Govt plans interest subvention for solar cell and wafer manufacturers

To reduce the country’s solar equipment import dependency, the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) is planning to launch an interest subvention scheme for loans of cell and wafer manufacturers, officials said on Tuesday. Wafers and cells are the basic building blocks of solar modules, and the minuscule manufacturing base of these products is the cause of continued reliance on imports.

As on date, there are no wafer makers in India, while the cell manufacturing capacity is only 2.5 giga-watt (GW), implying that the 10GW of domestic solar module makers have to import most of their components from outside.