India plans polysilicon incentives to reduce solar import dependence

India is developing a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to promote domestic polysilicon manufacturing, aiming to reduce the country's total reliance on Chinese imports for solar photovoltaic panels.

Santosh Kumar Sarangi, secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, announced the plan at a Confederation of Indian Industry event. The proposed scheme could support more than 10 GW of production capacity, though the specific financial scale has not been disclosed. This move is part of a broader strategy to create an integrated solar manufacturing ecosystem that covers modules, cells, wafers, ingots, and polysilicon.

India has already established over 200 GW of solar module manufacturing capacity and 32 GW of solar cell capacity, with another 100 GW of cell capacity expected within a year. The government is also targeting at least 80 GW of solar ingot and wafer manufacturing capacity by June 2028 as it works toward a goal of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power capacity by 2030. Beyond solar, the ministry noted that polysilicon also has applications in the semiconductor industry.