India needs $7.2 billion investment to promote integrated solar module manufacturing: Report

Investments worth $7.2 billion will be required in the next three to four years to promote integrated manufacturing of solar modules in India, a report said on Thursday.

The push to improve local manufacturing could help domestic module manufacturers clock $30 billion (Rs 2.3 lakh crore) in revenues by 2030 from selling 150 GW at Rs 15/Wp (Watt peak) and generate employment opportunity for around 41,000 workers, according to the report released by CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF).

"India’s push to indigenise the solar manufacturing value chain would require capex investments worth $7.2 billion (Rs 53,773 crore) over the next three to four years,” it said.

Rishabh Jain, Programme Lead at CEEW, said that solar energy is the cornerstone of India’s goal to establish 500 GW (GigaWatt) of non-fossil-based capacity by 2030 and long-term net-zero ambition.

He noted that the ongoing geopolitical and energy crises point toward the importance of reducing import reliance and developing a reliable and robust domestic supply chain for industries critical to the energy transition.

To promote domestic solar manufacturing, the government has already announced multiple measures over FY 2021-22, including allocating $3.2 billion (Rs 24,000 crores) through the production-linked incentives scheme and levying a basic customs duty of 25 per cent and 40 per cent on all imports of solar cells and modules, respectively.