25 February 2015

First Solar commits to 5GW investment in India

At the 1st Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet & Expo (RE-INVEST 2015) in New Delhi, India recently (15-17 February), First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA, which makes thin-film photovoltaic modules based on cadmium telluride (CdTe) as well as providing engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) services, announced a Green Energy Committment to develop 5GW of capacity by 2019, joining India's vision to ramp up solar energy capacity in its total energy mix to 10% to meet the country's increasing demand for sustainable renewable energy.

Total global installed PV solar capacity jumped from 3.7GW in 2004 to 135GW at the end of 2013. Following that lead, India's plan to install 100GW capacity of solar-generated electricity by 2022, with R&D bringing about more efficiencies to support even larger growth.

"India remains one of our most important global markets," says First Solar's CEO James Hughes. "Given its economic growth and the need for energy security and energy access, solar presents a very compelling opportunity to the government and the industry today, to demonstrate how it enables a sustainable and affordable energy solution for the 1.2bn people of this country," he adds. "Our commitment demonstrates our intent to work with the government in achieving this goal."  

The announcement is part of a broader commitment that First Solar made last year when it announced plans to build utility-scale solar projects in India. "We are one of the lowest-cost producers of solar energy in India, with a development pipeline of over 200MW of projects in AP and Telengana," says Sujoy Ghosh, country head for First Solar India. "The overall commitment is of course contingent upon the government providing PPA [power purchase agreement] allocations from utilities by way of enforcing RPOs [requests for purchase orders] as well as the land/evacuation infrastructure under the solar park policy."

Tags: First Solar Thin-film photovoltaic CdTe

Visit: www.firstsolar.com

Visit: www.re-invest.in