Rajasthan state of India is next big market for solar semiconductor industry

Year 2008 has seen huge growth in demand for solar PV cell manufacturers. It was mainly due to market opportunity in Germany and Spain. Large scale of installation promoted by government was the main reason for growth. India looks to be the next immediate opportunity for PV cells, power semiconductor devices, White LEDs, and any such solar-based power systems and components.

At the recently concluded ISA vision summit, the speakers from different backgrounds such as politics to material science to core PV cell makers have opined that the solar is the way to go to fulfill the energy demands of world, if not in 2009, by 2011 -12 market forces will take over solar industry due to its immense potential.

There were reports that solar market may face excess supply in 2009. That may not be the case, by looking at the opportunities provided by state of Rajasthan in India. This state with rich Indian heritage also houses a big desert extending thousands of kilometers. This wasteland is now a market opportunity for solar semiconductor industry. There is an immediate opportunity of few 100 Megawatts of installations. Indian government is planning to promote this in a big way with new policy and framework which is expected in year 2009 to generate >500 Megawatts of solar installation in the year 2009 alone.

Indian companies Tata BP Solar and Moser Baer are expanding production capacities keeping view of sudden opportunities.
Moser Baer is increasing its thin film PV solar module capacity to 100 MW in 2009 and Crystalline PV solar module production to 180 MW.

There are about 100 million households in rural and urban India who would buy a white LED based solar lanterns to light up their homes. This provides approximately a minimum of half a billion dollar market for various electronics and semiconductor components getting into this product. However the solar lighting still not taken that seriously in India, but its going to happen in next two years.

Even at ISA vision summit, the session on solar was well attended compared to others.