A group of solar PV industry veterans have launched a new India-centered solar manufacturing entity with a strategic focus on crystal growth and solar wafer manufacturing. The initial target of the venture, Renaissance Solar and Electronic Materials (RSOLEC) is to establish 5 GW annual production capacity, and raise it to exceed 20 GW in the long term.
The fab will be equipped to produce wafers in various sizes including M10, G12 and G16, compatible with all cell technology including PERC, TOPCon, heterojunction (HJT) and even tandem structures. The company plans to invest around $300 million.
Led by Chairman and CEO Dr. Milind Kulkarni, RSOLEC plans to roll out crystals with uniform resistivity to help increase cell efficiency by 0.15%. They claim this milestone has not yet been attained by anyone in the solar manufacturing industry. Indeed, most companies are focussing on modules and, as of recently also cells in India. And while 8 of the 11 winners in the PLI II tender have bid for silicon or wafer to module capacities, so far no wafer production capacity exists in the country (see India Allocates 39.6 GW PV Under PLI Tranche-II). None of them focuses on ingot/wafer manufacturing only in the short run.
For select customers that require very low oxygen content, they plan to deploy the Recharge Czochralski (RCZ) process, which can be retrofitted to the emerging Continuous Czochralski (CCZ) process for crystal growth. Wafer production is based on the cutting-edge DCW platform, capable of producing thin wafers measuring below 100 micrometers in thickness.
The plan is for construction to begin by 2024-end for the fab to come online in late-2025 and start mass production in 2026. Possible sites for the fab have been shortlisted and currently being evaluated to zero in on one.
While the current manufacturing scene in India is flooded with PV manufacturers opting for solar module and cell manufacturing, the RSOLEC founders believe they are bringing a differentiation by going into further up the vertical integration line. This, they argue, is something India really needs now to build its own secure supply chain and not remain dependent on China (see Challenges For India's Wafer Production Plans?). They are pretty confident they can source equipment from China despite the current noise about potential export restrictions for ingot/wafer manufacturing tools. But just in case, there are alternatives, the founders told TaiyangNews during the REI trade fair in Greater Noida. It would only take longer and would require higher capital expenses, they said.
They bring enough experience too as RSOLEC CTO Dr. Satyendra Kumar had earlier tried to set up the 1st integrated module fab as CTO for Lanco many years ago, whereas Kulkarni was working for over 20 years at MEMC, one of the polysilicon bigwigs that was behind the low-cost granular silicon process development and had tried to expand over the whole value chain downstream after they had taken over SunEdison. Kulkarni also worked briefly as CTO at Vikram Solar, CEO of Suzlon Renewables and, most recently, as President PV Manufacturing at Reliance Industries.
Headquartered in Delaware, US, RSOLEC is operating in the Indian market through a local subsidiary based out of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Research Park. The company expects to achieve a capital intensity below $35 million/GW, while creating more than 1,000 skilled jobs over the next 3 years.
"Our differentiation lies in our technology-driven, low-risk innovations, positioning RSOLEC at the forefront of the solar industry," said Kulkarni who added that RSOLEC is founded and supported by technocrats from 5 different countries across 3 continents.
While the current focus of RSOLEC is solar crystal growth and wafering, in the future it plans to expand to the entire solar value chain.