SunEdison and India’s Adani Enterprises could invest up to USD $4 billion in creating what would be one of India’s largest solar panel makers.
Reuters reports the new joint venture, which is subject to further analysis over the next few months, would manufacture low-cost solar panels.
“This facility will create ultra-low cost solar panels that will enable us to produce electricity so cost effectively it can compete head to head, unsubsidized and without incentives, with fossil fuels,” said Ahmad Chatila, President and Chief Executive Officer of SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE).
The manufacturing facilities would take three years to build and generate 20,000 jobs.
India’s solar industry looks set to boom after Prime Minister Narendra Modi boosted the nation’s solar energy targets to 100,000 megawatts MW in 7 years. The Prime Minister is encouraging companies in China, Japan, Germany and the United States to lead investments of USD $100 billion.
SunEdison is rapidly building its presence in India. A few months ago, the company announced it had signed a MoU with the Rajasthan government to build 5GW of utility scale solar plants in the state. In November, SunEdison was awarded 5 solar projects in India with a combined capacity of 150 megawatts.
In other recent SunEdison news, the company announced it had purchased new turbines that will enable it to develop up to 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of incremental wind energy projects that qualify for the U.S. federal production tax credit (PTC). TerraForm, SunEdison’s yieldco, will purchase the projects from the company once in operation.
In November, SunEdison and TerraForm announced that they had signed a definitive agreement to acquire First Wind for $2.4 billion; which included over 1.6 GW of pipeline and backlog projects.
“The purchase of these PTC qualified wind turbines will further enhance our renewable energy development engine and increase its already impressive growth trajectory,” said Mr. Chatila.
SunEdison also announced last week that TerraForm had acquired 21 U.S. solar farms with a total capacity of 26 MW from SunEdison through a series of transactions valued at USD $47 million. All the projects have long-term contracts, with an average remaining life of 20 years.
“This transaction furthers TerraForm’s leadership in the DG market segment – which is one of the most profitable and fastest growing clean energy market segments,” said Carlos Domenech, President and Chief Executive Officer of TerraForm.
Editor’s note: Energy Matters is a SunEdison company. View other SunEdison news items we’ve published.
