17th Feb 09
Rajasthan state of India is next
big market for solar semiconductor industry
Year 2008 has seen huge growth in demand for solar PV cell
manufacturers. It was mainly due to market opportunity in
Germany and Spain. Large scale of installation promoted
by government was the main reason for growth. India looks
to be the next immediate opportunity for PV cells, power
semiconductor devices, White LEDs, and any such solar-based
power systems and components.
At the recently concluded ISA vision summit, the speakers
from different backgrounds such as politics to material
science to core PV cell makers have opined that the solar
is the way to go to fulfill the energy demands of world,
if not in 2009, by 2011 -12 market forces will take over
solar industry due to its immense potential.
There were reports that solar market may face excess supply
in 2009. That may not be the case, by looking at the opportunities
provided by state of Rajasthan in India. This state with
rich Indian heritage also houses a big desert extending
thousands of kilometers. This wasteland is now a market
opportunity for solar semiconductor industry. There is an
immediate opportunity of few 100 Megawatts of installations.
Indian government is planning to promote this in a big way
with new policy and framework which is expected in year
2009 to generate >500 Megawatts of solar installation
in the year 2009 alone.
Indian companies Tata BP Solar and Moser Baer are expanding
production capacities keeping view of sudden opportunities.
Moser Baer is increasing its thin film PV solar module capacity
to 100 MW in 2009 and Crystalline PV solar module production
to 180 MW.
There are about 100 million households in rural and urban
India who would buy a white LED based solar lanterns to
light up their homes. This provides approximately a minimum
of half a billion dollar market for various electronics
and semiconductor components getting into this product.
However the solar lighting still not taken that seriously
in India, but its going to happen in next two years.
Even at ISA vision summit, the session on solar was well
attended compared to others.
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