Germany's SMA Solar eyes 1.4MW of business from India

Germany's SMA Solar, the world's largest maker of solar inverters, expects that in 2014 its Indian unit will win about 40% of a market it forecasts will reach 3,500 megawatts, an official of the domestic unit said on Thursday.

"We are going with the pace of the Indian industry ... but our objective is to be in leadership position in India as we are globally," Rakesh Khanna, general manager of SMA Solar India, said.

The firm, which derives close to 56% of its revenue from exports, has been active in the Indian market since October 2010, has 200 MW worth of business in the country now and announced establishment of its India unit on Thursday.

"We strongly believe that India will become, or could become, one of the largest PV markets in the world," said Marko Werner, board member and Chief Sales Officer, SMA Solar Technology AG.

Many global solar firms are expanding their presence in India as the country plans to develop solar power capacity to 1,000 MW by 2013 and grow that to 20 gigawatt by 2022, with an overall investment of close to USD 70 billion.

The strong demand in overseas markets had pushed the German firm to post forecast-busting second quarter profit, while providing an ambitious outlook for 2011.

SMA's competitor and No. 2 solar inverter maker Power-One Inc could offset weakness in its European markets as it expanded into the United States, China and India.

Solar panel maker Canadian Solar Inc recently forayed into India, while India has prominent domestic solar equipment makers such as Tata BP Solar, a joint venture between India's Tata Power and BP Plc and Moser Baer.

With about 250-300 clear sunny days in a year, India's solar power reception is about 5,000 trillion kilowatt hours per year, meaning just 1% of India's land area could meet the country's entire electricity requirements until 2030.

India's peak power deficit, the shortfall between supply and demand at peak hours, was 10.3% in the last fiscal year to end March.

By 1235 GMT, shares in the firm, now valued by the market at USD 3.7 billion, were trading 0.29% higher, while the DAX Index was trading up 0.33%.