India can Become the Global hub for PV Manufacturing: NITI Aayog CEO

Solar PV manufacturing is one of the strategic sectors announced by the government and India has the opportunity to be the global hub for this, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing is one of the strategic sectors announced by the government and India has the opportunity to be the global hub for this, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said. While speaking at the virtual symposium ‘India PV Edge 2020’ organised by NITI Aayog, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Invest India, Kant said the government is confident of building competence, capabilities and capacities, especially in the sunrise areas of growth.

“Solar PV manufacturing is one of the strategic sectors announced by the government as part of the post-COVID-19 Aatmanirbhar Bharat recovery initiative. Efforts are underway to make India a global hub for solar PV manufacturing,” he said. He further added that India with its huge market and relevant manufacturing advantages can be a giga-scale manufacturing destination for the cutting-edge PV technologies across the entire value chain.

“We are at a critical juncture where India has the opportunity to be the global hub for solar PV manufacturing and are confident of building competence, capabilities and capacities, especially in the sunrise areas of growth,” he said. He also expressed hope that PV technology improvements will exceed general market expectations and will be the key anchor towards reducing solar deployment costs.

Also speaking at the event, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said India has a 31 gigawatts (GW) demand from government-sponsored schemes that require locally made solar panels and a large 300 GW target over the next 10 years. Kumar urged the PV manufacturing industry to utilise this large demand to invest in state-of-the-art manufacturing lines and collaborate with start-ups and research institutions to continue to increase the performance of the solar panels and reduce the cost.

Solar PV manufacturing is one of the strategic champion sectors announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat, an official statement said. India PV Edge 2020 has served as a small step towards that ambition and will go a long way in making India the giga-scale manufacturing destination for breakthrough PV technologies, it added.