India Pushes Local Solar Manufacturing With 2028 Mandate

• India mandates local solar ingots, wafers from 2028.
• Policy aims to cut China import dependence.
• Boost to domestic solar manufacturing ecosystem.

India is going to seriously strengthen its domestic solar manufacturing ecosystem by enforcing the use of locally manufactured solar ingots and wafers in its clean energy projects starting from June 2028. This decision, made public by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), is intended to lessen India’s import dependency especially on China and at the same time create an independent solar production chain.

The policy enhances existing localization requirements which at present mandate only solar modules manufactured in the country and will also include solar cells from June 2026. In 2028, this obligation will be extended to top-line components like ingots and wafers, thereby bringing the major part of solar manufacturing under Indian production.

India now has a fairly limited production capacity of around 2 GW for ingots and wafers and imports a substantial amount of its needs, especially polysilicon, cells, and wafers, from China. The newly introduced requirement will not only boost domestic production by bringing in new investment but also help in reducing the vulnerabilities of supply chains which were highlighted by recent global disruptions.

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To facilitate the execution, the government is also enlarging the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) system by introducing ingots and wafers under a separate category. Starting from June 2028, only those projects that will comply with the component sourcing policy from approved domestic manufacturers will be given the green light, including net-metering and open-access projects.

Major industry players like Tata Power, Waaree Energies, and Indosol Solar among others have laid out their roadmap for investing heavily in ramping up local manufacturing capacity. These investments correspond to India's larger goal of generating 500 GW of non-fossil fuel based power capacity by 2030.

The policy, on one hand, will strengthen domestic industry and create a supply chain that is not interrupted. However, Indian manufacturers still have to overcome the cost and technology differential with global leaders, especially China, which is currently in the lead in the solar manufacturing segment involving raw materials.