By 2030, India Will Have About 100,000 MGW Manufacturing Capacity: RK Singh

Every international agreement talks about supply chains, what India did differently was adding manufacturing capacity,” said RK Singh Union Minister for Power, New and Renewable Energy and the President, International Solar Alliance (ISA) Assembly on Wednesday.

While speaking at at the curtain raiser event of the ISA 6th Assembly Session, he added that 88 per cent of the world’s total polysilicon manufacturing is concentrated in one country that is China and it is a crucial component to manufacture solar energy.

“As of now, we have 50,000 MGW of manufacturing capacity in different stages. 40,000 MGW of modules manufacturing capacity is already been established, 25,000MGW from before and 15,000MGW has been added. By the end of 2030, we will have about 100,000 MGW of manufacturing capacity, from polysilicon to modules," he added.

Singh added that out of that the full cycle from Polysilicon to modules will be about 50,000 MGW and the rest 50,000 will be about cells and modules.

He emphasised that when it is concerned with cells and modules, India has already emerged as an alternative reliable option in the face of China. “Our exports from the country are near about 700 billion dollars already this year,” he added.

He further mentioned that India had a small manufacturing capacity and "we felt the need to protect our industries in an efficient way, so we put safeguard tariffs which is 40 per cent."

“Another problem was storage. Again there also 90 per cent of the storage manufacturing capacity lies in the hands of one country, that is again China. We are also improving in the storage manufacturing development,” Singh asserted.

“For that one needs Lithium-ion or Lithium. Now again 80-90 per cent of it is tied up in one country,” he added.

The minister emphasised that India needs to invest in researching another alternative like sodium ion and that required to be done together as a nation.