Borosil Renewables to expand solar glass capacity to 10 gw/year after cabinet approves PLI scheme

Borosil Renewables, India’s only solar glass manufacturer, is in focus after the cabinet cleared the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for solar module manufacturers. Solar glass is a critical component in manufacturing solar modules.

Speaking with CNBC-TV18, Pradeep Kheruka, Chairman of the company said that they had anticipated the move and have expanded solar glass capacity to 5 gigawatts a year. He also said that they may look at expanding it further to 10 gigawatts a year.

“We had seen this coming and we have reviewed our production. We used to manufacture 180 tonnes a day of solar glass since 2010 until 2018. In 2018 we decided to expand the capacity and rebuild the furnace. So we ended up with 450 tonnes a day, which is equal to about 2.5 gigawatt of glass per year which was effective from December 2019. But seeing the trends we decided to put in another 500 tonnes per day which should take up our capacity from 2.5 gigawatts to 5 gigawatts. We have launched a QIP and the funds are in place. We hope by the first quarter next financial year we should be in production,” he said.

He has also requested the government to continue with anti-dumping duty on solar glass. “We had secured an anti-dumping duty in 2017 and that expires after two years. We think that it will continue and we hope that it will continue. We shall make every effort to try to petition the government to request them to continue it,” he said.

Kheruka also said that domestic production of solar modules has been ramping up substantially in the last 2 years because of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evem Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) and the Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) scheme.

“These are two schemes that mandate the use of modules manufactured in India, using domestic content which is primarily solar cells. Once the modules are made in India, then it helps us, because the module manufacturers have an option of using our glass. So, these two schemes have been the mainstay on which the national industry has been moving forward,” he said.