Vikram Solar, India-based solar module manufacturer has announced plans to expand its manufacturing capacity to 2 GW by 2019. The current manufacturing capacity of the company stands at 500 MW.
The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with German Teamtechnik to support its expansion plans. Under the MoU, Teamtechnik will supply equipment for solar module production and put them into operation as well as train operations managers, process engineers and service technicians at Vikram Solar.
Both the companies are also planning to collaborate in the area of materials research, process optimization and production technology in future, with the intention of improving solar panel efficiencies while continuing to reduce module costs.
The company’s collaboration with Teamtechnik for module capacity expansion will further supplement its existing collaboration with Fraunhofer ISE, Meyer Burger and Centrotherm.
Vikarm Solar plans to invest over INR 400 crore (US$6.04 million) for the expansion plan and expected to generate more than 3,000 jobs.
Gyanesh Chaudhary, MD & CEO of Vikram Solar said, “We are very happy to work with Teamtechnik. Their solutions have been shown to facilitate production of highly efficient solar modules while keeping costs particularly low. Another key factor in our decision was that their production technology can be expanded in order to integrate highly efficient technologies such as PERC and bifacial cells into the production process.”
Vikram Solar is the only Indian solar module manufacturer to be listed in the Tier 1 PV module manufacturer rankings maintained by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The company, earlier this year, announced that it expanded operations and services in 14 new markets in sub-Saharan Africa, including Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.