Saint-Gobain Solar, which has a glass manufacturing facility at Chennai, India, is reportedly showing interest to set up a solar thermal power production facility. Fabrice Didier, Saint-Gobain Solar“…
Saint-Gobain Solar, which has a glass manufacturing facility at Chennai, India, is reportedly showing interest to set up a solar thermal power production facility. Fabrice Didier, Saint-Gobain Solar“s chief executive officer and advisor to the French Government, said that India was in the position to become a favoured place for manufacturing solar equipment, such as ceramics, mirrors, solar PV modules and a variety of other solar power related products. He added that it could become a reality only when the government clears its policies related to solar energy. B. Santhanam, Saint-Gobain India“s managing director, said that the government has only cleared the first phase of the solar activity, offering incentives for installations and feed in tariffs, adding that the government incentives should be based on the production capability instead of on the capital. He concluded saying that installing a solar manufacturing unit could not be viable unless it manufactured 1000 MW value of products. Under its National Solar Mission, the Indian government is aiming to reach 20,000 MW solar power generation capabilities, looking forward to achieve 1,000 MW set up capacity by the year 2013. This greatly subsidized solar energy policy has received considerable criticism, in particular from the wind energy sector, as it creates job opportunities in some parts of the world and not in India.
