If everything goes well, India’s largest photovoltaic cell and module maker, Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Ltd (MBPV), will invest close to $2 billion (around Rs 10,000 crore) over the next 2-3 years on setting up new capacities for making photovoltaic cells and modules in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
“We will not be able to expand purely based on exports and will have to depend on the Indian market to grow. And if we get anywhere close to what the Prime Minister has indicated, India will become a bigger market than Germany,” Rajiv Arya, chief executive officer, MBPV Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Moser Baer India Ltd, told DNA Money on the sidelines of the ongoing SolarCon India 2009, conference and exhibition here.
“There are no assumptions, it is certain that we will invest, but the only question is when,” he said about his company’s plans.
We will be investing in both Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as capacities cannot be in one location, the senior executive said.
A 500 mw plant in Chennai would cost about $1 billion in phases while a similar sized project is on the cards at Hyderabad’s FabCity complex. MBPV will begin with 100 mw capacity at the two locations and expand gradually, he said.
The company holds 100 acres each in both the locations and is finalising plans for setting up crystalline and thin film photovoltaic cells and module plants, he said.
The Andhra Pradesh government handed over letter of allotment of land at the FabCity on Monday.
Arya said MBPV has raised two rounds of funding for its existing capacities and would approach investors once again for additional funds for the expansion projects.
Moser Baer had raised $100 million in 2007 from a consortium of investors led by IDFC Private Equity, GIC Special Investments, CDC Group plc and Infrastructure
Development Finance Company. It raised $92.5 million last year from another consortium that includes Japan’s Nomura, UK’s CDC Group, diluting a 6.5% stake in the photovoltaic arm which put its value at $1.4 billion.
MBPV is currently setting up a 100 mw crystalline line at its Noida facility at a cost of $120 million expanding its total capacity to 225 mw at the location where it has already invested close to $500 million to date.
“We need to have a capacity of 1 gigawatt, otherwise economical cost of production is not possible,” Arya said.
MBPV is also setting up solar farms on a turnkey basis for various state utilities with the prominent ones being a one megawatt project for Mahagenco, in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, and India’s largest rooftop solar photovoltaic installation in Surat, Gujarat. It will also set up 5 mw farms each in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu for the respective state electricity boards, Arya said.
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