Tapping the shine: On the solar industry in India Politics & News

Among the successes that India can take reasonable credit for is cultivating a domestic solar power industry. Somewhere in 2017, the per unit cost of solar power fell below that of coal power, spurring new interest among businesses investing in ground-mounted solar projects. In 2024-25, the International Renewable Energy Agency reported that India generated 1,08,494 Gwh (gigawatt-hour) of solar energy, surpassing Japan’s 96,459 Gwh, and making it the third largest producer of solar power behind only China and the United States. India’s capacity to manufacture solar module panels rose from 2 GW (gigawatt) in 2014 to 100 GW in 2025, according to the Ministry of Renewable Energy. This is significant considering that India’s domestically installed solar capacity is about 117 GW as of September. However, the actual manufacturing capacity is an optimistic projection and the effective production capacity currently is about 85 GW.

India has stated that as part of its climate commitments, it will source half of its power requirements in 2030 from non-fossil fuel sources. That is about 500 GW of which 250 GW-280 GW is expected to come from solar power. This means that India needs to add about 30 GW annually until 2030. However, India has effectively been able to add only about 17 GW-23 GW annually in the recent past. While in theory, internal production should be sufficient internally, modules made in India are anywhere from 1.5 to 2 times more expensive than those from China, simply because of its much larger capacity, control of the necessary raw material and far superior production lines. India, in its best performance, managed about 4 GW of export of solar modules to the U.S. in 2024 and that too, due to America’s temporary restrictions. Compare that with China’s annual export of around 236 GW in 2024. Therefore, the large manufacturing capacity that will come online in India in the next few years will likely struggle without new markets. In this context, India’s overtures to be a ‘solar supplier’ to Africa, leveraging the flagship of the International Solar Alliance, is a good move. While India’s PM Kusum scheme (solar power to rural India) and PM Surya Ghar scheme (rooftop solar in urban India) are yet to make substantial gains in terms of domestic adoption, they can serve as models to be pitched in Africa which, due to the lack of sufficient rural power, is able to tap only 4% of its arable land through irrigation, creating an opportunity for solar-powered India pumpsets. Though China still remains the dominant solar supplier in Africa too, India must be able to step in as a credible second player for a shot at the sustainability of its own industry..