China’s Longi Solar confirms 1 GW Indian manufacturing facility

Longi Solar has confirmed it will be the first Chinese solar company to set up manufacturing facilities in India. The news comes just a month after the company said it would invest $300 million in a 5 GW module facility in China.

A spokesperson for the company tells pv magazine the new facility, located in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, will manufacture 500 MW of monocrystalline cells and modules, respectively. The first phase will see a Crore 1,700 (around (US$26.7 million) investment.

They add that Longi undertook a 500 MW cell and module investment plan in 2016. The company will kick off construction during its AP Investment Summit this February, with production beginning by the end of this year, or the beginning of 2019.

At the end of November, the Indian Government announced plans to ramp up the country’s domestic renewable energy manufacturing industry via an auction for facilities totaling 20 GW.

“The local government will support the project by preferential policies relating to power supply, water supply, taxation, waste-water processing, education/training and international certification for a three year term,” says the spokesperson.

They add that Longi will expand production capacity “with a big jump to meet India AD/CVD demand,” as well as expected demand from the U.S., following the recent solar tariffs, from which India has partial exemption.

However, this exemption only applies as long as India does not provide more than 3% of total imports to the U.S. market. At current market volumes, this will limit the entire nation to less than 300 MW of PV exports to the United States per year.