US Solar Maker, First Solar To Invest $ 684 M In TN, India
- ByAyushi Ray | July 31, 2021
US Solar maker, First Solar to invest $ 684 M in TN, India. They aim to build a 3.3 gigawatt (GW) solar module plant, which is another demonstration of how India’s import barriers on solar panels are inspiring local manufacturing. Mukesh Ambani had announced last month in Reliance’s AGM meeting, that the company is aiming to build an integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) module gigafactory, Vikram Solar recently opened a 1.3GW plant in Tamil Nadu, and Premier Energies set up a 750 megawatt (MW) each of solar cell and module capacity in Telangana. It was first reported by mint on December 17, that First Solar was to invest in TN to boost up local manufacturing of solar gears, and thus considering building solar equipment manufacturing facilities. Despite running the world’s largest clean energy programme, India has a domestic manufacturing capacity of only 3GW for solar cells and 15GW for solar modules and heavily depends on imports from China.
“First Solar, Inc. today announced that it intends to invest $684 million in a new, fully vertically-integrated photovoltaic (PV) thin film solar module manufacturing facility in India. Contingent upon permitting, and pending approval of Indian government incentives that are satisfactory to First Solar, the advanced facility is expected to commence operations in the second half of 2023,” the company said in a statement. “India stands apart in the decisiveness of its response to China’s strategy of state-subsidized global dominance of the crystalline silicon solar supply chain. The country’s comprehensive approach provides the kind of level playing field needed for non-Chinese solar manufacturers to compete on their own merits, and should be a template for other like-minded nations,“ Mark Widmar, chief executive officer of First Solar, said in the statement.
Follow Startup Story
Related Posts
