India plans to use land near ports for solar equipment manufacturing

In the wake of building self-reliance in the solar segment, the land near Indian ports is being considered for setting up solar equipment manufacturing units. With nearly 110,000 hectares of land available across 12 major ports, port locations are expected to make solar equipment manufacturing cost-competitive and export oriented. At present, Chinese firms supply about 80 per cent of the solar cells and modules used in India, given their competitive pricing. This is another step towards curbing Chinese imports post the imposition of tariff and non-tariff barriers to put a check on all imported solar cells, modules and inverters. Setting up domestic manufacturing units for solar cells and modules will help the country in becoming an important part of the global supply chain, as firms look to move production lines out of China. Currently, India has a domestic manufacturing capacity of only 3 GW for solar cells.