The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy secretary, Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, said on Thursday, that India is set to become a major player in the global renewable energy equipment supply chain as the solar manufacturing capacity of the country is expected to touch 100GW by 2026.
Bhalla highlighted that India will soon become a major exporter of renewable energy at an event organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi.
This will reportedly be made possible with the implementation of the government's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme which will be backed by an investment of INR 240 billion ($2.8 billion) and will facilitate the establishment of 48GW of solar equipment manufacturing capacity int he next three years..
After the implementation of the PLI scheme, India should be in a position to have 100GW solar module manufacturing capacity, he pointed out.
According to Bhalla, India currently possesses a remarkable solar module manufacturing capacity of 28GW and a solar cell manufacturing capacity of 6GW.
However, in order to attain their objective, India will have to consistently introduce an additional 30GW to 40GW of solar power capacity each year.
"We still have a very large substantial capacity for exports. That is why India will become a key player in the global supply chain (of solar equipment)," he said.
India has set a goal of achieving a commendable 500GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, with a vision of having half of its power derived from non-fossil fuel alternatives such as solar power, wind energy, and green hydrogen.
Bhalla shared that India has installed renewable energy generation capacity of 178 GW as of August 2023 and has witnessed the fastest renewable capacity addition over the past years.