Abound Solar, a US-based manufacturer of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules, and Solar Integrations Systems India Private Limited (Solarsis), a city-based company that offers ‘concept-to-completion’ services for grid-connected and off-grid systems using solar PV technology, have commissioned a 1Mw solar PV plant at Kadiri in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
The project was commissioned under the Rooftop and Other Small Solar Generation Plant (RPSSGP) scheme administered by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. It is the first project in the state to use Abound’s Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) thin-film modules.
“This plant will generate operational data on different technology performance in Indian weather conditions as this 1Mw plant uses 620Kw of thin-film based on Abound modules and 380Kw of crystalline silicon with single-axis tracking technology,” Solarsis chief executive, Venkat Rajaraman, said in a press release on Monday.
Active investor Srini Raju-promoted Solarsis, and Abound had, in May 2011, entered into a long-term sales agreement under which the latter would supply CdTe thin-film PV modules and both the companies would together provide solutions based on Abound’s next-generation modules serving project developers in the Indian market.
Abound had already closed $400-million loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to fund the expansion of the company’s manufacturing capacity and help cater to the demand for its products in emerging markets such as India.
“The National Solar Mission envisages generating 800 Mw of solar power between this year and the next and 4,000 Mw in the next four years. Our idea is to garner a major chunk (500 Mw) of that. We expect to execute 10 per cent of the planned 500 Mw using Abound’s technology in two years from now,” Rajaraman had earlier told Business Standard.
