Indian PV manufacturer has expanded into solar cell manufacturing with a 1.6GW plant.
The proposed facility will be located in the city of Mathura which is in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
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Alpex’s foray into solar cells will be carried out gradually in three phases. The first one will add 500MW of cell capacity by October 2025, before reaching 1GW in April 2026 and up to 1.6GW of annual nameplate capacity in September 2026.
Investment in building the solar cell plant will be INR6.42 billion (US$76 million) and be financed through banks and financial institutions, internal accruals and equity infusion. On top of its solar cell plans, the company is currently increasing its module annual nameplate capacity – which sits at 450MW – across two plants in India. One of the plants will also be located in Mathura, and will have a 1.2GW annual nameplate capacity, while the second plant, also with 1.2GW of module capacity, will be located in Greater Noida, near New Delhi.
Alpex Solar is the latest Indian company to have unveiled capacity expansions in the past few weeks. Last week alone, solar manufacturers Goldi Solar, Tata Power, Vikram Solar and Solex Energy unveiled plans to increase their module and/or solar cell capacities.
India to include solar cells in ALMM
Goldi Solar’s expansion plans are the largest among the companies mentioned above, with a target to increase its module annual nameplate capacity from 3GW to 14GW by fiscal year 2026. It also expects to build a 4GW solar cell plant by fiscal year 2027.
In a memorandum of understanding signed with the state of Rajasthan, Tata Power aims to build a 2GW module assembly plant and a 6GW solar PV portfolio in the state. Vikram Solar, on the other hand, filed a draft red herring prospectus to raise funds—through an initial public offering—for a 3GW TOPCon solar cell and module manufacturing plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. In a second phase, the company aims to increase the PV module annual nameplate capacity by 3GW.
Also last week, Solex Energy unveiled a plan to invest nearly US$1 billion in capacity expansions for solar cells and modules. In terms of annual nameplate capacity for modules, the company aims to increase it tenfold from 1.5GW to 15GW in the coming years, while “exploring” the construction of a 2GW solar cell plant that could be ramped up to 5GW annual nameplate capacity.
All of these solar cell and module capacity expansions come less than a month after the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched a request for comments on its proposal to add cells to India’s Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM). The ALMM establishes which manufacturers and products can benefit from subsidies. The Indian government proposed a number of new rules regarding the inclusion of solar cells in the ALMM, which is expected to come into force on 1 April 2026.
