Solar Cell Production To Come Under ALMM Soon: Pralhad Joshi

Solar Cell Production To Be Under Approved List: Pralhad Joshi

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is planning to bring solar cell production under the government listing by bringing an ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturer) like policy for solar cell production. 

With this, MNRE aims to boost domestic manufacturing of solar cells as well as ensure top-notch quality.

An ALMM list for solar PV cells is in the pipeline and a final decision will be made shortly, said Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of New & Renewable Energy while speaking to the media on the sidelines of the POWERGEN India 2024.

ALMM is a list of solar module manufacturers from which the solar project developers can buy original equipment. Currently, cell production is not part of the ALMM.

India’s current cell producing capacity is around 6 GW. Therefore, inclusion of cell production in the ALMM would boost the domestic manufacturing industry similar to module manufacturing. This is because ALMM inclusion gives producers an assurance of offtake. This is a significant since India is targeting to put in place 500 GW of solar power capacity by 2030, 292 GW of which will be solar.

Interestingly, imports of solar cells in 2023 stood at 15.6 GW, up 169 per cent from 5.8 GW in 2022. Also, exports of solar cells increased significantly to 286.3 megawatt (MW) from meager 10 MW in 2022.