Waaree Energies To Commission 1.6 GW Solar Module Manufacturing Facility In US In FY25
Last year, Waaree Energies had announced foraying into the US market with plans to set up a new solar photovoltaic module manufacturing plant.
Waaree Energies Ltd. is planning to commission its upcoming 1.6 gigawatt solar panel manufacturing facility in the United States in this fiscal, according to its Chief Executive Officer Amit Paithankar.
The largest solar photovoltaic modules manufacturer in India also plans to increase the capacity of the plant—to be located in Houston, Texas—to "3 GW in the near term" to tap into the opportunities in the US market.
Last year, Waaree Energies had announced foraying into the US market with plans to set up a new solar photovoltaic module manufacturing plant at an investment of $1 billion.
“It is going to be a 1.6 GW annual capacity facility but it will be expanded fairly quickly to 3 GW in the near future and depending on the policy landscape we will look at augmenting it even further,” Paithankar told NDTV Profit.
The top executive said that the company plans to establish the manufacturing facility in Texas as it sees a robust order pipeline in the US market.
“We have about 15 GW of pipeline to 20 GW of pipeline that we are seeing in the US market. The facility we are coming up with is to address the large market demand we see there,” he said.
Paithankar noted that while the US market contributes more to the company’s order book, the revenue shares from both the US and Indian markets are nearly similar.
“In our order book, a substantial portion is from the US. But, as it gets converted into sales, it is kind of evening out at this stage. Almost 50% each is where we will land up. You can consider, maybe, 300 to 400 bps of difference in profitability between India and the US,” the Waaree Energies CEO explained.
However, he noted that the revenue share keeps varying over a period of time between the two countries.
Paithankar projected that the company’s order book is likely to increase in the second half of the ongoing fiscal on the back of a strong order funnel.
“(The order book is) extremely healthy. We already have two very important orders,” he noted. “In both the major markets that we are present in, (it is) safe to say that it is going to be a good, nice and healthy increase,” Paithankar added.
Shares of Waaree Energies opened higher at 2,732.35, before touching the day's high of 2,857.95. The stock was 4.48% higher at Rs 2,844 apiece on the NSE, against a 0.27% decline in the Nifty 50.
