India’s Cell/Module Capacities Underutilized

• India's installed solar cell production capacity as of May 31, 2017 was 3,164 MW, out of which only 1,667 MW was operational, as per MNRE data
• Installed module production capacity of the country was over 8 GW end of My, but only 5.5 GW was operational
• May numbers of Indian cell/module manufacturing capacities do not include Adani's new production as operational, but even then capacities would be much higher than what's actually being used
• MNRE is now asking manufacturers to submit their installed and operational capacities along with annual production of previous years

As India races full speed to meet its 100 GW by 2022 solar power installation target, expected to exceed 10 GW of newly added solar power capacity this year, it is also interesting to look at production capacities. While capacity figures looking good – with 8,398 MW of module capacity and 3,164 MW of cell capacity, no everything was operational – 5,506.55 MW for modules and 1,667.05 MW for cells.

In total, India had 117 module factories and 20 cell factories end of May, according to  to the latest data shared by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)

Adani Group's has an installed cell and module capacity of 1,200 MW each, which was not operational end of May, according to the MNRE list. The next big company in the Indian solar cell segment is Tata Power Solar Systems Limited with 300 MW of installed capacity and 270 MW operational capacity (see Tata Strongly Expands PV Production Capacity).

Following Adani's Mundra facility in some distance are three big module players. Waaree Energies, Vikram Solar and Emmvee Photovoltaics, each with around 500 MW of installed capacity, all of which is operational. However, in June 2017, Vikram Solar added 500 MW more of manufacturing capacity, reaching 1 GW, which it plans to expand to 2 GW by 2020 (see Vikram Solar Expands Capacity To 1 GW).

For the list, MNRE had asked manufacturers to update information regarding their installed and operational capacities along with annual production of previous years. The cell/module manufacturing capacity list is shared by MNRE on its website.