By Praveen Paramasivam
TIRUNELVELI, India (Reuters) – Tata Power’s newly built 4.3 gigawatt (GW) solar module and cell manufacturing facility in southern India will largely cater to domestic markets, its chief executive said, even as exports from the country have grown exponentially. Tata Power, one of India’s leading integrated power companies, has built a new solar module and cell manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu state, with an investment of 43 billion rupees ($508 million), overlooking several wind turbines in the region.
“We are setting up this plant to cater to the Indian market … This country offers huge opportunity. Whatever we are producing over here for the next 12 to 16 months is already tied up (with projects),” Praveer Sinha told reporters on Friday at the new plant spread across 317 acres.
Although Sinha said Tata Power’s new manufacturing facility would cater to India’s domestic market, solar module and cell making companies are increasingly trying to tap the market in the United States, the world’s second-largest solar consumer after China.
The export of Indian modules has surged more than 23 times during the last two years, with the United States accounting for more than 97% of India’s exports, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Currently, India has a solar module-making capacity of 80 GW, while its cell-making capacity stands at slightly over 7 GW, with Indian companies relying on Chinese cells for the modules.
In comparison, China accounts for about 80% of the world’s solar shipments, with its export hubs in other parts of Asia making up much of the rest, according to SPV Market Research.
Tata Power can add an additional 4 GW of cell and module production capacity at its new Tamil Nadu plant, but the company would decide on scaling up capacity later, Sinha said.
The company aims to cross 1 trillion rupees in annual revenue by 2030, up from around 615 billion rupees achieved in the fiscal year to March 2024, Sinha said.
Tata Power also aims to more than double its annual profit to 100 billion rupees by 2030, he said.
Tata Power plans a capital expenditure of nearly 1.46 trillion rupees between 2024-25 and 2029-30 fiscal years, with nearly 60% to be spent in the renewable sector.
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam and Sethuraman NR; editing by David Evans)
