Juwi Group plans 50 Mw solar capacity in India

German renewable energy solutions provider Juwi Group, which forayed into the Indian market by floating its subsidiary in Bangalore last year, is looking to execute photo voltaic (PV)-based solar power projects with an installed capacity of 50 Mw in India by the end of the next financial year.

In the last one year, the over Euro 1.2-billion company had executed three PV-based solar projects in Rajasthan and Gujarat, together with an installed capacity of 20 Mw.

“We started as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company in India. Now we are looking to develop projects on our own. Of the 50 Mw capacity planned for next year, we will develop on our own about 40 per cent, with a typical investment of between Rs 10 crore and Rs 12 crore per Mw, depending on the specifications and onsite temperature conditions,” said Matthias Willenbacher, co-founder and chief executive of Juwi Group.

Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of Solarcon India 2011, he said, the company, besides Rajasthan and Gujarat, was looking at Karnataka, Maharashtra and western Uttar Pradesh and had enough capital to make sure that these projects were completed on time.

Across 13 countries globally, Juwi Group, which works in all the renewable segments including solar, wind, biomass and hydel power generation, had so far executed more than 1,000 Mw of PV-based power plants besides installing 500 wind turbines, with a total capacity of over 1 gigawatt. It commissioned a wind tower manufacturing unit in Germany last year, with a capacity of 50 units per year.

Willenbacher said irradiation in India was similar to that of Germany, where 8,000 Mw of solar installations were done last year alone.

“The sun is always shining in India and the energy need is growing every year. The opportunity for solar plants deployments and other renewable energy sources is huge here. We will set up a wind tower manufacturing unit in India sometime next year, besides selling solar car ports and electric vehicle charging stations a year from then,” he said, adding that the company generated Rs 300-crore revenues from India, and will probably clock Rs 500 crore by the end of the next financial year.