India : Moser Baer to invest $250m for thin film solar facility

[jpak]

http://www.glassonweb.com/news/index/5678/

Indian data storage major Moser Baer I will invest around $250 million over the next three years to set up the largest thin film fabrication facility in the country. Moser Baer has signed US-based Applied Materials, a provider of nano manufacturing technology solutions for the electronics industry, as its technology partner for the project.

According to a release issued by Moser to the Bombay Stock Exchange on 5th March 2007, the facility is being set up to achieve new cost benchmarks, and will also enable the company to have a first-mover advantage in the manufacture of large area thin film modules. The investment should qualify for government incentives under the recently announced IT and semiconductor policy, the release added.

Thin film solar modules are ideal for energy farms, rural applications and building integrated photovoltaic units. According to market estimates, thin film-based solar modules would see large emerging applications and a robust demand that is expected to grow 10-fold from 250 MW currently to 2 GW with a market size of $5 billion by 2010.

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