Building a Resilient Solar PV Supply Chain

India has set ambitious targets to increase its solar power capacity to 450 GW by 2030. To achieve this, the country needs to develop a strong domestic supply chain in the solar PV market. This would not only reduce reliance on imported components, but also create jobs and boost the economy. In this article, we discuss how India can develop its domestic supply chain in the solar PV market by taking cues from the US market, and by considering key labor cost drivers.

Developing a resilient supply chain is crucial to achieving the Solar Futures scenarios. PV-related industries can experience production disruptions, especially those that require large-scale facilities for cost-effective production. For example, nearly 15% of global polysilicon capacity went offline owing to incidents in China over a 6-month period in 2020, which resulted in temporary increases in spot prices. Disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic provide another recent example. One study found that COVID-related balance-of-system (BOS) supply shortages alone could result in 300–700 MWdc of utility-scale project delays