India’s solar industry may soon get incentives to boost manufacturing and cut Chinese imports

In an attempt to reduce dependence on the Chinese imports, the Central government plans to come out with a fresh solar tender that will provide viability gap funding (VGF) to projects setting up solar wafer and ingot manufacturing facilities.

Silicon wafers and ingots are critical components that go into manufacturing solar cells and modules. However, India does not have manufacturing facilities for these complements that is largely imported from China, even by local solar cell and module makers. China is the biggest maker of these components globally.

“Under the phased manufacturing plan in solar, government may provide the VGF support to developers of these critical solar components. This high technology manufacturing would change the face of domestic equipment market and eliminate dependence on imports,” said official sources. Read More…