Independent Power Supplier Signs SunFab Contract

KSK Surya Photovoltaic Venture, Private Limited (KSK), a subsidiary of KSK Power Ventur plc, a leading independent power provider in India, announced that it has signed a contract with Applied Materials to purchase two Applied SunFab™ Thin Film Lines for a solar manufacturing facility to be built in India, along with a five-year service contract.

The KSK group of companies addresses the power supply deficit in India by building power stations (coal, gas and hydro) for supply to bulk consumers. The group has announced that it expects to have 900 megawatts (MW) of power production capacity by March 2010, with greater than 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of additional projects in various stages of development. KSK intends to expand its power generation portfolio into renewables and plans to set up solar farms using SunFab panels.

India’s rapidly expanding economy requires a strong and growing power infrastructure — the current per capita electricity use in India is less than 5% of that of the U.S., but it is expected to continue to expand. Solar power can address India’s increasing peak power needs while also helping to meet carbon reduction goals.

Additionally, solar power in India can play an important role in generating power in remote areas, supporting key applications such as rural electrification, irrigation pumps (used when the sun is shining intensely) in a predominantly agricultural economy, and ever-increasing cell phone towers — all of which currently require significant amounts of costly diesel-generated power.

India’s “National Solar Mission,” the country’s renewable energy plan, calls for 20GW of solar electricity capacity to go on-line by 2020, expanding to 200GW by 2050. In addition, the Indian government has established policies to encourage investment in high tech manufacturing jobs, and KSK’s new SunFab lines will be part of its planned “Fab City” in Hyderabad. Applied Materials is pleased to help KSK play a significant part in India’s new solar mission.

The contracts with KSK are subject to certain conditions, including completion of financing.

Read KSK’s press release to learn more about this announcement.