The Hindu Business Line : Huge investments coming up in photovoltaic wafers

About half the investments that are coming up from companies that want to avail themselves of the benefits of the ‘semiconductor policy’ are for producing photovoltaic wafers.

This is clear from the details of the proposed investments given by Mr Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.

These include a $1-billion investment by Solar Semiconductor, $2 billion by Moser Baer, $750 million by Titan Energy and $250 million by Videocon Group.

Mr Ramesh was glad that such investments were coming into technologies for harnessing solar energy.

High potential

Speaking at a conference organised here recently by the Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA), Mr Ramesh noted that currently, India produces PV wafers that can result in installed solar power capacity of 190 MW. This is tiny, but even so, about 90 per cent is exported.

Mr Ramesh wants at least 1,000 MW to be produced from the sun. India’s 9 per cent growth should be ‘low carbon’.

Later, in a chat with journalists, he admitted that even 1,000 MW was miniscule, compared with the 12th Five Year Plan of about 80,000 MW.

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