JBM Group to invest Rs 1,600 cr in solar energy

Group plans to have a combined capacity of 300 MW under newly formed entity

Delhi-based auto component manufacturer today announced its foray into the solar energy sector with a committed investment of Rs 1,600 crore over the next three years.

The group plans to have a combined capacity of 300MW under the newly formed entity - JBM Solar (P) Ltd. JBM Solar plans to be an independent power producer (IPP) with focus on both, ground mounted and solar rooftop projects.

JBM Solar has already commissioned a rooftop solar installation at the India Habitat Center, Delhi generating 250KW. The company recently also an order from Haryana Govt. for a capacity of 20MW.

Nishant Arya, Executive Director, JBM Group said, "With the Indian national solar target increasing from 20GW to 100GW by 2022 and our government's ongoing focus towards building smart cities, we feel this is the right time to enter into the solar power sector. Going forward, we project that the solar power vertical shall contribute around 15% of the total revenue at the group level. We also plan to expand this business to wind energy and biomass in the next phase".

The country receives one of the highest global solar radiations - an energy of about 5,000 trillion kWh per year. According to recent data,renewable energy contribution stood at 31.70 GW of the total installed capacity of 245 GW in the country as on 31.03.2014.

Under the original National Solar Mission target, India had planned to add 9 GW between 2014 and 2017 and an additional 10 GW between 2018 and 2022. The current installed solar power capacity in India is just less than 2.7 GW.