India’s Vikram Solar Ltd. is planning to invest 54.32 billion rupees ($726 million) to make solar energy equipment in the South Asian country, which is encouraging domestic manufacturing to reduce imports.
The company will build a factory in the southern Tamil Nadu province, the state government said Monday. The 3-gigawatt plant, expected to be completed in five years, will make wafers, cells and modules, Kolkata-based Vikram Solar said in a separate statement. It did not mention the planned investment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is keen to boost local manufacturing of solar cells and modules to support its ambitious growth plans of expanding renewable energy capacity by more than five-fold to 450 gigawatts over the next decade. The efforts are part of a broader self-reliance campaign by the government to reduce imports and boost domestic industry to generate jobs and revive an economy that’s set for an annual contraction in four decades due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Vikram to invest $726 million to make solar equipment
