Shirdi Sai Electricals Limited (SSEL), an India-based company, has reached an agreement with Viridis.iQ GmbH, a German engineering services firm, to build a 4,000 MW solar manufacturing project. The state-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) had issued a letter of intent to SSEL for setting up 4,000 MW manufacturing capacities for high-efficiency solar PV modules under the production linked incentive scheme (PLI) floated by the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Both the companies will finalize the conceptual design and develop a business plan to initiate the project. The German company will then provide the necessary technical/engineering assistance, and building and operations will begin. The project will be supported by Viridis.iQ GmbH for up to a year after it begins operations in order to stabilise the operations.
In November 2021, under the production-linked incentive (PLI) programme, IREDA released the list of winning bidders for putting up manufacturing capabilities for a minimum of 10 GW of vertically-integrated high-efficiency solar modules. The PLI of Rs 44.50 billion has been announced by IREDA for a total capacity of 10,483 MW. For a capacity of 4 GW each, Jindal India Solar Energy was given a PLI of Rs 13.90 billion and Shirdi Sai Electricals was awarded a PLI of Rs 18.75 billion. For a capacity of 2,483 MW, Reliance New Energy Solar was awarded a PLI of Rs 11.90 billion.
REGlobal’s Views: The Indian government’s massive Make in India campaign is expected to create many opportunities in the solar manufacturing space which is currently insufficient to meet the country’s extensive domestic demand. Several new entrants can be expected in this space in addition to the domestic players already present.
