Signet Solar to invest $2 bn in India in next 10 years

NEW DELHI, India: US-based Signet Solar will invest $2 billion (about Rs 8,000 crore) over the next ten years to set up three solar photovoltaic manufacturing facilities in India.

The construction for the first manufacturing facility will start by early 2008 and each unit would have an annual output of about 300 mw, company CEO and President Rajeeva Lahri said.

Silicon photovoltaic modules are devices that convert sun rays into electricity for apllications such as solar farms, rural electrification, residential rooftops.

“We will invest $2 billion over a period of 10 years and produce over one GW of annual output for export and the Indian market,” Lahri said.

Regarding location of the facilities, he said, “We will look for various options and a final decision will be taken after considering the incentives being offered by the state governments.”

Signet has also started construction of its first global manufacturing facility in Germany and will leverage that experience to ramp up large manufacturing in India, he said.

The government had recently announced special incentive package scheme under the semiconductor policy that will provide equity and capital subsidy of 20% of the capital expenditure if the unit is set up in a SEZ and 25% if the unit is in a non-SEZ area.