A TEMPORARY BLIP

WITH SOLAR PVs AND MODULES BECOMING EXPENSIVE, LOCAL MANUFACTURING INITIATIVES MAY SAVE THE DAY FOR INDIA’S LONG-TERM SOLAR ENERGY PLANS

- P.B. JAYAKUMAR

Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani recently unveiled a green energy plan. And, like everything else about RIL, it was grand — ₹75,000 crore to be precise. “By 2030, the company aims to have 100 gigawatts (GW) solar capacity, which will be more than a fifth of the 450 GW renewable energy target set by the government for the country,” Ambani told RIL shareholders at the company’s latest annual general meeting.

More than that, he said, RIL is developing a Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex over 5,000 acres in Jamnagar which will have four giga factories, including an integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) giga factory. It will start with raw silica and convert it into polysilicon, which will then be turned into ingots and wafers. These wafers will be used to make solar cells and finally assembled into solar modules.

In short, RIL is looking for an end-to-end solution to what is fast turning out to be the biggest roadblock to India’s ambitious solar power plans — shortage of capacity to manufacture solar modules and the resulting import dependence. “We will target costs that are the lowest in the world,” he said.

RIL may be the most ambitious but is not the only game in town. Encouraged by the government’s attempt to push local manufacturing through import duties and production-linked incentives, a host of companies such as Vikram Solar, Adani Solar and ReNew Power have drawn up plans to make solar power equipment in the country. Their initiatives will be the key to India’s ambitious solar capacity addition targets. The country aims to produce 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. Of this, 280 GW (over 60 per cent) will be solar, which means the country has to add 25-30 GW solar capacity every year for the next 8-10 years.