To catalyze cutting-edge PV manufacturing in India, NITI Aayog, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Invest India, are organizing a global symposium virtually, ‘India PV EDGE 2020’, on October 6, 2020.

There will be a plenary session and subsequent sessions on ‘Wafers and Cells’, ‘Modules and Production Equipment’ and ‘Supply Chain’. It will also include a ‘Investors Conclave’ on PV Manufacturing. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh states will participate in the conclave. This will be followed by a ‘Investors Roundtable’, which will discuss and deliberate upon issues related to India’s solar manufacturing sector viz. affordable financing, role of developers in building the ecosystem of cutting edge solar manufacturing etc.

Background

The Covid-19 pandemic has created an enormous impact on the global economy. After the 2008–09 financial crisis, green measures accounted for 16% of the total stimulus measures. To recover from the covid-inflicted impact and to battle the impending threat of global warming, governments must be even more ambitious and decisive towards clean investments. International cooperation and leveraging strengths are crucial in these times.

Solar deployment has been the flagship green growth story of the last decade and this would be instrumental to stimulate growth and build a climate-resilient world. India has become the third-largest solar capacity country in the world and set an ambitious target of 450 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, comprising 300 GW of solar capacity.

Highlights

    • Major factor behind the rise of solar deployment is giga-scale solar manufacturing and the continuous adoption of innovations to reduce prices.

    • Solar PV manufacturing is one of the strategic sectors announced by the Indian government as part of the post-Covid Aatmanirbhar Bharat recovery initiative.

    • Indian government is also coming up with innovative initiatives to promote cutting-edge solar manufacturing in India.

    • To bring together global, cutting-edge technology providers, equipment makers, and champion PV companies to present their technologies to the Indian industry who are drawing up their PV manufacturing plans.

    • Cutting-edge giga-scale solar manufacturing stands on three pillars: 

        ◦ Disruptive PV chemistries

        ◦ Manufacturing by custom-engineered advanced production equipment

        ◦ Utilisation of innovative BOM components like special glasses and coatings. 

    • India’s NDC document of the Paris Agreement in 2015 called for extraordinary vision, leadership, compassion, and wisdom to combat climate change. India PV EDGE 2020 is one small step towards that ambition.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)