SAEL, an Indian company that invests in clean energy, will invest $954 million dollars to build a solar manufacturing facility

The Indian renewable energy company SAEL Industries Ltd announced on Monday that it will invest 82 billion rupies ($954.04million) in order to build an integrated solar cell-and-module manufacturing facility capable of producing 5 gigawatts (GW) per year.

The plant in Greater Noida, one of the biggest investments in solar manufacturing in India to date, will increase SAEL's module production capacity from 8.5 GW to 10.5 GW.

Construction is scheduled to start this year.

This move is in line with India's efforts to localise the solar manufacturing. Only solar cells made in India by approved manufacturers are allowed to be used for government projects from June 2026.

India has 80 GW module capacity but only 15 GW cell capacity. Most modules are imported from China.

SAEL has assets that can generate more than 6.7GW of solar energy, including construction and operational projects. It aims to increase this to 10GW in three year. The company has raised over $2.4 billion, both in equity and in debt. It has also issued a green bond worth $305 million in 2024.

Laxit Awla is the CEO of SAEL Industries. He said that by 2030, they are looking to have a capacity of 18-20GW.

Awla declined to provide more information about the timing or size of the IPO.

SAEL's revenues from biomass and independent energy production businesses nearly doubled from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2025, reaching 6.87 billion rupees. The company wants to increase its revenue from this business to 30,94 billion rupees in fiscal year 2027. $1 = 85.9500 Indian Rupees (Reporting and editing by Janane Vekatraman; Sethuraman N R)

(source: Reuters)