India could become the world’s second-largest solar photovoltaic manufacturer by 2026: Report
The Hindu
With 110 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) module capacity set to come online in the next three years, India will become self-sufficient and will be the second-largest PV manufacturing country after China, says a new joint report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research and Analytics.
With 110 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) module capacity set to come online in the next three years, India will become self-sufficient and will be the second-largest PV manufacturing country after China, says a new joint report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research and Analytics.
The report finds that India’s cumulative module manufacturing nameplate capacity more than doubled from 18GW in March 2022 to 38GW in March 2023.
Jyoti Gulia, founder, JMK, and co-author of the report, said a favourable policy environment created by the Indian government is the major driver for this push in India towards PV manufacturing. “Production linked incentive (PLI) scheme may prove to be the necessary catalyst which will significantly augment India’s PV manufacturing capacity in the coming years,” she said.
“In terms of upcoming PV manufacturing installations, Gujarat is the leading state in India. It accounts for nearly 57% of all the upcoming PV manufacturing capacity. Some major reasons manufacturers chose Gujarat for setting up their PV fabrication facilities include cheaper industrial electricity prices and easy access to ports for imports and exports,” she added.
The report’s co-author Vibhuti Garg, Director, South Asia, IEEFA, said 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. Despite the aggressive market drivers, there are minor hurdles that are impeding the growth of the PV manufacturing industry. Therefore, policy stability is necessary to sustain investor confidence in the market, she added.
The report identifies some hurdles holding back the domestic PV manufacturing industry from realising its full growth potential, chief among them over-reliance on Chinese imports for upstream components of PV modules such as polysilicon and ingots/wafers.
According to the report, the sustained reliance on China for its raw material is such that almost all (around 95%) of the upstream PV manufacturing capabilities are still in China. Another is the dearth of skilled manpower, especially in the manufacturing of these upstream components, Ms. Gulia added.