02-19-2008, 12:58 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>RIL to set up $5b semiconductor unit</b>
19 Feb 2008
BANGALORE: Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries is looking at setting up an over $5 billion photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing facility in Jamnagar. Junior minister for commerce Jairam Ramesh said here on Monday that the government has received an expression of interest from the company for an integrated facility that would do everything from "sand to silicon". Jamnagar in Gujarat is home to Reliance's refinery, the world's biggest.
A Reliance spokesperson declined comment. A semiconductor industry analyst said he would be surprised if Reliance gets into the sector. "They typically look for quick returns, and a PV cell manufacturing facility will take at least seven years to start paying back," he said. But whether or not Reliance takes the plunge, the government's semiconductor policy announced early last year appears to be delivering dividends.
Ramesh told journalists at a conference that seven projects worth $7 billion (over a 10-year period) had been confirmed in the Fab City in Hyderabad. "Another five projects worth $800 million have been given in-principle approval, and five proposals worth $6 billion are under active consideration," he said.
The bulk of the proposed investments are for setting up PV cell/module manufacturing facilities. A photovoltaic or solar cell is a device that converts solar energy into electricity. Assemblies of cells are used to make PV modules/arrays. Individual cells are used for powering small devices such as electronic calculators, while arrays generate a form of renewable electricity, particularly useful when electrical power from the grid is unavailable such as in remote rural areas.
The investment is partly the result of the semiconductor policy, where the government would bear 20-25% of the capital expenditure during the first 10 years, subject to a minimum investment of Rs 2,500 crore for semicon manufacturing (wafer fabs) plants and Rs 1,000 crore for ancillary plants.
Arul Shanmugasundram, GM in Applied Materials, supplier of manufacturing systems and related services to the global semiconductor industry and which is supplying products to Indian PV players like Moser Baer, says the domestic opportunity for PV cells is big. "There's plenty of sunlight available in India, there's a huge energy shortfall, and now the government is also encouraging solar energy through incentives (the feed-in tariff policy under which an attractive tariff is paid for energy from solar cell farms)," he said.
Solar energy is not very competitive now, but higher volumes and improved technologies are expected to bring costs down sharply.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
19 Feb 2008
BANGALORE: Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries is looking at setting up an over $5 billion photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing facility in Jamnagar. Junior minister for commerce Jairam Ramesh said here on Monday that the government has received an expression of interest from the company for an integrated facility that would do everything from "sand to silicon". Jamnagar in Gujarat is home to Reliance's refinery, the world's biggest.
A Reliance spokesperson declined comment. A semiconductor industry analyst said he would be surprised if Reliance gets into the sector. "They typically look for quick returns, and a PV cell manufacturing facility will take at least seven years to start paying back," he said. But whether or not Reliance takes the plunge, the government's semiconductor policy announced early last year appears to be delivering dividends.
Ramesh told journalists at a conference that seven projects worth $7 billion (over a 10-year period) had been confirmed in the Fab City in Hyderabad. "Another five projects worth $800 million have been given in-principle approval, and five proposals worth $6 billion are under active consideration," he said.
The bulk of the proposed investments are for setting up PV cell/module manufacturing facilities. A photovoltaic or solar cell is a device that converts solar energy into electricity. Assemblies of cells are used to make PV modules/arrays. Individual cells are used for powering small devices such as electronic calculators, while arrays generate a form of renewable electricity, particularly useful when electrical power from the grid is unavailable such as in remote rural areas.
The investment is partly the result of the semiconductor policy, where the government would bear 20-25% of the capital expenditure during the first 10 years, subject to a minimum investment of Rs 2,500 crore for semicon manufacturing (wafer fabs) plants and Rs 1,000 crore for ancillary plants.
Arul Shanmugasundram, GM in Applied Materials, supplier of manufacturing systems and related services to the global semiconductor industry and which is supplying products to Indian PV players like Moser Baer, says the domestic opportunity for PV cells is big. "There's plenty of sunlight available in India, there's a huge energy shortfall, and now the government is also encouraging solar energy through incentives (the feed-in tariff policy under which an attractive tariff is paid for energy from solar cell farms)," he said.
Solar energy is not very competitive now, but higher volumes and improved technologies are expected to bring costs down sharply.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->