Vikram Group of Industries invests Rs. 100 crore in solar PV module manufacturing plant at Falta, SEZ

KOLKATA, INDIA: Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, is inaugurating the solar photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing plant of the Vikram Group of Industries at Falta, Special Economic Zone, in the presence of Debesh Das (Hon'ble Minister of Information and Technology and S.P. Gon Choudhuri (Managing Director, West Bengal Green Energy Development Corp. Ltd).

H.K. Chaudhary, Chairman, Vikram Group of Industries, said: "Vikram Solar Pvt Ltd has invested around Rs. 100 crores in this project, with an initial capacity of 25MW p.a. We are already in the process of expanding its capacity to 50MW by the middle of this year."

Further, Vikram Solar has promoted a subsidiary in the name of Vikram Solar GmbH in Germany for the latest technological up gradation and to establish a brand for Vikram Solar in the European Markets. Vikram Solar has become the first Indian company to set a 1.05 MW grid interactive solar power plant at Kottenheim, Germany.

Regarding future plans, the company has plans for backward integration in the form of Wafer and Photovoltaic cell manufacturing, within a short period, with a total capital outlay of Rs. 500 crores.

Vikram Solar has already provided employment to more than 100 persons by now, and once the full expansion is implemented, will be able to provide employment to more than 800 persons directly and indirectly with a focus on skill development and training in the solar industry.

McKinsey & Company, in its survey ended May'09, stated that India has one of the world's highest solar intensities with an annual solar energy yield of 1,700 to 1,900 kilowatt hours per kilowatt peak (kWh/KWp) of the installed capacity. This is similar to the US and Hawaii, the other two countries which have been ranked first along with India.

Chaudhary stated that India has a number of advantages over other countries when it comes to suitable conditions for solar power generation - dense population and high solar insulation. "With about 300 clear sunny days in a year, India's theoretical solar power reception, just on its land area, is about 5,000 trillion kilowatt per year. This is far more than current total energy consumption. Even assuming 14 percent conversion efficiency for PV modules, it will still be thousands of times greater than the likely electricity demand in India by the year 2015."

However, the solar power produced in India is merely 0.4 percent compared to other energy resources. To encourage a thriving solar market, the technology needs to be competitively cheaper, i.e., attaining cost parity with fossil or nuclear energy.

India is heavily dependent on coal and foreign oil, which pollute the environment and until solar energy, which is most climate responsible, becomes viable, the phenomenon is likely to continue. Regrettably, India's grid system is considerably under developed with major sections of its population still surviving off grid. That could allow bypassing long distance centralized power delivery systems and yet bring cheaper electricity to the masses. Moreover, cost of solar power has come down significantly in the last few years.

To deliver solar power to non-grid areas, Vikram Solar has initiated an R&D project in collaboration with Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) for applied research in the field of long life solar battery systems to sustain a life cycle of 15-20 years. Currently, the available lead-acid Batteries have a life of three to five years. This initiative has been taken up under the MNRE research proposals for the development and demonstration of electricity storage systems.

The wide use of solar energy in our country could help in providing clean, cheap and efficient source of electricity for large population of our country. "Solar energy has huge potential to support the future population of our country," concluded Chaudhary.

With the launch of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (NSM) the government of India and state governments have taken the initiative to promote ecologically sustainable growth, while simultaneously addressing India's energy security challenge. The establishment of this solar plant is expected to provide the masses green, clean and efficient energy, thereby making solar industry the backbone of Indian economy in the near future.

Also present at the inauguration will be Arun Bit (Development Commissioner, Falta), Khalil Ahmed (DM, South 24 Parganas) and Ms. Chandana Ghosh Dastidar (MLA Falta) and many other dignitaries and Industrialists.