India is expected to witness an increase in domestic solar cell-making capacity in the upcoming months, a senior official said. Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Renewable Energy Secretary, said that the country is estimated to see a surge in the domestic production capacity of solar cells in the near future as it aims to reduce its dependence on China for materials imported to make the solar panels.
India’s cell capacity is projected to climb five-fold to nearly 30 gigawatts a year by March 2025, shared Bhalla, in an interview with Bloomberg. This should help the government widen import restrictions to promote local adoption of solar power hardware.
This will also be a major step in increasing the self-sufficiency of the sector, which has been a key goal for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The country has also imposed taxes on certain solar components and launched an approved list of models and manufacturers, to help reduce the dependence on Chinese imports. In order to keep a tab on the inflow of shipments from abroad, India has essentially implemented a non-tariff trade barrier.
Notably, officials from the US and Europe have expressed concern about global demand being overwhelmed due to the excess supply from Chinese solar firms. They noted that this is impacting their local supply chains severely. Last month, US President Joe Biden’s government implemented certain rules aimed at strengthening tariffs against Chinese solar equipment.
However, India has already seen an increase in its domestic module output owing to existing restrictions on imports. At the same time, the domestic manufacturers remain dependent on China for other back-end products used in making solar panels.
Bhalla shared that the government’s next item on the restricted list would be cells, however, this time, the authorities would proceed with more caution.
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