SOLAR MANUFACTURING SUPPLY CHAIN IN INDIA

Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) has been accepting applications for incentives from solar manufacturers to set up gigawatt-scale manufacturing facilities for high-efficiency solar modules in India, under the second phase of the PLI Scheme

- CA Yogesh Birla

Manufacturers that set up any PV-related production facilities are eligible to apply for the incentives. However, they will need to develop facilities that make solar cells and modules in line with minimum manufacturing capacity requirements and minimum standards for performance. CA Yogesh Birla discusses the scheme in detail.

The government, in its emerging solar manufacturing initiatives, has already extended PLI (Production link incentive) scheme to this sector. So now manufactures can opt to bid under any of the three categories of integration: poly-to-module, ingot-wafers-tomodule, and cells and modules. This would be equally for polysilicon and wafers, along with cells and modules for solar industry.

Solar developers would be in a better position to control costs through PLI backward integration and pass on the benefits in the form of reduced pricing to solar panel buyers. Based on benefits of this scheme, large number of Solar Module manufacturers bid for PLI financial incentives to expand domestic manufacturing of solar panels. Sources seen participation from Reliance industries, Tata Power, JSW Energy, ReNew Energy, First Solar, Avada solar etc. among long list with other aspirants.