Lanco Infratech joins the solar rush

Independent power producer and infrastructure player Lanco Infratech is preparing to join the great-Indian solar rush with plans to set up an end-to-end solar complex in Chennai. The company is working on the final details and will announce everything in a few days. It will deal with the entire gamut of solar technologies including conventional crystalline and thin film technologies. This move is in line with Reliance Industries’ plan to set up a plant in Jamnagar at a cost Rs 11,631 crore to make polysilicon, single and multi-crystalline ingots, solar grade wafers, SPV modules. The 1 gigawatt capacity plant is expected to create jobs for 11,000 workers.

The Union government has already received seven proposals worth $16 billion for setting up manufacturing facilities for polysilicon, single and multi-crystalline ingots, wafers, solar cells, photovoltaic moduels, LCDs, systems-on-chip and IC assembly units. While Reliance Industries is going for the entire value chain, Videocon, MoserBaer PV Technologies, Titan Energy Systems, KSK Energy Venture and Signet Solar are setting up units to manufacture solar components.
The rush of proposals has come in the wake of the incentives package announced by the government late last year offering 20% of capital expenditure in the first 10 years for semiconductor projects in special economic zones (SEZs) and 25% of capital expenditure for non-SEZ units including financial subsidies and equity participation.