Solar energy testing centre at Fab City soon
HYDERABAD: A testing and accreditation facility for solar energy products would be set up at the Fab City near here, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah, announced on Wednesday.Inaugurating the first phase of Solar Photovoltaic manufacturing facility of Solar Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd., at Fab City, he made the announcement while referring to a letter written to him a few months ago by the former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy for such a centre. In his letter, Dr. Reddy pointed out that such a centre at Fab City would help companies to get international accreditation done locally and would save time and money being spent to get their products tested and certified from overseas labs.
Emphasising the need for the country to be independent in energy sector, he said there was a need to promote renewable energies like solar and wind. He said that a new solar mission policy would be unveiled soon. In a bid to popularise the use of solar panels on roof tops, they would be installed in religious places like Tirumala, Shirdi, Amritsar and Ajmer which are visited by lakhs of people. Similarly, his Ministry wanted the residence of the Chief Minister, Raj Bhavan, Secretariat, Assembly building and Ministers’ residences to utilise solar energy.
Hyderabad is Business-friendly city
Earlier, Mr. Rosaiah said global fossil fuels were fast depleting and it was the endeavour of every country to consider development of alternative energy resources. Andhra Pradesh, he said, always had been in the forefront in creating infrastructure. World Bank in its latest report published in July 2009 had ranked Hyderabad as the ‘most business friendly city’ among metros in India.
Vishnu Reddy, executive vice-president of Solar Semiconductor Pvt.Ltd, said the company had a 195 mw manufacturing capacity. Its revenues increased from Rs.72 crore in fiscal year 2008 to Rs.459 crore in the current year. The company made investments to the tune of Rs.250 crore in the country so far and plans to invest another Rs.1,000 crore over the next three to four years to increase the manufacturing capacity to 900 mw. Source: The Hindu September 17, 2009