India's Solar Factories Still Depend On China

Media Wing (LetsxOtt)

Journalist

23 July 2026 · 2 days ago

2 min read

Reliance, Adani Bet Big on Solar. Will It Work?

Source: LetsXott

Yemen's Houthis aside, India's solar factories tell their own story of staying stuck to China. The country has built out more than 210 gigawatts of module manufacturing capacity,according to Mercom India's latest numbers,and on paper that looks like a boom. But dig one layer down and it's a different picture. India still imports nearly 98 percent of its wafers and pretty much all of its polysilicon from China, the raw material that everything else in a solar panel depends on,and plenty of smaller factories are running well below capacity because they simply can't get the inputs, or the buyers, to keep the lines moving.

China's grip on this supply chain isn't loosening anytime soon. It controls more than 80 percent of global manufacturing across the whole solar value chain, and its share of wafer and polysilicon production runs past 95 percent. Companies like Reliance, Adani, Tata Power and Waaree are all trying to build backward into ingots, wafers and even polysilicon, chasing a Production Linked Incentive scheme worth 24,000 crore rupees. That's the plan, at least. Reliance alone wants 20 gigawatts a year of fully integrated capacity spanning polysilicon right through to modules. Adani's aiming for 10 gigawatts by 2027.

Here's the part that's a little rough to admit, this transition was never going to be quick or cheap, and right now it's mostly just expensive. Polysilicon production needs huge amounts of electricity, and power costs in India are high enough that firms never really bothered making it themselves before.

India has just 2 gigawatts of ingot and wafer capacity and, still,zero for polysilicon. Smaller module assemblers are getting squeezed out as bigger, integrated players absorb what demand exists,and analysts at Mercom expect a wave of consolidation before the domestic cell mandate under ALMM List II even settles in this year.