‘Avaada seen as India’s Tesla on renewable energy front’

Nagpur: “The Avaada Group is being touted as India’s ‘Tesla’ on renewable energy front by experts and we are taking it as a fillip. The company sees Nagpur as its nerve centre,” said Avaada Group chairperson Vineet Mittal.The company says its Butibori facility is a “super factory” and counted among Asia’s largest facilities. Mittal told TOI that the company aims to build a fully integrated solar manufacturing plant at Butibori within two years — producing modules “right from sand,” the basic raw material.The company also has plans to set up a green methanol plant at Nagpur that may entail an investment of Rs 20,000 crore. “It would be over and above of Rs 13,500 crore committed for the solar module project at Nagpur. This will need a policy push from the state govt,” he said.Mittal was in the city for a visit to the plant here. Avaada is also positioning itself for long-term opportunities in green hydrogen and downstream products such as green ammonia and green methanol. The company has already firmed up plans in Gopalpur, Odisha.Avaada currently has 7.2 GW of operational solar cell capacity and 7 GW of solar module capacity at Nagpur. Mittal said construction is underway for a solar glass plant, along with facilities to convert polysilicon into silicon ingots and then wafers. As these units come online, Avaada plans to integrate more stages of production into a single industrial ecosystem.The solar glass facility is expected to be ready within a year. Mittal said that by 2028, additional processes and ancillary products, such as aluminium components, junction boxes and battery manufacturing, are planned to be co-located at Nagpur.Normally, glass is made at one facility and transported to another and then sent to a module-making line. “At Avaada, the plan is to build a facility where glass can move directly through conveyors. This will lead to a major savings on logistics front,” Mittal said.On technology, Mittal said Avaada’s G1 format TOPCon solar cells have achieved 26.8% efficiency. At that performance level, the company calculates a module output of nearly 765 watts under standard test conditions.Mittal also argued for expanding India’s data centre capacity, noting that the country generates about 20% of the world’s data but has relatively low domestic data centre infrastructure. “More data centres would raise electricity demand that could be met through solar power,” he said, adding that solar generation units could be established in each tehsil of the state.He also said Avaada is exploring entry into nuclear energy for future power needs. “Avaada is also seeing a strong demand and customer interest for HALO system,” he said.You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Nagpur | Silver Rate in Nagpur | Bank Holidays in Nagpur | Public Holidays in Nagpur | Petrol Price in Nagpur | Diesel Price in Nagpur | CNG Price in Nagpur | LPG Price in NagpurStay updated with the latest Nagpur news. Download the TOI App.