Balachander Krishnan, COO, Indosol Solar
Indosol Solar Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Shirdi Sai Electricals Ltd, is all set to inaugurate its ingot-cum-wafer plant at Ramayapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
When the ₹ 3,000-crore facility starts production next month, it will be the country’s only operational ingot plant. Silicon ingots are sliced into thin wafers, which are processed into cells and, ultimately, solar modules.
By next month, Indosol Solar will have a 1.2 GW integrated facility, making ingots, cells and modules.
Indosol aims to reach a capacity of 10 GW of integrated capacity, eventually scaling to 20 GW of ingot-wafer-cell-modules.
India already requires the use of domestically manufactured cells and modules in certain government and government-supported solar projects. The localisation requirement is expected to extend to wafers from June 2028.
Indosol Solar has chosen not to wait for the make-in-India mandate to kick-in. Balachander Krishnan, COO, Indosol Solar, told businessline that producing ingots and wafers is technologically a tough job; the company wanted to familiarise itself well before the government makes it mandatory.
However, more importantly, Indosol is eyeing the lucrative US export. Krishnan said the US cell manufacturers face a “critical bottleneck”, as there is a shortage of non-Chinese, high purity solar wafers.
The US’ cell manufacturing capacity is seen rising, encourage by the US Inflation Reduction Act, to 25 GW by 2028, but the ingot/wafer capacity is expected to be not more than 6 GW, leaving a yawning gap.
US’ trade measures
Earlier this month, the US announced trade measures under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, including a 15 per cent duty and minimum import prices for polysilicon and downstream solar products such as ingots, wafers, cells and modules.
The floor prices are way above the market prices — $21/kg for polysilicon, $100 a kg for ingots and wafers, 22 cents for solar cells and 38 cents for modules.
“This dynamic situation creates a prime export opportunity. By supplying trade-compliant, high-efficiency monocrystalline wafers directly to US domestic cell lines, Indian upstream players can enable US companies to claim lucrative tax incentives without structural supply chain risks,” he wrote on LinkedIn, adding that the company’s wafers are designed to yield cell efficiencies up to 25.5 per cent.
Published on August 29, 2026
