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					</table>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 <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/buyer-seller-meet-2025-hyderabad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RE Buyer-Seller Meet in Hyderabad,</a> 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 &amp; Marketing at <a href="https://indosolsolar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Indosol Solar</a>; Amol Anand, CEO at <a href="https://www.loomsolar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loom Solar</a>; and Prasad Bhagare, Founder and CEO at <a href="https://www.groundscrewcompany.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ground Screw India</a>, 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.

India’s Solar Growth Hinges on Supply Chain, Storage, and Innovation

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					</table>Solar module manufacturing lines under the domestic content requirement (DCR) category are booked for the upcoming three to four months, said industry experts at Mercom India’s recent <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/buyer-seller-meet-2025-coimbatore" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RE Buyer-Seller Meet</a>, held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Mercom India hosts these events to provide a platform for clean energy buyers to engage directly with carefully selected vendors offering localized, high-quality solar solutions. The Coimbatore meet featured two sessions, during which industry experts discussed various aspects of solar energy.
“Even though India’s module manufacturing capacity has been increasing and looks quite high, all module lines in the market are currently booked. The second and fourth quarters are peak periods, which makes it essential for manufacturers to plan ahead of time to ensure quality and reduce the demand-supply gap,” said Krishna Arjun, VP-Sales, <a href="https://swelectes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Swelect Energy Systems</a>.
He also referred to a significant gap between module and cell capacity in India. “While there are various incentives to increase cell capacity, setting up a cell manufacturing line needs a good two to three years. This is also why we see shortage of DCR modules in the market due to lower availability of India-made cells.”
However, he was optimistic that the gap between cell and module manufacturing would narrow over the next three to four years.
Energy Independence: Key Driver For BESS 
Jogeswara Rao, Head of Sales (South India), <a href="https://www.fronius.com/en-in/india" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fronius India</a>, noted that consumers in the residential, commercial, and industrial segments are seeking to become energy-efficient.
“While power cuts may be one reason, energy independence is the key driver for the expanding market for battery energy storage systems (BESS). We are developing a battery reservoir that can provide complete backup for an entire villa or a house. Besides on-grid inverters, BESS will be a major market in India,” said Rao.
He expects BESS prices to become more affordable due to a dip in lithium battery costs.
Muthukumaran S, Senior Sales Manager, <a href="https://www.fimer.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FIMER</a>, concurred. “We are seeing a lot of demand in both commercial and industrial and utility-scale projects given the push by the government for BESS deployment, such as viability gap funding.”
Discussing price sensitivity in the inverter market, Rao noted that India was witnessing a rise in value-driven consumers for inverters.
“While India is a highly price-sensitive market, there is a certain section that is very conscious of quality and the lifespan of the product. When a consumer chooses an inverter as an investment, they must select the right product. Consumers are very well-educated in this field and are looking for products that last for at least 25 years,” he said.
Gobi Krishna A, Senior Manager of Projects (South), <a href="https://www.prozealgreen.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prozeal Green Energy,</a> stated that price fluctuations pose a significant challenge for engineering, procurement, and construction players.
He said, “We add a contingency cost, taking into consideration all the parameters. However, there are cases where even contingency fails, and we have to discuss the changes, such as an increase in cell or inverter prices, with the consumers and try to find a solution.”
Air-Wash Technology  
Suraj Vernekar, Co-Founder at <a href="https://aegeustechnologies.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aegeus Technologies</a>, stated that the world was facing two major problems: energy and water shortages.
“For a long time, we thought that solar modules could be cleaned manually using water, but the truth is that we cannot solve one problem and create another. If we use so much water to clean modules, there won’t be any water left for anything else,” Vernekar said.
He said that robotic cleaning was no longer an option but a necessity.
“Dry cleaning technologies are becoming a point of attention for many countries and consumers. Rooftops are another area where there are not many cleaning systems available. We have introduced a solution in backpack form, which can be used to clean rooftop modules.”
Discussing his company’s new technology, Air Wash, Vernekar said, “The technology can clean any form of dust or cement as long as it is loose. However, if the dust settles and becomes sticky, the consumer will have to resort to chemical cleaning.”
He added that many jobs, including module mounting and cleaning, are going to be automated.
At the <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/buyer-seller-meet-2025-pune" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pune RE Buyer Seller Meet</a> held earlier this month, Yogesh Kudale, Chief Executive Officer of Taypro, and Chetan Amrutkar, AVP Sales and Marketing at Genx PV, <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/robotic-solar-module-cleaning-is-six-times-cheaper-than-traditional-means" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highlighted</a> the potential for consumers to save six times more by opting for robotic cleaning compared to traditional cleaning for modules.
Module Mounting Structures 
Another discussion at the Coimbatore meet covered the importance of a good-quality mounting structure for the lifetime of a solar project.
Ramesh Babu, Executive Vice President, <a href="https://www.metalkraft.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Metalkraft</a>, said, “Geography determines the type of mounting structure that can be used in each project. A designer must inspect the area and determine the structure and materials to be used in the project.”
The material used, such as steel and aluminum, matters considerably for mounting structures. “While aluminum is desired for mounting structures by many consumers, cost plays a major role. There are a lot of new coating materials on steel; it is difficult for aluminum to be as popular,” Babu said. He added that steel remains a widely used metal for module mounting structures.
Mercom India will host its next <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/buyer-seller-meet-2025-hyderabad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RE Buyer Seller Meet</a> in Hyderabad on August 21, 2025. If you are an installer or EPC service provider, you can register for free <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/buyer-seller-meet-2025-hyderabad/register" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
Mercom is also <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/renewables-summit-2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hosting</a> the fifth edition of its Renewables Summit, the largest conference in the sector, on July 24 and 25 this year at the Hyatt Residency, New Delhi.  It brings together all the stakeholders who are shaping India’s renewable energy industry. You can register for the Summit <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/renewables-summit-2025/register" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Industry Says Gap Between Solar Cell and Module Manufacturing Capacity a Concern

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