India aims to raise PV manufacturing capacity despite idled factories

Indian state-owned electricity generation company NTPC Ltd. has issued an invitation for Expressions of Interest (EoI) for the construction of new crystalline silicon wafer, cell and solar module manufacturing facilities in India. The new facilities would have to provide the PV components for the so-called Ultra Mega Solar Power parks that India’s central government is currently planning in several states.

Interested companies with be able to set up the new factory by themselves or in joint venture with local players, NTPC said. Bids must be submitted by Oct. 28, 2014. In late August, India’s Minister of Power and Energy Piyush Goyal urged Indian solar manufacturers to restart idle production capacity and has reiterated his commitment to supporting the further development of the domestic PV industry. In a meeting with the solar sector held last week, Goyal said that adequate market conditions would be created to enable domestic cell and module producers not only to restart idle capacity but also to increase overall capacity.

The government believes that under the new market conditions, Indian solar manufacturers will be able to become exporters of PV products. Two weeks ago, India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) published a draft scheme for the development giant solar projects dubbed Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects« across India. The proposed scheme is one of several recent initiatives aimed at providing impetus to the country’s solar program, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), which has had a few setbacks over the last few years. Through the scheme, MNRE envisions the setting up of 25 solar power plants between 500 and 1,000 MW in size. These projects would be developed over the next 5 years and would have a joint installed generation capacity of approximately 20 GW.