West Bengal, which has already taken a lead in generating solar power, on Wednesday added one more to the list. The Vikram Group of Industries launched a Rs 100 crore 25 mw solar photovoltaic module manufacturing plant at the Falta special economic zone in the presence of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, IT minister Debesh Das and S P Gon Choudhuri, MD, West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Ltd.

According to H K Chaudhary, chairman, Vikram Group of Industries: ?Vikram Solar has invested around Rs 100 crore in this project, with an initial capacity of 25 mw per annum. We are already in the process of expanding its capacity to 50 mw by the middle of this year.?

Furthermore, Vikram Solar has promoted a subsidiary in the name of Vikram Solar GmbH in Germany for the latest technological upgradation and to establish a brand for Vikram Solar in the European markets. Vikram Solar has also set up a 1.05 mw grid interactive solar power plant at Kottenheim, Germany.

In future, the company plans backward integration in the form of wafer and photovoltaic cell manufacturing, with a total capital outlay of Rs 500 crore. Vikram Solar has already provided employment to more than 100 persons by now, and once the full expansion is implemented, will be able to provide 800 jobs.

McKinsey & Company, in its survey in May?09, stated that India has one of the world?s highest solar intensities with an annual solar energy yield of 1,700 to 1,900 kilowatt hours per kilowatt peak (kWh/KWp) of the installed capacity. This is similar to the US and Hawaii, the other two countries which have been ranked first along with India.

According to Chaudhary, India has a number of advantages over other countries when it comes to suitable conditions for solar power generation ? dense population and high solar insulation. ?With about 300 clear sunny days in a year, India?s theoretical solar power reception, just on its land area, is about 5000 trillion kilowatt per year. This is far more than current total energy consumption. Even assuming 14% conversion efficiency for PV modules, it will still be thousands of times greater than the likely electricity demand in India by the year 2015.?

However, the solar power produced in India is merely 0.4% compared to other energy resources. To encourage a thriving solar market, the technology needs to be competitively cheaper, according to experts.

To deliver solar power to non-grid areas, Vikram Solar has initiated an R & D project in collaboration with Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) for applied research in solar battery systems to sustain a life cycle of 15-20 years.