Rolta Power plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in five years

Rolta Power, which entered the solar power sector in September last year with 40 megawatt capacity for manufacturing photovoltaic (PV) modules in Mumbai, is expanding its capacity to 100 MW.

The earlier-than-expected capacity addition is due to high demand for solar equipment in the country and Rolta Power is already sitting on Rs 80-crore order book, said Managing Director Aditya K. Singh.

The company was expecting revenue of about Rs 300 crore in the first 12-18 months of operation, but is likely to meet those targets earlier. "We are planning an investment of close to Rs 1,000 crore in next five years to expand capacities and meet demand," said Singh.

Singh said the Rolta Group will raise funds internally to fund the expansion. Rolta Power is a privately held company of the group that is present also in the IT, engineering and defence equipment sectors.

India plans to have 100 GW of installed solar capacity by 2022, from three GW. At present, most capacity is based on PV modules imported from China, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. The supply chain in PV manufacturing is like basic raw material polysilicon converted to wafers and then to cells and modules.

Singh said solar projects have become viable in the country and the investment required has come down to about Rs 6 crore per MW from the earlier Rs 10-12 MW a few years ago.