Indian public sector undertakings (PSU) NHPC Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) have announced plans to set up a GW scale vertically integrated solar manufacturing unit in India without specifying any capacity or location.
Hydropower utility NHPC made the announcement in a brief stock exchange filing that said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the 2 companies on August 23, 2022.
NHPC is aggressively pursuing renewable energy, especially solar and is also partnering as a corporate member of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to obtain 10 GW solar mandate for venturing into solar market, as per its website. In February 2022, NHPC committed to establishing 10 GW solar capacity in Rajasthan (see MoUs and LOIs For 90 GW+ In Rajasthan).
Owned by the Government of India, BEL is a manufacturer for advanced electronics products for ground and aerospace applications. It is also into solar cell and module manufacturing as it is into EPC/development space.
According to its 2021-22 annual report, BEL has been shortlisted by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to manufacture multi-junction solar cells for which the 2 plan to set up a plant with annual capacity of about 60,000 cells.
"BEL is striving to exploit its dual-use technologies (e.g. Software Defined Radios (SDR), Solar Cells, etc.) for expanding the market as well as customization of its products/solutions to meet the new customer segments/geographical areas, especially in the export markets," stated BEL in the report.
By way of trade tariffs on imported solar products and providing financial incentives, the Indian government is encouraging domestic production of vertically integrated solar manufacturing in the country. One of India's richest persons, Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has already announced plans to build 4 GW fabs, one each for integrated solar module, energy storage, electrolyzer and fuel cells (see Indian Billionaire Wants 4 New Energy Gigafactories).