Indian solar module manufacturer Insolation Solar has secured funding from a World Bank-backed fund for expansion of its production line.
The funding was released by the Energy Access Relief Fund which is backed by IFC, BII, DFC, FMO and others, and managed by Social Investment Managers and Advisors.
The funding shall be used be the company to expand its module production capacity. Insolation Energy currently has a module and cell production capacity of 700 megawatts and plans to expand it to 1,700 megawatts over the next 2-3 years.
The company is hopeful of expanding its share in the domestic as well as international markets like the US and Europe.
The Indian government has taken several measures to promote use of domestic solar equipment manufacturing. At its peak, Chinese imports accounted for around 80-90% of solar modules installed in India. From April 2022, the Indian government imposed a 40% import duty on solar modules and 25% on solar cells.
It also announced a production-linked incentive scheme to promote expansion of production capacities with complete integration from polysilicon-wafer-cells-modules. The government has earmarked $3 billion worth of incentives under this scheme.
Additionally, in 2021 the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy issued an order mandating project developers to procure modules from manufacturers approved by it. The government has so far approved more than 20 gigawatts of production capacity under this order, all from Indian companies.
These efforts have started attracting interest in the sector. Incumbents are looking to expand their production capacity while new companies are raising funds to establish greenfield projects.
Tata Power Solar, Waaree Energies, Vikram Solar, and Adani Enterprises are some existing companies that have announced aggressive expansion plans over the next few years. Reliance New Energy, ReNew, and First Solar have started work on setting up new manufacturing facilities.
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