India’s Tata Power plans to set up the country’s largest solar wafers and ingots manufacturing plant with a capacity of 10 gigawatts, chief executive Praveer Sinha said on Tuesday.
The facility to make the ingots and wafers - foundational material for solar cells - would complete Tata Power’s presence across the manufacturing chain for the product. The company already has 4.9 GW of integrated cell and module-making capacity.
Some Indian companies have shifted focus to producing cells as well as ingots and wafers, as higher U.S. tariffs on Indian products have made solar module exports less attractive.
“We find that there’s already adequate capacity of modules and many cell plants are under construction in India,” Sinha said on a post-earnings call, justifying his firm’s plan to set up a wafers and ingots factory.
India proposes replacing closed factories to improve accuracy of industrial output data
So far, Adani Group has set up a plant to produce 2 GW of ingots and wafers annually.
Tata Power’s plans align with the Indian federal government’s push for increased use of locally made ingots and wafers for solar panel manufacturing to cut reliance on imports from China towards the end of the decade.
The government also plans to provide output-linked financial support for wafers and ingots manufacturing.
Tata Power is exploring the use of federal and state financial support for the new factory, Sinha said, adding that a final call on the total investment would be made in the next two months.
Separately, Tata Power is also looking to enter nuclear power generation as India aims to set up at least 100 gigawatts of projects by 2047, up from just over 8 gigawatts currently.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.