Solar PLI Tranche 2 Allocations Released, 48 GW Of Domestic Manufacturing Capacity By 2025-26

The government of India has allocated 39600 MW of domestic Solar PV module manufacturing capacity under PLI (Tranche-II), or the Solar PLI scheme to incentivise domestic manufacturing. The PLI or Performance Linked Incentive scheme offers financial incentives to manufacturers for meeting specific milestones in sales, linked indirectly to capacity creation.

The PLI (Tranche-II) is expected to lead to investments of Rs. 93041 crores, and generate over one Lakh direct and indirect jobs 11 companies have made the cut finally, a significant improvement over the three that made it in the previous round, with Reliance the common factor.

With a total outlay of Rs. 14,007 Crores under the Production Linked Incentive Scheme for High Efficiency Solar PV Modules (Tranche-II), as it is called, manufacturing capacity totaling 7400 MW is expected to become operational by October 2024, 16,800 MW capacity by April 2025 and the balance 15,400 MW capacity by April 2026. The list of the companies is provided below.

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Speaking on the success of the PLI scheme, R. K. Singh, Union Minister for Power & NRE said that India was well on its way to climb up the value chain in production of the high technology Solar PV Modules and this capacity addition is a major step towards making India Aatmanirbhar in solar manufacturing sector. “The PLI Scheme has proved to be a watershed event in India’s Renewable landscape resulting in around 48 GW domestic module manufacturing capacity within next 3 years. Scheme has boosted Government’s efforts to reduce not only the impact of global supply chain shocks but also our import dependence adhering to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” Singh said.

A total integrated capacity of 8737 MW was allocated under Tranche-I of the Scheme, in November-December, 2022. Considering the two tranches together, the total domestic solar PV module manufacturing capacity allocated under the PLI Scheme is 48,337 MW, with a cumulative support of more than Rs. 18,500 Crore by the Government.

The new PLI allotments are notable for skipping public sector firms altogether, with Coal India Limited and its solar manufacturing plans being a notable miss. Nothing from the Adani stable makes it too.

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The next big ‘event’ in the manufacturing space is likely to be the PLI scheme for Green Hydrogen, likely to include a scheme to support electrolyser manufacturing. That will complete the full circle of module manufacturing, energy storage (from the PLI for battery manufacturing) and Green Hydrogen, potentially placing India well to be a global leader in manufacturing for the energy transition.

With many smaller manufacturers already expanding capacity outside of the PLI scheme, India’s total solar capacity looks set to hit close to 65 GW by the time the PLI scheme plays out. With capacity creation in other critical components ranging from Solar glass, trackers and other key chemicals also under development, the country seems set to become a key source for solar equipment in the years to come, a reversal from the status as one of the largest importers of equipment until now.

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