Goldstone Infratech tie up for solar panel fab facility

Hyderabad: Goldstone Infratech Ltd announced it has partnered with Korean semiconductor expert Dr. June Min’s project TF SolarPower and Jusung Engineering to set up a Rs 600-crore solar panel fab facility in the Fab City located near Hyderabad.

The joint venture — TF (Thin Film) SolarPower will have 56 per cent stake of Goldstone, a domestic maker of polymer insulators, and 46 per cent between Dr. June Min and Jusung, a Korean equipment supplier.

This project will be set up in 50 acres site allotted to Dr. June Min in the Fab City and have a debt equity ratio of 1.5:1. Commercial production is likely by the first quarter of 2009, Dr. June Min said.

Addressing a press conference, Dr. June Min said that the 52-MW facility have two parallel assembly lines and mainly cater to European markets.

Based on the project progress, the capacity of the plant will be ramped up to 350 MW in Phase-I with a total project outlay of Rs 2,800 crore within four to five years.

The plant is based on Jusung’s patented 3D cell design technology, which is similar to LCD panels. The facility will have around 220 people on the site in the initial phase. Of them, about 20 will be Korean engineers. The clean room of the project is being executed by Sungdo ENG, Dr. June Min said.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Goldstone, Mr N.K. Rawal, said that the phase-I of the project will be executed with funding from internal accruals and investments by partners, details of which will be announced shortly.

Semiconductor fab:

Dr. June Min, was in the limelight after he presented a proposal to set up the country’s first semiconductor fab with an outlay of about Rs 6,000 crore. However, due to difficulties in securing necessary funding for the project, this is yet to be executed.

Asked about the status of the project, Dr. June Min said, “Since the investment is huge and there continues to be difficulties in securing funding in India, we could not execute the project. However, when things look up, we will take it up.”