Foreign Firms Decide To Invest Heavily Into India’s $100 billion Solar Project

August 4, 2015

solar in indiaIndia is home to over 1.3 billion people and the country has decided to heavily promote solar energy in an effort to find an alternate source of power and go green. Power cuts continue to be a huge problem all over India, including Delhi which is the capital of India.

The country is looking to invest over $100 billion during the next 10 years in an effort to push solar energy all over the sub-continent. The government has lifted restrictions on the solar industry which means foreign investors will now be able to make much bigger contributions. Initial reports confirm that local manufacturers of solar panels are taking a backseat and its foreign investment firms who are jumping onto the bandwagon to capture a part of the market.

Softbank, a Japanese firm has committed to invest as much as $20 billion into the Indian market, SunEdison an American company is looking to invest close to $4 billion in a manufacturing facility and China’s Trina Solar has announced plans to construct a $500 million plant.

One of the reasons why local manufacturers are finding it hard to make a significant contribution is because their technology is outdated and their scale of manufacturing is limited.  In a statement, Jasmeet Khurana who works at Bridge To India a solar consulting firm said “The smaller manufacturers of India, especially the cell manufacturers, will be adversely hit because they are unable to compete both on technology and even on price structures”.