Few are serious about building PV manufacturing capacities in India

Indian renewables consultancy Bridge to India expects just “a handful of serious players”, most likely local conglomerate Adani and China’s Trina Solar (NYSE:TSL), to build solar equipment factories in the Asian country.

"It remains to be seen if the planned capacities can become genuinely globally competitive but Scale being a key determinant of competitiveness, outlook is not very promising for Indian manufacturers despite the solar power generation business going through a boom phase," the consultancy said.

As of the start of April 2016, India had 1,212 MW of cell and 5,620 MW of module production capacity. This is divided between 81 local manufacturers. Bridge to India says the average size of a cell and module manufacturing line amounts to just 86 MW and 69 MW.

A recent survey shows that 60% of participants doubt there will be a fully integrated manufacturing line in India by 2022.

While the central government is working on a policy to promote local large-scale solar manufacturing, India has failed to defend its domestic content requirement for solar projects against the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The government is now trying to fortify its position by filing counter cases against the US, claiming that some of its sub-federal renewable energy programmes are inconsistent with WTO norms.

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