The Indian government has approved an additional INR195bn (USD2.4bn) funding for a new round of production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to promote the production of high-efficiency solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, as reported by the Economic Times on September 22. Under the scheme, selected manufacturers will receive the PLI for a period of five years to bolster their production capacities. The government expects the funding to unlock a direct investment of INR940bn (USD11.59bn) in the solar module industry and add 65 gigawatts (GW) in manufacturing capacity of fully and partially integrated solar PV modules. At present, India has a 15 GW production capacity of solar cells and modules.
India injected INR195bn (USD2.4bn) into the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) PLI scheme in February 2021, a significant increase from the INR45bn (USD553.8m) initial allocation to build large-scale manufacturing capacity of high-efficiency solar PV modules. MNRE Secretary, Shekhar Chaturvedi, estimated that India will need 280 to 300 GW of solar energy power generation capacity to meet the nation’s 500 GW renewable energy generation goal by 2030. To achieve the target, India needs to raise the PV module manufacturing capacity to between 30 and 35 GW by 2030, Chaturvedi added. The PLI scheme is also intended to support the domestic solar module industry which highly relies on polysilicon and wafer imports. Previously, on April 1, the Indian government imposed a 25% import duty on solar cells and a 40% tariff on PV modules to promote domestic manufacturing.
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