India to become second largest solar PV manufacturing country by 2026: Report

New Delhi, Apr 4 (KNN) A joint study by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research and Analytics claims that by 2026, India is all set to become the second-largest solar PV manufacturing country after China.

The report points out 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.

As per the report, in terms of upcoming PV manufacturing installations, Gujarat is the leading state in India.

The state alone accounts for around 57 per cent of all the upcoming PV manufacturing capacity

“The Primary reasons why 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 recommends that the government augment the PLI scheme to also include more upstream components, PV equipment machinery and ancillary components for more holistic development of the PV manufacturing ecosystem.

“Moreover, as part of the long-term expansion plan, India must aim to build enough PV capacity to satisfy local demand and maintain a healthy global presence to become a viable competitor to Chinese PV products,” the report said.

However, India’s current major PV export markets – the U.S. and Europe – are ramping up their own PV manufacturing capabilities. In future, these countries may also potentially become self-sufficient in PV manufacturing. As a result, there is a greater impetus to explore other export markets for Indian tier-1 manufacturers,” it added.  (KNN Bureau)