First Solar and Reliance among winners of India’s green aid

Reliance Industries Ltd., First Solar Inc. and Avaada Group are among winners of India’s $2.4 billion incentives plan to encourage domestic manufacturing of solar modules.

The government said it allocated total capacity of 39.6 gigawatts of annual production to 11 companies under the program. India will give out 139.4 billion rupees to boost local module output, state-run Solar Energy Corp. of India said in a note on its website, indicating there were not enough bidders for all of the 195 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) on offer.

India plans to more than quadruple its solar generation capacity to 280 gigawatts by 2030, making it an attractive market for module makers. The country has levied import taxes to protect local makers, although it has had to relax a key non-tariff barrier to imports temporarily to prevent a slowdown in project installations. 

The 39.6 gigawatts of manufacturing capacity is expected to require investment of 930.4 billion rupees, according to a government statement.

Indosol Solar Pvt. won the maximum incentive of 33 billion rupees, followed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, which won almost 31 billion rupees. Both companies offered to develop end-to-end integrated facilities, committing to build manufacturing capacity of 6 gigawatts each, according to the statement.

Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar won a grant of 11.78 billion rupees for its planned 3.4 gigawatt Tamil Nadu plant, which will be a fully integrated facility, Sujoy Ghosh, the company’s India managing director, said by phone. 

Avaada Group, backed by Thailand’s oil and gas major PTT Pcl, was awarded an incentive of 9.62 billion rupees for 3 gigawatts of capacity — from wafers to cells and modules, said Chairman Vineet Mittal, adding the company would consider expanding the project to 5 gigawatts. 

All of the bidders, including JSW Energy Ltd., ReNew Energy Global Plc, Tata Power Co. and Waaree Energies Ltd., won a part of the grants, according to the statement.