JA Solar to build 1 GW solar cell & module factory in Andhara Pradesh

Foreign investor continue to pour money into Indian solar energy market right after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the target for generation capacity to 100 GW from present 4 GW by 2022.

Ja Solar Holdings Co., a Chinese company, and Essel Infraprojects Ltd have signed Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of 1 GW solar cell factory in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The factories will be established in two phases, each 500 MW capacity.

The facility is expected to be established at the Sri City Industrial Park with an investment of over $150 million. The work is likely to start in December 2015 and end towards the mid of 2016. It’ll be followed by a module plant of a similar size expected to be completed in the first half of 2017.

Essel Group’s CEO Ashok Agarwal confirmed that work is in progress to secure suitable land for the initial 500 MW factory.

India expects to get a boost for its local content production capacity in order to accomplish Modi’s target of 100 GW. Currently, India’s domestic production capacity is 1,328 with 2,523 MW module production capacity.

Presently, India is the hottest renewable market in the world. The investors have gone hysterical to swim in the pool worth $250 billion or more. The predicted cost includes 100 GW solar energy and 60,000MW of wind power by 2022.

However, a panel of the World Trade Organization has alleged that India’ has imposed mandatory condition for local-purchase for solar cells and modules under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which, it claims, violates global trade rules.

The WTO panel claims that foreign investor and content producer are not given fair opportunity to compete in the Indian market.