India’s booming solar industry reinforces Linde as frontrunner in PV industry

Munich, Germany . – Reinforcing its position as India’s leading gas technology supplier to the photovoltaic (PV) industry, BOC India (BOCI), a member of The Linde Group, has won four new long-term gas supply deals with large PV manufacturers, Moser Baer, Euro Multivision, Solar Semiconductor and Indo Solar (formally Phoenix Solar).

Gases are critical to the production of solar cells, and can account for up to 20 percent of the total cost of thin-film silicon manufacturing. These significant deals for BOCI come at a time when India readies to unveil its first solar power target, pledging to boost output from near zero to 20 Giga Watts (GW) by 2020, as it firms up its national plan to fight global warming through the development of alternative energy sources and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

“As India plans its solar energy production targets, BOCI is committed to the common goal of bringing the cost of solar electricity to grid parity for mass adoption, by reducing cost per watt of solar cell production,” said Srikumar Menon, Managing Director, BOC India. “Our relationships with this growing list of leading Indian manufacturers are testament to the value of our investment in establishing world class execution capability to serve this rapidly growing and technically demanding industry.”

For Moser Baer’s first PV production unit in Greater Noida, India, BOCI has created one of the largest supply schemes for industrial gases for electronics manufacturing throughout South and East Asia. In addition to the on-site manufacturing of critical gases, BOCI’s partnership with Moser Baer includes a focus on employing technology solutions to optimise gas usage as well as India’s first on site Total Gas Management (TGM) service.

For Indo Solar’s first crystalline silicon PV cells manufacturing plant in India, and also in Greater Noida, BOCI has been selected as its exclusive supplier of bulk nitrogen (N2), silane (SiH4) and other specialty gases. BOCI will provide a full TGM service and also install the distribution and monitoring systems required for safe and reliable supply of these specialty gases to the manufacturing facility. In Phase One, Indo Solar will have an annual cell capacity of 160MW, which will ramp up by an additional 200MW in Phase Two (anticipated completion by end of 2009).

In Fab City Hyderabad, BOCI has been selected to pioneer the development of gas supply infrastructure in conjunction with the first large PV investment. Solar Semiconductor’s new crystalline silicon cell plant in Fab City has an initial capacity of 30 MW and plans to ramp up to 120MW by 2010. BOCI also plans to further expand its gas and chemical infrastructure in Fab City Hyderabad to support future investments.

Finally, in Gujarat BOCI is working with Euro Multivision Limited on the bulk and special gas supply to their new 40MW crystalline cell manufacturing facility in Kutch.

In India, solar manufacturing clusters are mainly in the north (Delhi and Noida) and the south (Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai).