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Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Waaree Energies accounts for 13.9% share of total module shipments in FY25
Waaree Energies Limited, a clean energy transition company, has captured a commanding 13.9 per cent share of total module shipments in FY25, according to a JMK Research & Analytics Annual India Solar Report Card. According to the company's statement, this significant achievement comes as India's solar sector experienced a transformative period in FY25, with the country adding 17.4 GW of utility-scale solar capacity and 5.1 GW of rooftop installations. India's cumulative solar capacity has reached 85.5 GW as of March 2025, with an additional 68.2 GW in the pipeline. "Waaree's leadership position in India's solar module market validates our relentless focus on innovation, quality, and scale," Dr. Amit Paithankar, Whole-time Director & CEO, Waaree Energies Limited, said. "This achievement represents more than market share – it embodies our commitment to powering India's energy independence and supporting the nation's transition to a sustainable future. Every module we manufacture contributes to India's journey toward becoming a global renewable energy superpower ," he added. The company's state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, with an installed capacity of approximately 15 GW for solar PV modules globally, underscore its commitment to domestic capabilities and technological advancement.
Indian Express
22-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
China's solar grip tightens — Cell imports more than double; module imports barely dip despite curbs
India's imports of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells from China — for assembly into modules or panels — jumped 141 per cent, from around 1.89 billion units in 2023-24 (FY24) to 4.55 billion in FY25, official trade data shows. Imports of PV cells assembled into modules dipped only 2 per cent, from 35.98 million to 35.26 million panels, despite the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) order restricting the use of imported modules in most utility-scale and rooftop solar projects from April 1, 2024. India's solar module manufacturing capacity has surged from 38 gigawatt (GW) in March 2024 to 91 GW now, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) told The Indian Express. 'The increase in domestic solar PV module manufacturing capacity seems to have contributed to increase in import of solar PV cells,' the ministry said. While India's solar cell manufacturing capacity has also grown — from 9 GW in March 2024 to 25 GW now — it still falls short of meeting the total demand for modules. The MNRE, which reimposed the ALMM order in FY25 after keeping it in abeyance during FY24, added that 'several exemptions' exist under the order. These include projects where the last bid submission date was before April 10, 2021, certain net metering projects applied for before October 2022, behind-the-meter captive projects, and solar installations for the production of export-oriented green hydrogen. 'Despite ALMM being in force, these exemptions seem to be the reason for continued import of solar PV modules,' the ministry said. In a letter dated March 3, 2025, the MNRE asked state governments to strictly enforce the ALMM order for solar PV modules, except in cases where projects qualify for exemptions listed above or have been specifically exempted by the ministry or an authorised agency. Overall, solar cell imports rose 88 per cent — from 2.69 billion units worth Rs 15,335 crore in FY24 to 5.06 billion units worth Rs 13,905 crore in FY25 — as China's share increased from 70 to 90 per cent. Module imports, meanwhile, fell 15 per cent, from 48.48 million panels (Rs 36,134 crore) to 40.99 million (Rs 18,263 crore). Domestic cell capacity expected to surge Typically, solar cells are manufactured using wafers made from polysilicon ingots. By 2030, India aims to ramp up its solar cell manufacturing capacity to 100 GW and wafer capacity to 40 GW — a steep rise from the current 2 GW. Amit Paithankar, chief executive officer at Waaree Energies Ltd, India's largest solar module manufacturer, said there will be 'a substantial growth in cell capacity' in the coming years. 'Module manufacturing has taken off because ALMM for modules was introduced earlier and has been steadily enforced. ALMM for cells is also coming next year – that is the stated policy. So, in a very steadfast manner, cell production will keep increasing and the import content of cells will keep going down,' he told The Indian Express. The ALMM order for solar PV cells will take effect from June 1, 2026. 'When you put ALMM for modules, there's a wave — massive capacity gets set up in 2-2.5 years. Then, with ALMM for cells, too, you'll see a wave. There will always be a time shift. When there's an ALMM for ingots and wafers, you'll see a similar wave happen,' Paithankar added. A key challenge to scaling up domestic cell manufacturing, however, is sustained price dumping from China. While cell imports from China rose 141 per cent in quantity between FY24 and FY25, their value increased only 34 per cent — indicating a sharp fall in per-unit prices. The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), India's trade watchdog, is currently investigating an anti-dumping case on Chinese solar cell imports. Sujoy Ghosh, managing director of First Solar India, which along with other manufacturers initiated the DGTR investigation, said, 'Multiple governments have found evidence of Chinese companies using anti-competitive measures, including dumping, to decimate international competition. Our view is that dumping, whether from China or through its Belt and Road Initiative partners in Southeast Asia, undermines India's goal of securing its energy technology supply chains, and must be investigated and firmly addressed.' 'The consequences of China's systemic overcapacity are plain to see from the financials of the largest Chinese solar manufacturers. Moreover, their financial results also appear to reflect the practice of selling products at prices below their cost of production,' he added. In recent quarters, several Chinese solar companies have reported heavy losses amid industry overcapacity and softening demand. Government and industry sources say another challenge in fully integrating the polysilicon-to-cell value chain is China's dominance in wafer-making equipment, which remains restricted for export to India. Sumant Sinha, chief executive of ReNew, said a solution is possible through a 'G2G (government-to-government) conversation' and that it is 'impractical' to make the equipment in India as of now. Paithankar said there is strong collaboration between various companies in India, China, and elsewhere when it comes to equipment. 'While we have good relationships with companies in China, we're also constantly looking at how to diversify that part of the supply chain,' he added. As an example of efforts to look beyond China, Vinay Rustagi, chief business officer at Premier Energies Ltd, said the company is setting up a 2 GW wafer manufacturing plant through a joint venture with Taiwan's SAS, among the world's largest silicon wafer manufacturers. Some manufacturers are using alternative technologies. 'First Solar doesn't rely on the crystalline silicon ecosystem that is currently monopolized in China, and we have invested in creating our own manufacturing ecosystem over the past 25 years… As a matter of fact, it took us just 19 months to build 3.3 gigawatts of vertically integrated nameplate manufacturing capacity,' Ghosh said. The Arizona-headquartered company, which operates a plant in Chennai, manufactures CdTe thin-film PV modules using a differentiated semiconductor and production process. 'Our advanced, highly differentiated manufacturing process allows us to transform a sheet of glass into ready-to-ship thin film solar panels in approximately four hours,' Ghosh said. Aggam Walia is a Correspondent at The Indian Express, reporting on power, renewables, and mining. His work unpacks intricate ties between corporations, government, and policy, often relying on documents sourced via the RTI Act. Off the beat, he enjoys running through Delhi's parks and forests, walking to places, and cooking pasta. ... Read More
New Indian Express
22-06-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Waaree Energies CEO denies pulling out of Odisha, says Dhenkanal solar project on track
BHUBANESWAR: Amid speculations over Waaree Energies Limited pulling out of its Dhenkanal solar project, the company on Saturday announced that it has no such plan. In a statement, the CEO of the company Amit Paithankar said in light of the board resolution passed on Friday, Waaree Energies Ltd has undertaken a strategic realignment of certain components of its planned 6 GW integrated solar manufacturing capacity across multiple geographies. This decision is aimed at accelerating project momentum, optimising resource utilisation and ensuring timely execution in line with the IPO objectives. 'We want to emphasise that we are not moving away from Odisha. Construction activities are actively ongoing and contracts for the facility have been duly awarded and are being executed as planned. Our commitment to Odisha remains strong,' the statement said. Odisha, he said, continues to hold a significant and strategic place in the long-term business roadmap of the company. It is actively exploring meaningful avenues for collaboration that advance both the state and national renewable energy goals. 'Odisha will be an important and integral part of our future plans,' he added. The company's recent announcement of new solar manufacturing facilities in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had fuelled speculation that it may be reconsidering its Rs 25,000 crore investment in Odisha.
Time of India
06-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India sees a future making solar panels for itself, and maybe the world
China, the world's clean-energy juggernaut, faces a rival next door. And one of its top customers, no less. India, a big buyer of Chinese solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, is using a raft of government incentives to make more green gear at home. It is driven not just by the need to satisfy the galloping energy demands of its 1.4 billion people, but also to cash in on other countries that want to China-proof their energy supply chains, not least the United States. India remains a tiny and tardy entrant. Last year, it produced about 80 gigawatts of solar modules, while China produced more than 10 times that. India is still tied to coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Coal is its largest source of electricity, and India plans to mine for more of it. But India is aggressively trying to take advantage of a global energy transition and a backlash against Chinese dominance of new energy technologies. Hoping to spur a clean energy manufacturing boom, the government is offering lucrative subsidies for locally produced solar cells and batteries, and it is restricting foreign products in its biggest renewable-energy projects. To cash in on government contracts to install rooftop solar for 27 million households by the end of this decade, for instance, companies must make the panels at home. For New Delhi, there are social, economic and geopolitical imperatives. China is its most formidable rival -- the two countries have in the past gone to war over border disputes -- so India's quest to build solar, wind and EV factories is partly designed to secure its energy supply chain. At the same time, India wants to create good-paying manufacturing jobs. Still, India confronts a problem facing many other countries: Either buy renewable energy technologies as cheaply as possible from China, or spend more to make the goods at home. "Strategically, to ensure we have energy independence, we need to have manufacturing capacity," said Sudeep Jain, additional secretary in India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. "Currently, yes, there is a cost arbitrage." The problem is that China commands the building blocks of renewable energy goods. More than 90 per cent of the polysilicon that goes into solar panels is in Chinese control. So, even as India rapidly expands its production of solar panels, it still imports most of the cells that go into the panels, mainly from Chinese companies. And Indian companies that make solar cells typically import silicon wafers mainly from China. India has a tiny battery industry, and it has proved difficult, for a host of reasons, to scale up. Two Indian companies making EV batteries, Reliance Industries and Ola Electric, recently missed production targets they had promised to hit in exchange for government subsidies. It doesn't help that China dominates the processing of key battery minerals such as lithium. China has "first mover's advantage," said Amit Paithankar, CEO of Waaree Energies , the country's largest maker of solar panels. "It's about us being proactive, and being a part of the solution in diversifying the supply chain for India, for the U.S. and for the world." Borrowing China ideas India is lifting from the Chinese playbook in at least one way. It is counting on its enormous domestic demand. India's wind and solar capacity has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to the research firm Ember, making it the world's third-largest generator of electricity from renewable sources, after China and the United States. It plans to incorporate 500 gigawatts of non-fossil-fuel sources into its electricity grid by 2030. The government has put in place both carrots and sticks to encourage production. For the past several years, there were subsidies for locally produced solar panels. Those are now being discontinued, but new subsidies are kicking in next year for locally produced solar cells that go into panels, as well as for battery cells. Domestic demand isn't the only driver. Last year, more than half of India's solar modules ended up on American soil. Now, the wild card for India's export dreams is the tariff chaos sown by President Donald Trump. The latest Trump administration duties on goods imported from India are far lower (27 per cent ) than new duties on Chinese goods (145 per cent ) and on those from Southeast Asia (up to 3,500 per cent ), where Chinese companies have set up shop. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to cultivate warm relations with Trump, and officials from the two countries say they hope to negotiate a bilateral trade deal this month. "Whatever the United States is going to import, we may still be the most competitive to supply it," Jain said. Wanted: More good jobs The global energy transition potentially brings India something it badly needs: factory jobs. Two of 3 Indians are younger than 35. A majority of people still work in agriculture. And manufacturing as a share of the national economy is still barely 13 per cent , a bit lower than it was a decade ago. The southern state of Tamil Nadu has been among the most forceful in attracting new factories, including in the clean-energy sector. Wind-blade makers arrived nearly a decade ago, followed by solar-panel makers and EV companies. Tamil Nadu offered ready land and government subsidies. The state supported pensions and housing for workers. "These are all schemes we came up with, peering into the future, looking at how the world is going," the state's industry minister, T.R.B. Rajaa, said in an interview. "Energy is everything. Energy security must be localised." Perhaps most important, Tamil Nadu, with a long record of women's education, offered an army of female workers with college degrees. Which is how 26-year-old Amala K. came to chase her dreams at the Tata Power solar panel factory on the outskirts of a small town, Tirunelveli, near India's southern tip. (Like most people in the region, she uses her father's initial as a surname.) About 2,000 women like her run the machines around the clock at this factory. Every day, starting at dawn, they move in and out by the busload. Dark-blue uniforms. Backpacks. Sandals that are traded for steel-toe factory shoes. The factory floor is largely automated. Human workers are there to make sure that robot arms are working properly, to solder a junction box or pick up broken shards of wafers that have slipped in between cracks. The sun was shining bright and hot by 7 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, as Amala boarded a company bus after her all-night shift. The bus pulled out of the parking lot, drove past banana orchards, and weaved through a river of honking cars and motorcycles. Some of the women nodded off. A few scrolled through their phones. Amala leaned against the window. For her, the job was partly a way to defer the inevitable arranged marriage. "If I stayed home, I'd be married by now," she said. Between workshifts, she was preparing to take an exam to become a physics professor. Varsha A.R., 26, sitting one row up, had to persuade her mother to let her take this job. Her mother worried about Varsha living two hours away from home, in a workers dorm. So, Varsha brought her there and introduced her to other workers. "I explained that this is an opportunity for my life and my career," Varsha said. The job meant different things to different female workers. Some said they were saving to buy gold jewelry for their weddings. Others said they were saving to go to graduate school. A few said they liked being able to buy gifts for their nieces and nephews -- or buy themselves an ice cream when they wanted. Varsha and Amala stepped off the bus and walked down a narrow lane to their dorm, two workers in an energy industry all but unknown in their parents' time. Each year, at least 7 million young Indians like them enter the labor market, according to the International Labor Organisation. India's efforts to expand its clean-energy business is a key test of the country's efforts to deliver the skilled jobs that a new generation of Indians has come to expect. The solar panels they help make in Tirunelveli furnish Tata Power's 4-gigawatt solar farm on the other side of the country, in the northwestern desert of Rajasthan. The wafers still come from China, as do many of the glass panels on which they are affixed. The risks of relying on Chinese suppliers became abundantly clear during the coronavirus epidemic, Tata Power CEO Praveer Sinha recalled. Shipments were disrupted. There were unexpected price swings. "It's very important you have a supply chain that's not vulnerable to two or three countries," he said. At the time, during President Joe Biden's term, the United States agreed. The U.S. International Development Finance Corp., a government lender, supported the Tata project with a $425 million loan, with the goal of "diversifying global supply chains." First Solar, a U.S. company, set up shop near the state capital, Chennai, also with financing from the U.S. government. Vikram Solar, which makes solar modules near Chennai, is set to build 1 gigawatt of battery storage. In an industrial park farther west in Tamil Nadu, Indian electric scooter company Ola is getting ready to produce its own battery cells. At the moment, like most makers of electric cars and scooters in India, a majority of battery cells come from China. Selling to America The question for renewable energy companies now is whether they focus on the Indian market or push to sell Indian-made goods abroad. Until recently, an export strategy was enormously profitable for Waaree. It made most of its money last year exporting its Indian-made solar panels to the United States. Lured by tax breaks offered by the Biden administration, Waaree invested $1 billion in a solar-panel plant in Houston. Other companies' exports surged, too. Between 2022 and 2024, the export of Indian solar modules grew "exponentially" by 23 times, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a research group. So spectacular was the growth that the group concluded that India could potentially replace Southeast Asian countries as the leading supplier of solar photovoltaics to the United States. Then Trump took office. Solar's future in the United States became far more uncertain. Waaree stocks slumped. The company intends to continue to make solar panels for Americans, Paithankar said. In the end, whether Indian companies can muscle in on the renewable energy supply chain depends less on India and more on the geopolitical trade-offs that every government will have to make. "Whether we can become an alternative to China depends on what other countries do," said Sumant Sinha, CEO of ReNew Power, which builds solar and wind equipment for the Indian domestic market. "If everyone says, 'I'm going to buy cheap,' then China will come out dominating."
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Business Standard
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Waaree Energies jumps 9% in trade; here's why the stock is in demand today
Waaree Energies share price: Shares of Waaree Energies gained 9.3 per cent in trade, logging an intraday high at Rs 2,855 on the BSE. The buying on the counter came after the company posted strong Q4FY25 results. At 10:02 AM, Waaree Energies shares were trading 8.99 per cent higher at Rs 2,846.6 per share on the BSE. In comparison, the BSE Sensex was up 0.61 per cent at 80,077.42. The market capitalisation of the company stood at Rs 81,775.16 crore. The 52-week high of the stock was at Rs 3,740.75 per share and 52-week low of the stock was at Rs 1,808.65 per share. Waaree Energies Q4 results The company on Tuesday, after market hours, reported a 34 per cent rise in its net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2025, to Rs 618.91 crore as compared to Rs 461.52 crore a year ago. Its consolidated revenue increased 36 per cent year-ono-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 4,003.93 crore as compared to Rs 2,935.84 crore a year ago. The Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amotisation (Ebitda) for Q4 stood at Rs 1,059.57 crore as against Rs 489.94 crore a year ago, up 116.27 per cent Y-o-Y. In its investor presentation, the company's management said it projects robust Y-oY growth in Ebitda in FY26 on the back of strong demand realisation and operational excellence. Furthermore, the management's Ebitda outlook for FY26 stands at Rs 5,500 crore to Rs 6,000 crore. 'FY25 marks a pivotal inflection point in Waaree's journey- a year where our strategy, scale, and execution converged to deliver industry-leading Ebitda performance of Rs 3,123.20 crore. This performance underscores the strength of our execution capabilities and the quality of order book, with centred focus on margins, " said Amit Paithankar, whole time director & CEO, Waaree Energies. ALSO READ | He added: Our 1.6 GW module manufacturing facility is operational in Brookshire, Texas, USA. This reinforces our commitment to the American market and underlines our local-for-local manufacturing philosophy. Our strategy of local manufacturing and supply chain management will help us navigate through the changing policy environment. About Waaree Energies Established in 1990, Waaree Energies is India's leading renewable energy company, accelerating the global energy transition. Headquartered in Mumbai, it operates manufacturing facilities with an installed capacity of ~15 GW for solar PV modules and 5.4 GW for solar cells.
