Signet Solar to invest $150 mn in three units

The Palo Alto-based Signet Solar is planning to establish thin film manufacturing units in the country by 2010. The company will spend $150 million in the first phase for developing three solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities here.

Signet Solar recently committed a $2-billion corpus, raised on a debt-to-equity ratio of 3:1 and spread over a 10 years, for developing its PV production facilities.

The first $150-million tranche of the total investment will be used to set up three 60 mw production lines, packing a total capacity of 180 mw, at different locations in the country by 2009 end.

A total capacity of 1 gigawatt is envisaged out of the 15 PV module production lines planned by 2010. The first line is expected to be completed in 18 months and will commence production in early 2009, while the second line is expected to go live the same year, Rajeeva Lahri, founder and chief executive officer, Signet Solar, said.

The company was in talks with state governments to finalise the location of its manufacturing facilities and a final picture would emerge in 2-3 months, Lahri said.

"Plenty of goodwill has been built up around these projects. We are looking at six potential locations for the plants in India. The focus of our talks with the state governments have been primarily on ensuring that our technical requirements regarding power, water, talent pool and transport would be met," Keshav Prasad, vice-president, business development, Signet Solar, said.