In the next three years, India is poised to achieve self-sufficiency in module manufacturing with an anticipated addition of 110 gigawatts (GW) of capacity.
India is set to become self-sufficient in solar photovoltaic (PV) module capacity in the next three years, with 110 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity coming online, according to a joint report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research & Analytics.
The report also reveals that India will become the second-largest PV manufacturing country after China, with cumulative module manufacturing nameplate capacity more than doubling from 18GW in March 2022 to 38GW in March 2023.
The report attributes India’s rapid growth in the PV manufacturing industry to the favorable policy environment created by the Indian government, particularly the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which will lead to an increase of 51.6GW of module capacity and at least 27.4GW of integrated “polysilicon-to-module” capacity in India in the next three to four years.
The government has also taken steps to increase the demand for locally made solar PV modules by introducing domestic content requirements (DCR) for solar power in several government schemes.
However, the report also identifies some hurdles holding back the domestic PV manufacturing industry from realizing its full growth potential, particularly over-reliance on Chinese imports for upstream components of PV modules.
The report recommends that the government augments the PLI scheme to also include more upstream components, PV equipment machinery and ancillary components for a more holistic development of the PV manufacturing ecosystem.
The report also suggests that the government provides upfront subsidies for setting up manufacturing units to help smaller manufacturers with limited capital available.
Overall, the report concludes that the future of the Indian PV manufacturing sector is bright, and after India attains self-sufficiency in two to three years, the next course of action should be to challenge and compete for dominance in both quality and scale in the global PV module market.