New Delhi (NVI): In a major move that is likely to give big boost to domestic manufacturing of solar cells in India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has decided to disqualify the manufacturers concerned from its incentivised schemes and programmes if they don’t use ‘made in India’ raw material for making the solar PV cells.
It may be noted that a number of flagship programmes of MNRE such as KUSUM, have provisions for mandatory use of domestically manufactured solar PV cells. However, it was seen that some manufacturers have been importing semi–processed solar PV cells, generally called blue waferm and making final Solar PV cells with little value addition in India.
The Ministry on October 21 clarified that if diffused silicon wafer (generally called ‘Blue Wafer’) is imported and the same is used as raw material for the manufacture of solar PV cells in India, such solar PV cells shall not qualify as domestically manufactured solar PV cells, for the purpose of MNRE’s Schemes / Programmes. A solar PV cell shall be considered to be domestically manufactured only if the same has been manufactured in India, using undiffused silicon wafer (generally called ‘Black Wafer’), an official statement said.
It is expected that this decision will help in establishing a strong solar manufacturing base in India.
-nad
