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Vikram Solar Limited, one of the leading domestic manufacturers of solar modules, EPC & rooftop solar solutions provider in the country, is working towards commissioning of the phase-1 of one giga watt (GW) solar module manufacturing plant coming up in Kanchipuram,Tamil Nadu by March next.
The company, which currently has total installed capacity of 1.2 GW of solar modules at Falta in West Bengal, had signed up with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a 3-GW solar manufacturing facility earlier this year.
Saibaba Vutukuri, Chief Executive Officer of Vikram Solar, told BusinessLine , “We had signed up with the Tamil Nadu government for setting up of 3-GW capacity of solar manufacturing capacity during the Covid crisis. We have gone ahead with the construction of the project and are now looking at commissioning of phase-1 of one GW solar module manufacturing capacity by March 2021.”
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“And by July 2021, a 700-MW solar cell manufacturing capacity will be ready. As per plans, we expect to add one GW more capacity progressively over the next two years. Apart from serving the domestic market requirement, which is poised to go up significantly to meet the government’s targets of renewable energy, we are also looking at serving some of the export markets,” he said.
“The current manufacturing capacity is functioning at about 70-80 per cent of installed capacity and of this about 25 per cent is exported to the US and couple of other markets. We believe there will be significant opportunity for us to expand exports to at least 40 countries while also stepping up exports to the US. Some of the restrictions imposed on China would also help us,” he explained.
“The company is investing in the phase-1 project with internal resources, debt and promoters contribution. We will decide on the next phase later,” he said.
“We decided to go ahead with the expansion in these tough times factoring the Government push towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat and local manufacturing. It had announced its plan to back this with policy and support decisions. We are looking towards these being progressively implemented,” he said.
PLI scheme
The government’s recent announcement to extend production-linked incentive (PLI) to domestic manufacturing augurs well for the growth of the sector. However, there are several other key issues which need to be addressed. These include, basic customs duty, equalisation levies and some support for domestic manufacturing with the PLI scheme.
“We expect the government to progressively address all these issues which will make domestic manufacturing attractive and financially viable. This will bring down the country’s reliance on imports and save on precious foreign exchange,” he said.
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