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 The
Signet Solar Inc, a U S based manufacturer of silicon thin film
photo voltaic (PV) modules, has announced that it would invest a
minimumof Rs 2000 crores in the Sriperumbudur Special Economic Zone
(SEZ), near Chennai to locate its first manufacturing unit in India.
An MoU was signed between M. F. Farooqui, Industries Secretary,
Government of Tamil Nadu and Dr. Prabhu Goel, Chairman, Signet Solar
Inc. in the presence of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, . M.
Karunanidhi.
It will be a state of the art manufacturing plant and construction
of the 300MW facility is expected to begin later this year.
At a press conference Prabhu Goel said
that the decision to expand manufacturing in India is followed by
over $400mn in advance orders for the first three years of
production, both in Germany as well as in India. “Sriperumbudur is
one of the best manufacturing sites available, with good
infrastructure, power and all the criteria needed for a
manufacturing site. Initially, a lot of production would be
exported”, he said.
The usual flat panel is replaced by a
thin film of glass. The use of the glass does not affect the module
during rain. The thin PV technology offers great potential to drive
solar PV energy to grid parity. “A customer will have to pay $750
for a 300W solar PV”, he said. Another major aspect of the module is
its substrate larger size-2.2m x 2.6m.
According to Prabhu Goel, “Signet
Solar is planning to establish Research and Development Centre in
India to reduce the cost of PV systems and also to optimise PV
products and solutions for emerging economies”.
The domestic markets could be
developed by supplying low cost modules and including partners to
expand markets here”. The total capacity between India and Germany
would be around 180 MW by 2010.
Here is a chance for the Chennaivasis
to reduce their current bill by switching over to solar PV. However,
they have to wait for another two to four years.
U. Bakialakshmi
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