August 22, 2026: The country's domestic solar cell supply shortage is a short-term challenge and will ease as manufacturers ramp up capacity to meet local-content requirements, industry players said.

The total solar cell manufacturing capacity in the country is projected to rise to around 100 GW by December 2027, while the current capacity stood at 32 GW.

The current module (solar panel) making capacity is estimated at over 200 GW, industry officials said. Modules or solar panels are made up of cells.

India has approximately 32 GW of enlisted domestic solar-cell capacity, with further capacity expected to be commissioned and enlisted during the year. The current supply-demand mismatch is only a transitional phase as the market aligns with local content requirements soon,” Vineet Mittal, chairman of Avaada Group, told PTI.

His comments come in the wake of reports of a shortage of domestically manufactured cells following the implementation of the government-approved list of models and manufacturers for solar cells (ALMM List-II), particularly for rooftop and other projects covered under local-content requirements.

Mittal explained that comparing total module capacity with that of domestic cells could be "misleading" as module plants do not operate at full utilisation and a substantial pipeline of projects is outside the domestic-cell requirement.

(Source: PSU Watch)