Why India needs a Solar Manufacturing Strategy?

GS3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, And Railways etc.



What is the issue?

  • India has made an ambitious target for its National solar mission and co-authored to start the International Solar alliance.
  • Despite making significant progress in solar power generation, India still relies on China for equipment. In this context, here is an overview of India’s solar manufacturing potentials and shortfalls.

BACKGROUND

  • The Prime Minister’s emphasis since 2014 has given a new fillip to solar power installation in India.
  • India has made significant progress in creating capacity for solar energy generation in the last few years.
  • The unit costs of solar power have fallen, and solar energy has become increasingly competitive with alternative sources of energy.
  • India expanded its solar generation capacity 8 times from 2,650 MW in May, 2014 to over 20 GW in January, 2018, and 28.18 GW in March, 2019.
  • The government had an initial target of 20 GW of solar capacity by 2022, which was achieved 4 years ahead of schedule.
  • In 2015, the target was raised to 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022.

India’s solar manufacturing potential at present

  • The supply chain of solar photovoltaic (PV) panel manufacturing is as follows: silicon production from silicates, production of solar grade silicon ingots, solar wafer manufacturing and PV module assembly.
  • The capital expenditure and technical know-how needed for these processes decreases from the first item to the last.
  • Moreover, silicon production is more capital-intensive than module assembly.
  • Most Indian companies are engaged in only module assembly or wafer manufacturing and module assembly.
  • No Indian company is involved in silicon production, although a few are making strides towards it.
  • Finally, India may not see domestic players, in the short term at least, replacing imported ones.
Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

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