annual growth, India can emerge as the fourth largest generator of solar energy after Germany, Japan and China in the coming years.