India’s renewable energy ambitions are riding on more than just capacity additions. As the country aims to reach 500 GW of renewables by 2030, the real test lies in building a resilient supply chain that can withstand policy shifts, global price fluctuations, and execution challenges. At Mercom India’s RE Buyer-Seller Meet in Hyderabad, held on August 21, 2025, industry leaders came together to discuss these issues.

The session “Building a Robust Regional Supply Chain Ecosystem,” moderated by Priya Sanjay, Managing Director at Mercom India, with panelists Maheswar Singh, General Manager – Sales & Marketing at Indosol Solar; Amol Anand, CEO at Loom Solar; and Prasad Bhagare, Founder and CEO at Ground Screw India, offered a candid look at how rooftop demand, domestic manufacturing, storage, and even foundations are shaping the future of India’s solar sector.

Rooftop Solar and the Consumer Shift

Amol Anand explained how government programs have completely changed the math for residential solar. A 3 kW rooftop system costs about ₹180,000 (~$2,040). With subsidies of nearly ₹78,000 (~$884), “solar is almost free,” he said. Even farmers or households without steady incomes can now install systems on EMI. Crucially, subsidies are also being disbursed on time, which has encouraged adoption.

Loom Solar supplies domestic content requirement-compliant modules and inverters to retail customers, engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors, solar parks, and government buyers. Anand added that the company has more than 20 government clients. It is now preparing to move into EPC work for railways and telecom towers, where diesel gensets are being phased out.

On storage, Anand recalled that Loom Solar deliberately avoided lead-acid batteries from the start. He had experienced their short lifespans and maintenance problems earlier in his career. Instead, Loom waited until lithium became viable in larger formats. That decision has paid off. Lithium batteries are now mainstream, starting with streetlights and moving into homes and businesses.

Faster charging, longer cycle life, IoT monitoring, and falling prices have tipped the balance. “The battery market is a hundred times bigger than the module market,” Anand said. He added that adoption often follows consumer psychology. “If my neighbor has solar, I want solar too.”

Yet Loom is careful with how fast it deploys storage. Inverters are the most common failure point in homes, and meeting service calls within hours requires large teams. Loom has installed approximately 2,000 home systems so far, mostly in Andhra Pradesh, and is scaling up slowly to ensure support is reliable.

Indosol’s Vertical Integration Plans

Maheswar Singh of Indosol Solar described a different path: full vertical integration. His company plans to invest ₹700 billion (~$7.93 billion) in building a supply chain from quartz to silicon, wafers, cells, and modules. The aim is not just to reduce imports but to make India a global supplier, much like China has done.

Indosol aims to produce 30 GW of silicon and 20 GW of wafers and cells over the next three to five years, in addition to its in-house glass manufacturing capabilities. Singh said this would position India not only to meet domestic goals but also to supply international markets.

He welcomed the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s Approved List of Models and Manufacturers List II notification, which requires India-made cells in utility projects from September 2025. However, he admitted there will be issues in the short term. India’s operational cell capacity is approximately 8 GW to 10 GW, with most of it tied up by vertically integrated players. Module-only manufacturers will struggle to source cells for six to twelve months until new lines are operational.

Singh also highlighted ongoing supply risks. Glass, aluminum frames, and wafers are still largely imported. Any price shock in China, such as the 40% to 45% spike in wafer prices earlier this year, has an immediate impact on India. “Unless we build domestic capacity for raw materials, volatility will keep hurting developers and EPCs,” he said. He called for support programs for components such as glass and aluminum, not just modules and cells.

Rethinking Foundations

Prasad Bhagare shifted the focus to foundations. His company, Ground Screw India, makes prefabricated metal piles that replace conventional concrete.

Concrete foundations require digging, pouring, and curing, which consume water, create dust, and damage fertile soil. Ground screws are factory-made, installed quickly, and ready to bear loads immediately. Their carbon footprint is approximately one-third that of concrete, resulting in a minimal environmental impact.

Though new to India, the technology has a long history. Bhagare cited records from the Netherlands in 1861, the British-built Mumbai–Pune creek bridge in the 1960s, and German railway research in the 1970s.

Ground Screw India’s first project was at JSPL’s cooling towers 18 months ago. The company has also supplied installations in black cotton soil in Tamil Nadu, on slopes near Bangalore airport, and in arid areas of Rajasthan. One site has already survived three cyclones. In two incidents, the panels blew off, but the foundations remained intact.

Bhagare argued that failures in India, such as during a tornado-like event in Kutch, were due to poor execution, including foundations installed at only half the required depth, rather than technology flaws. With ground screws, torque and penetration can be measured at installation to create an auditable record of pullout strength. His company even offers to leave test piles in the ground and extract them after five or ten years to measure residual life.

He sees agrivoltaics as a natural fit. Concrete changes soil chemistry and blocks farm machinery, while ground screws, just three inches in diameter, do not interfere with crops and can be removed without a trace. He pointed to a demo in Delhi, where four-meter-high trackers were installed on ground screws, as proof of concept.

What’s Next for Module Technology

The panel also discussed technological shifts. Anand noted that every two years, a new cell technology emerges, such as polycrystalline, monocrystalline, mono-PERC, bifacial, TopCon, and now HJT and back-contact. Loom Solar is already supplying HJT modules in niche markets.

He predicted three significant changes: glass could disappear from modules within a decade to prevent breakage in applications such as railway tracks; module sizes are unlikely to grow beyond 600 W to 650 W since Indian trucks and forklifts cannot handle anything larger; and back-contact and HJT modules, which offer higher efficiencies and fewer microcracks, will dominate within the next few years.

Singh agreed that technology will continue to evolve, but emphasized that securing raw materials is more urgent than chasing the next cell type.

The session showed how different parts of the industry are adapting. Rooftop demand is booming, driven by subsidies and consumer confidence. Manufacturers are investing heavily in vertical integration to reduce their dependence on imports. Lithium batteries are fast becoming the default choice. And even foundations, often an afterthought, are being reimagined for sustainability.