The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has issued offer letters, so far, to an Indian and two American companies for setting up solar power plants at Kadiri in Anantapur district where it has earmarked an area of 5,000 acres for allotment to solar power projects.
According to APIIC chairman and managing director BP Acharya, the three companies will together invest over Rs 3,000 crore. While US-based Sunborne will be investing Rs 2,000 crore, California-based AES Solar and Hyderabad-based Lanco Solar will be investing about Rs 600 crore each.
He said that besides the 5,000 acres earmarked already, an addition 15,000 acres of land was available at Kadiri for allotment to various solar companies. While the proposed units at Kadiri would generate solar power to cater to the needs of the domestic sector, the projects set up in the Hyderabad Fab City manufacture solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, 70 per cent of which are currently being exported.
He said the Humburg-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems had agreed to set up a training and quality testing centre in the city for the benefit of solar PV manufacturers.