India's Lanco Solar Wafer Plant in Orissa Special Economic Zone

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Independent solar power company Lanco Solar Private Limited (LSPL), a wholly owned subsidiary and special purpose vehicle of leading Indian integrated infrastructure and power company Lanco Infratech Limited (BSE:532778) (LITL) (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh), plans to invest an estimated equivalent of $13 billion in a 150-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in a notified Special Economic Zone in east India, a company official is reported to have said on the sidelines of the recently concluded India Economic Summit, conducted by the World Economic Forum.

The plant, which will manufacture 1,250 tons per year of microelectronic grade polysilicon and 80 megawatts-peak of ingots and solar wafers, will be set up in the Ramdaspur village, in the district of Cuttack, in the East Indian state of Orissa. The project will be developed on a 250-acre (101-hectare) land area, which belongs to LISL.

The project site is not only close to Orissa's capital city of Bhubaneshwar, but the Mahanadi River, which flows through the state and neighboring Chhattisgarh. Water required for the project will be sourced from this river, whereas electricity will be easily accessible, with the 220-kilovolt electricity line nearby.

The project will require an estimated 2 cubic feet per second of raw water and 35 MVA (apparent power). Power supply already has been allotted to the company by the state government's Grid Corporation of Orissa Limited (GRIDCO), whereas the Orissa State Water Resources Department has made the necessary water allocations.

Both the state government of Orissa and the Orissa State Pollution Control Board have approved the project plans by providing their no-objection certificates to the project. In fact, the Orissa government already had cleared the project in a series of Single Window and High Level committee meetings.

Some central government approvals, such as environmental clearances, are still pending. According to company officials, the plant will be commissioned within one-and-a-half years from the date of receipt of all requisite statutory clearances and approvals.

Expected commissioning date of the plant could be anywhere between the end of 2011 and early 2012.

Axis Bank will be responsible for handling the company's finance sourcing in the form of debt, which will amount to $10 billion. "Half of the debt has already been tied up. The rest should be completed within the next three months," a company official was quoted to have told local media.

Currently, LISL has called for bids comprising of Requests for Qualification and Requests for Proposal for providing services related to EPC contracts for the planned Greenfield project.

LISL currently operates two gas-based power plants, one in Andhra Pradesh and one Tamil Nadu; one coal-based plant in Chhattisgarh; two wind-energy plants, one in Karnataka and one Tamil Nadu; and two hydel power plants, in Himachal Pradesh. LISL's total operating capacity is 1,349 MW. Apart from this, LISL has 6,566 MW of gas-based, domestic coal-based, imported coal-based and hydroelectric power plants under construction in various locations nationwide, spread across Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. Projects in the planning stage include two coal-based plants in Uttar Pradesh, one coal-based plant in Orissa, and a hydroelectric power plant in Uttarakhand, with a total capacity of 3,376 MW.

LISL's plans to set up the solar plant comes at a time of increasing interest in the Indian solar power sector, including growing interest and initiatives from German solar power companies. India, too, has been increasingly looking to Germany for provision of technology, as well as transfer of technical knowledge in the renewable energy arena.

According to Berthold Breid, the chief executive officer of Germany's Renewable Energy Academy, "German companies, which have the largest solar market worldwide, are keen to enter India with their solar thermal, photovoltaic cell and concentrated solar power products, as well as facilitate transfer of technology through workshops and training under India's National Solar Mission." The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) is an initiative by the government of India to promote the national Photovoltaic industry. One of the aims of the JNNSM is to add an extra 20,000 MW of connected-grid solar power and 2,000 MW of off-grid solar power by 2022.

Dr. S.P. Gon Chaudhuri, the chief executive officer of the West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Limited, was quoted as saying that solar power was indeed the power source of the future for India, which harbors nearly 15% of the total world population. He added that even in the short term, solar energy seems to be the way to go for the country, with the government's goal of renewable energy accounting for 10% of the country's total energy demand by 2012.

According to Solar Photovoltaic Industry 2010 report, which was recently released by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), India's photovoltaic cell and module capacity is set to breach 750 MW and 1,250 MW, respectively, by the end of the current fiscal year. This will be higher than the 175 MW and 240 MW of cells and modules, respectively, produced by India in the last fiscal year, ended March 31, 2010.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.