First Solar-Window Project Completed by Indian Company

Moser Baer India Ltd. (MBI), the country’s second-largest maker of solar cells, completed its first project to convert the exterior of a building to produce power from the sun.

Window panes at a shopping mall in Hyderabad in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh were replaced with 24 solar panels based on thin-film technology with an installed capacity of 1.8 kilowatts, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.

The global market for projects that integrate solar panels into building facades is expected to expand almost 10-fold to 11,392 megawatts by 2015, according to the statement.

Most solar panels convert sunlight into electricity using traditional silicon-based cells. Thin-film modules use less costly photovoltaic coatings, such as cadmium telluride.

Moser Baer produces thin-film modules at its plant in Noida, which has a capacity of 90 megawatts per year, according to its website.

SOURCE: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-18/moser-baer-india-completes-solar-window-project-in-hyderabad.html