India is preparing a dedicated support scheme to build domestic polysilicon manufacturing, targeting a minimum of 30 gigawatts of capacity by 2030 — a move aimed at closing the one gap that still leaves the country’s fast-growing solar industry dependent on imports.
Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangi said the existing production-linked incentive (PLI) framework would deliver only a small amount of polysilicon capacity, far short of what the country needs. “Since we require a much larger capacity, we are thinking and working on a scheme which will support manufacturing of polysilicon,” he said, adding that the government is “working out ways in which we could support manufacturers to come up with a manufacturing facility.”
Why Polysilicon Is the Weak Link
Over the past three years India has added significant capacity in solar cells and modules, helped by the PLI scheme and import curbs on Chinese equipment. But the supply chain narrows sharply at the top. Polysilicon — the high-purity silicon that is the raw material for wafers, cells and finally modules — is still overwhelmingly sourced from China. Without domestic polysilicon, India’s “Make in India” solar push remains built on an imported foundation, exposing module makers to price swings and supply risks well outside their control.
That is the gap the new scheme is designed to fill, extending localisation from the visible end of the chain (modules) all the way back to its most capital-intensive starting point.
The Cost of Going Upstream
The economics explain why a separate scheme is needed. According to Sarangi, every gigawatt of polysilicon and metallurgical-grade silicon capacity requires roughly ₹850 crore of investment. Scaled to the 30 GW target, that implies well over ₹25,000 crore of fresh capital — an outlay few private players will commit without policy backing, given the long payback periods and the price competition from established Chinese producers.
The design of the scheme, still being finalised, is expected to focus on making local polysilicon production commercially viable rather than simply subsidising output.
Storage Gets a Parallel Push
Sarangi also pointed to India’s energy-storage build-out, with a target of 411 GWh by 2031-32. He flagged sodium-ion batteries as approaching commercial viability within the next two to three years — a potentially cheaper, less import-dependent alternative to lithium-ion — and noted that NTPC Green Energy has already ordered 100 MW of vanadium flow batteries, signalling early movement on long-duration storage.
What It Means
For Indian manufacturers, a polysilicon scheme would be the most consequential piece of solar policy since the module PLI. It opens a new, high-value manufacturing segment upstream of where most domestic players currently operate, and it sends a clear signal that the government wants the entire solar value chain — not just its final assembly — made at home. The catch is capital intensity and technology: building bankable, globally cost-competitive polysilicon capacity is a far harder problem than assembling modules, and the fine print of the incentive will decide whether the 30 GW target is a genuine industrial target or an aspiration.