With rapidly increasing energy demand and with one sixth of the world’s population, India ranks sixth in the world for total energy consumption and certainly needs acceleration in the development of the sector to meet its growth and demand.
The Indian Solar PV Industry is at a very nascent stage in India. With the announcement of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) in 2010 and the mandates for local content requirement provided in the guidelines of the JNNSM is expected to give a big push for the growth of the solar PV industry in India. The Solar policies of the various states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and others are also expected to create significant demand for solar PV industry.
When it comes to application, solar PV in India is totally different from the global mix. Nearly 90% of the solar modules manufactured in India, use crystalline silicon (C-Si) technology, while only 10% of the solar modules are manufactured using Thin Film or amorphous silicon technology. C-Si modules are more stable and produce higher power per unit area than Thin Film modules. With the existing technologies under use, other technologies are not yet being commercially used in India. Organic technologies are still in the nascent R&D stage.
Innovations and major technology advances in module is contributed by the corresponding Solar cell technology. These increasingly emerging technologies pave the way ahead for major developments in next generation solar modules. These types of cell, sometimes referred to as 3rd and 4th generation cells, are very different in nature to crystalline silicon and thin film cells (2nd generation) as they do not rely on a traditional proton-neutron junction to encourage electron movement.
