Karnataka Industries Minister M.B. Patil has said Renaissance Solar and Electronic Materials is interested in investing ₹5,000 crore to establish a solar in-got and wafer manufacturing plant in the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor area of Tumakuru.
Patil made the statement after meeting Renaissance chairman and chief executive officer Dr Milind S. Kulkarni at Khanija Bhavan. The minister said the India-US partnership-backed company had expressed interest in making the investment as announced at the Invest Karnataka summit.
The proposed facility is expected to have a capacity of 5 gigawatts and would require 100 acres in the CBIC area, according to the minister. The company has made a request for land, while its other requirements are being discussed before a final decision is taken.
Renaissance is known for manufacturing single-crystal silicon and wafers used in the solar sector, Patil said. The company was started by technologists and has its headquarters in Chennai. Its proposed Tumakuru facility would expand the industrial corridor’s role in solar manufacturing, although the project is currently at the discussion and requirement-assessment stage.
The minister said the plant would require 80 megawatts of electricity. The source report also cited a daily water requirement stated by the minister, but the figure as published is unclear and requires clarification before it can be used for planning or public-resource assessment.
If the discussions and approvals proceed as expected, the company plans to begin manufacturing activity by the middle of 2028. The timeline is therefore dependent on the completion of negotiations over land and other project requirements, as well as decisions on the proposed incentives.
The company has also requested a special incentive package. Patil said discussions on the request were in progress. No final decision on the incentive package, land allotment or project approval was announced.
The proposal places industrial land, reliable power supply and water planning at the centre of the project’s next phase. A 5-gigawatt manufacturing facility would require the state and the company to settle these infrastructure requirements before construction and production can begin. The minister’s statement did not provide details on the expected investment schedule, employment generation or the specific mechanism through which the requested incentives would be provided.
The next step is for the Karnataka government and Renaissance to continue discussions on the company’s land, utility and incentive requirements. A final decision is expected after those discussions are completed.
