Moser sets up thin-film solar fab in India

Moser Baer announced that it would establish the largest thin-film solar fab at Greater Noida, India. The company plans to investment $250 million over the next three years. It has already inked a technology partnership with US-based Applied Materials for this project to manufacture large area thin-film solar modules.

The company plans to start with solar modules capable of generating 40MW of power initially and ramp-up to 200MW by 2009. Commercial production would begin from March 2008 and the revenues will start to accrue from April 2008 onwards. The company would initially focus on the export market, and sees $100 million of revenues per annum from the project.

Yogesh Mathur, Group CFO at Mosar Baer, stated, "In the first phase, the investment for capex, equipment and facility will be to the tune of $100 million. Of this, while 50 percent would come in form of debt (project finance from banks) and 30 percent from Moser Baer, project accruals, and third-party sources, about 20 percent is expected as support from government's recently announced policy."

The project is being implemented through a special purpose vehical (SPV). Photovoltaic modules based on large area thin-film technology that brings cost parity between solar generation and grid power. According to market estimates, the thin-film based solar modules could see large emerging applications and strong demand worldwide that is expected to grow from 250MW currently to 2GW with a market size of $5 billion by 2010.