Vikram Solar Pvt Ltd, a part of the Vikram group of industries, would invest Rs 500 crore to manufacture wafer and photovoltaic cell (PV) at its plant in Falta SEZ in West Bengal.
Chairman of Vikram group H K Chaudhury said to start with, the company had already invested Rs 100 crore to produce PV modules with a generation capacity of 25 MW.
"The capacity will be expanded to 50 MW by the middle of the next financial year," Chaudhury told reporters at the inauguration of the plant here.
He said that Vikram Solar GmBH in Germany had been supplying 1 MW of solar power to the grid in that country. The company is also in talks for setting up solar power projects in countries like Italy, Bulgaria and France.
Currently, the plant employs around 100 persons and the number would go up to 800 once the expansion process is complete.
Inaugurating the plant last night, West Bengal's Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said generation of energy from green sources like solar cells have to be increased.
IT minister Debesh Das said that the government was planning to set up a solar valley on 100 acre to promote green industries.
