India Headed For 20.7 GW Polysilicon Capacity, Says Minister

Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State For Power; and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, in a written reply before the Rajya Sabha, stated that India has added 48.3 GW of fully or partially integrated solar PV module manufacturing capacity to date. This includes approximately 37.5 GW of ingot and wafer manufacturing capacity, most of which is at planning or under construction stage. Taken along with Ingot facilities, the minister said 20.7 GW of polysilicon manufacturing facilities were also part of this 48.3 GW figure.

Most of this capacity has been awarded under the PLI scheme to support solar manufacturing.

The Government of India is implementing the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for High Efficiency Solar PV Modules, for achieving domestic manufacturing capacity of Giga Watt (GW) scale in High Efficiency Solar PV modules, with an outlay of Rs. 24,000 crore. The Scheme is being implemented in two tranches. Tranche-I has an outlay of Rs. 4,500 crore, under which Letters of Award have been issued for setting up of 8,737 MW of fully integrated solar PV module manufacturing units. For Tranche-II with an outlay of Rs. 19,500 crore, Letters of Award have been issued for setting up of 39,600 MW of fully/ partially integrated solar PV module manufacturing units.

State Of Imported solar cells & modules

Earlier, in response to a separate question on whether India’s solar equipment production is limited to assembling imported solar cells and modules with minimal local value addition, the minister stated, “Presently, the installed solar PV module manufacturing capacity in the country, as per the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers, issued on 17.02.2025 is around 67 GW. The present solar PV cell manufacturing capacity in the country as per the information provided by the Solar PV Manufacturers Associations, is around 25 GW.”

Whereas, on the status of current solar ingot and wafer capacity installed capacity the minister stated, “The installed Ingot and Wafer manufacturing capacity in the country is around 2 GW. At present there is no commercial production of Polysilicon in the country. The aforesaid manufacturing capacity of solar PV cells and modules includes around 3.2 GW of fully integrated thin film solar PV module manufacturing capacity (By First Solar) , which is not dependent on imported Solar Cells, Wafers, and Polysilicon, as the manufacturing process is fully integrated and all the major steps involved in the manufacturing process, taking place in India.”