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A United States based firm, 1366 technologies, which is supported by Bill Gates, plans to set up a 2 GW capacity solar wafer and cell manufacturing plant in India. This firm will be part of the module manufacturing production chain and are in talks for an Indian partner, who will handle the module manufacturing part of the production chain and use the manufactured equipment to set up solar parks in India.

Mr. Frank Van Mierlo, The Chief Executive & Founder of 1366 Technologies refused to open the name of those Indian firms he is in talks with, citing non-disclosure agreements.

Besides Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which is the largest investor of 1366 Technologies, North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Partners are also the investors in it. A total investment of $200 million has been made in the firm through a mix of equity and non-dilutive resources.

Mr. Frank van Mierlo stated, “Capital markets are very friendly to technology plays. In two years, the only solar modules to be sold in India have to be domestically manufactured and everyone understands that. Module making will be the most profitable part of this supply chain and a lot of people are interested because of this underlying market dynamic.”

Abhijeet Birewar, the Indian representative of 1366 Technologies, added, “Our technology that has been perfected over the last 10 years can help in 50% cost savings.”

Currently, the domestic manufacturing capacity of India is 3 GW for solar cells and 15 GW  & solar modules.

The fund of Rs. 4500 crores under the government’s production-linked incentive scheme (PLI), which is part of the domestic content requirement strategy, will help India add 10GW of integrated solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacity by bringing a direct investment of around ₹17,200 crores. State-run Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd has floated a tender for setting up solar manufacturing units under this PLI scheme.

Mr. Frank Van Mierlo further said, “The commitment to clean up the power supply is clear. The government has decided that India will have a role in the global energy transition, and it has developed an extremely thoughtful approach to support and develop domestic solar manufacturing. Given the combination of factors such as domestic content requirement, ALMM (approved list of modules and manufacturers), customs duty, and PLI makes India has a pretty good bet for clean energy transition anywhere in the world.”

The Company, 1366 Technologies has considered around 15 companies for this domestic solar manufacturing plan with $3 billion investment.
Since December, China has raised the price of solar modules by over a fifth, and India has also decided to impose 40% basic customs duty on solar modules and 25% on solar cells from 1 April 2022.

Seeing this situation, Mr. van Mierlo said that ‘I don’t know of a single industry that is concentrated in a single country. This is not an ideal situation.’

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