India’s Waaree Energies Plans To Double Solar PV Module Production To 1 GW

The recent policies enacted by the Indian government to promote solar power capacity may finally be reaping positive results for the domestic solar module manufacturers.

One of the emerging module manufactures in India — Waaree Energies — will increase its production capacity to 1 GW per annum, the company has announced. Waaree Energies recently completed an upgrade of its production facility from 250 MW to 500 MW. The company now plans to double the production capacity again.

The company also announced that it received orders to provide modules for 40% of the domestic content requirement capacity allocated under the National Solar Mission phase 2, batch 1. That translates into about 150 MW.

India plans to install 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2022. A large part of this capacity will be developed by public sector companies which will restrict use of solar modules to those assembled and manufactured in India.

A number of public sector companies have already announced huge pipelines of solar power capacity. Recently, India’s largest power generation company, NTPC Limited,  released three tenders of 250 MW capacity each, which will be entirely based on domestically manufactured solar photovoltaic modules.

The central government has also asked Indian defence forces to set up 300 MW of solar power capacity, all of which will use Indian-made solar photovoltaic modules.

A large portion of the ultra mega solar power projects, through which the government plans to add 20 GW capacity, are expected to be based mostly on domestic modules.

The recent initiatives by several private- as well as public-sector companies, to either increase their module production capacity or set up new manufacturing units, have found support in the ‘Make In India’ program launched by the Indian government. The largest of such initiatives is the proposed $4 billion solar PV modules manufacturing unit to be set jointly by SunEdison and Adani Enterprises.

The expected jump in demand for modules has led to several Indian manufacturers increasing their production capacity. The recent orders have now started to reflect positively on the balance sheets of some.

Image Credit: Waaree Energies