India is preparing a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic polysilicon manufacturing, Santosh Kumar Sarangi, secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said on Friday.
Why does this matter?
The scheme would push India's manufacturing incentive programme deeper into the solar supply chain and cut import dependence, Sarangi said at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event in New Delhi. Polysilicon is a critical raw material for solar photovoltaic panels, and India currently sources it entirely from China.
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The move comes as India targets 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil fuel power capacity by 2030, with the renewable energy ministry increasingly focused on local manufacturing as developers scale up solar installations and look to reduce reliance on imported equipment.
What will the scheme cover?
The new scheme could cover more than 10 GW of production capacity, Sarangi said, though he did not disclose the size of the financial incentive on offer. India has previously extended manufacturing-linked incentives worth 240 billion rupees ($2.52 billion) for solar panel and cell production.
The proposed scheme is aimed at building an integrated solar manufacturing ecosystem across modules, cells, wafers, ingots and polysilicon, segments where Chinese producers currently dominate globally.
Where does India's capacity currently stand?
India has already built more than 200 GW of solar panel manufacturing capacity and over 32 GW of solar cell capacity, Sarangi said, with another 100 GW of cell capacity expected to come online within about a year. The country is also targeting at least 80 GW of solar ingot and wafer manufacturing capacity by June 2028.
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Deeper domestic manufacturing would strengthen India's clean energy ambitions and industrial competitiveness, Sarangi said, adding that polysilicon also has semiconductor applications, which could widen the economic benefits of new investment beyond solar manufacturing alone.
With inputs from Reuters
