China's Longi to invest $235m in 1 GW Indian solar fab

Share

Chinese solar cell and wafer maker Longi Silicon has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Indian state Andhra Pradesh for the construction of a solar cell and module manufacturing facility to the tune of 1.5 billion yuan ($235 million).

The initial phase of the investment should see the creation of around 1,000 jobs in the state, with Longi confirming that the total final investment could increase eight-fold, creating an additional 4,000 jobs as the state pulls its weight towards achieveing the National Solar Mission’s (JNNSM) target of installing 100 GW of solar PV capacity by 2022.

Longi chairman Baoshen Zhong signed the MoU with Andhra Pradesh energy, infrastructure and investment secretarys Ajay Jain.

In a press conference held to mark the occasion, Zhong said: "We will invest $250 million for setting up a solar cell and module manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. This will boost production of clean energy equipment in the country."

Andhra Pradesh’s Jain added: "This investment will boost manufacturing facilities in the state. This initial investment will create 1,000 jobs." Part of the stipulations outlined in the JNNSM is to increase the share of solar components made locally, thus complying with India’s domestic content requirement.

A number of leading U.S. and Chinese solar firms have already opened or announced manufacturing capacities in India in order to gain an early toehold in what is expected to become a world-leading solar hub, both in terms of installation figures and manufacturing.

The Longi facility will ultimately have the capacity to produce 1 GW of solar cells and 1 GW of solar modules. The company also confirmed the MoU covers the creation of a 500 MW solar farm, to be located in Sri City, Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. State chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu assuring Longi’s delegates that the state would pull out all the stops to ensure approval for the project would be fast-tracked.

"For the first time, very good investment is coming from China," Naidu said. "Solar power is the best solution for sustainable economic growth."

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Chinese developer switches on world’s largest perovskite-based PV plant

09 December 2024 MicroQuanta, a Chinese perovskite solar specialist, has commissioned a 8.2 MW PV facility based on its 90 W perovskite panels in eastern China.

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.