MNRE Adds 402 MW to ALMM Solar Cell List, Total Capacity Nears 38 GW

India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has added 402 MW of solar cell manufacturing capacity to the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) List-II, pushing the total enlisted capacity to approximately 37.8 GW. The update, the latest in a series of rolling additions to the ALMM framework, underscores the government's accelerating push to deepen domestic solar manufacturing well ahead of India's 500 GW renewable energy target by 2030. ALMM List-II specifically covers solar cells — the semiconductor units at the heart of every photovoltaic module — and only manufacturers enlisted on it are eligible to supply to government-funded projects procured through agencies like the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and state nodal agencies. With India's annual solar installation pace targeting 50 GW or more per year through the late 2020s, a domestically anchored supply chain of nearly 38 GW of approved cell capacity is no longer aspirational arithmetic — it is a procurement and energy-security imperative.

What Is ALMM and Why Does List-II Matter?

The ALMM framework, maintained by MNRE, is India's quality and origin control mechanism for solar photovoltaic equipment used in government-backed projects. It operates across two lists: List-I covers solar PV modules, while List-II — the one updated in this round — covers solar cells. The distinction is critical. A manufacturer can assemble a module in India using imported cells and still seek ALMM List-I approval, but List-II directly measures how much genuine cell-level manufacturing India hosts within its borders. By requiring government-procured projects to source only from ALMM-enlisted suppliers, MNRE effectively creates a protected domestic demand pool — an incentive that has drawn serious capital into greenfield cell and wafer manufacturing plants across states including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. The 402 MW addition in this latest notification brings cumulative List-II capacity to 37.8 GW, a figure that has risen sharply over the past 18 months as Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme beneficiaries — including Adani Green Energy's manufacturing arm, Waaree Energies, Premier Energies, and Vikram Solar — ramp up integrated gigafactory capacity.

The ALMM regime also functions as a de facto import substitution tool. Before its implementation, a significant share of solar cells used in Indian projects came from China. By tying central and state government project eligibility to ALMM compliance, MNRE has created real financial consequences for developers who bypass domestic suppliers. For large-scale project developers like ReNew Power, NTPC Renewable Energy, and Torrent Power bidding on SECI tenders, ALMM compliance is not optional — it directly determines whether their equipment qualifies for commissioning under the project's power purchase agreement terms.

How India's Solar Cell Manufacturing Capacity Has Scaled

Reaching 37.8 GW of ALMM-listed solar cell capacity represents a structural transformation in India's manufacturing landscape, one that was largely unimaginable just five years ago. In 2020, India's total domestic solar cell manufacturing capacity hovered below 3 GW, almost entirely dependent on imported wafers and polysilicon from China. The combination of the PLI scheme for high-efficiency solar PV modules — which allocated approximately ₹24,000 crore across two tranches — and the ALMM listing requirement catalysed a capital rush into integrated manufacturing. Companies like Adani Solar, which is building out a fully integrated polysilicon-to-module supply chain in Mundra, Gujarat, and Waaree Energies, which operates one of India's largest module manufacturing facilities, have been central to this capacity surge. Premier Energies, which recently went public, and Shirdi Sai Electricals are among the other players who have added significant ALMM-listed cell capacity in recent cycles. The 402 MW added in this latest round reflects continuing momentum even as the industry navigates challenges around domestic polysilicon availability and high-efficiency cell technology transitions — particularly the shift from PERC to TOPCon and heterojunction (HJT) architectures.

State-level industrial policy has amplified this national push. Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu have offered land, power, and infrastructure incentives to attract solar manufacturing investment, creating regional clusters that serve both domestic project pipelines and emerging export ambitions. India's solar module exports — primarily to the United States and Europe — crossed $1 billion in value in FY2024, and a robust ALMM-listed cell base is central to sustaining that export credibility, particularly as Western markets tighten their own supply chain origin requirements.

What This Means for India's Energy Transition

India's 500 GW renewable energy target by 2030 — of which approximately 280 GW is expected to come from solar — cannot be achieved without a reliable, high-quality, and largely domestic supply chain for solar cells and modules. Every megawatt added to the ALMM List-II is a megawatt of cell capacity that can legitimately supply government-backed projects under PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, SECI utility-scale tenders, and state solar park programmes. At 37.8 GW of listed cell capacity, India now has a manufacturing base capable — at least on paper — of supplying close to the annual installation volumes the country needs through 2027 and 2028. The real test, however, lies in actual utilisation rates, technology competitiveness, and the speed at which manufacturers transition to next-generation cell architectures that global buyers increasingly demand. ALMM alone does not guarantee manufacturing quality or cost-competitiveness — it guarantees eligibility.

Watch for MNRE to continue quarterly or biannual ALMM updates as PLI-backed factories reach commercial scale through 2025 and 2026. The next inflection point will be whether India can list credible TOPCon and HJT cell capacity at scale — signalling not just volume ambition, but a genuine move up the solar technology value chain that could reshape India's position in global clean energy supply networks.