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| Edited By: G Seetharaman |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 03:26 AM IST
Birla Surya Ltd (BSL), part of the Rs3,000 crore Yash Birla group, will spend Rs5,400 crore over the next five years to manufacture solar equipment in Maharashtra, said chief executive Mohan Datari here on Thursday.
The company will set up units to manufacture multi-crystalline solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and fabricate multi-crystalline silicon wafers at Rajewadi in Satara district.
Wafers are used in making PV cells which are then fitted on a module.
In Phase I of its plan, BSL will spend nearly Rs1,500 crore and have a capacity of 60 mw for PV cells and 125 mw for wafers. The company has already tied up a debt of Rs970 crore and will begin commercial production by the end of the year.
Datari said at the end of five years BSL is targeting a capacity of 1,200 mw of wafers, 1,000 mw of PV cells and 750 mw of modules. “We will also look at solar power development at a later point,” he said.
Amitava Banerjee, chief technology officer, BSL, said the firm will sell wafers to other cell makers and even export them after its own requirement is met.
Datari said currently though there are no wafer manufacturers in the country, Lanco Infratech has plans for the same. Players in the PV cell space include Moser Baer, Tata BP Solar and Euro Multivision.
Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Capital has picked up a 15% stake in BSL for Rs68 crore.
Datari said the project is eligible for a capital subsidy of 25% under the special incentive package scheme of the government’s Department of Information Technology and that the company has already applied for it.
