New Delhi, June 22: Japan's SoftBank Corporation has teamed up with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan's Foxconn to invest around $20 billion in solar energy projects in the country as the government is keen to expand the renewable energy sector five-fold by 2022.
The joint venture will initially put up solar parks with imported equipment but subsequently look at manufacturing solar panels in India itself.
The project aims to add 20 gigawatts of solar generation capacity over a decade, SoftBank's billionaire founder Masayoshi Son told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The pace of investment will depend on the cooperation of the Centre, the state government and NTPC (as a buyer of power)," Son said.
The partners will initially look at Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. "I have heard there is a lot of unused and uncultivable land in India. There are lots of opportunities in non-agricultural land for solar energy," he said.
SoftBank will hold a majority stake in the joint venture -SBG Cleantech - while Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology Group will have minority stakes.
Son said Foxconn will help with planned solar equipment manufacturing for the projects. The three firms are also looking at manufacturing equipment in India, he said.
The company intends to participate in the 2015-16 round of solar power plant tenders under the National Solar Mission programme and state-specific solar programmes.
The Japan-based telecommunications and Internet major had earlier committed itself to invest $10 billion in India over a decade. In the last nine months, it has invested $1 billion by acquiring stakes in Snapdeal and ANI Technologies, a provider of smartphone-based cab booking services.
Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal said Manoj Kohli will head the three-way venture as its executive chairman while Raman Nanda will be the chief executive officer.
Son said India has two times more sunshine and the cost of constructing a solar park is half that of Japan. It would take two years to start a project from the time of land allocation.
