Swelect places order for Indian-made ingot equipment for 1GW wafer line

The deal is a significant boost to India’s solar supply chain buildout, which does not yet include any significant production capacity in wafers, ingots or polysilicon. A report by the country’s main trade body for solar manufacturing this week highlighted the overwhelming reliance of Indian PV manufacturers on imported polysilicon, wafers and process equipment.

“Silicon ingot growth is the foundation of the solar value chain,” said Raana in a statement on the deal. “Crystal quality, process stability, equipment uptime and yield at this first step carry through to wafer quality and cell efficiency downstream. They also decide how well the factory is utilised and whether it reaches its nameplate capacity.”

In addition to supplying the equipment, Raana will also train the Swelect team on using it. “Raana will hand-hold SHPV team through process optimisation and process recipe development, so the facility ramps up smoothly and reaches higher yields sooner. SHPV’s team will also be trained at our pilot facility, which will help them operate and maintain the growers with minimal downtime. With this preparation, SHPV’s main factory will be operational from day one,” Raana said.

Although India’s module and, more recently, cell manufacturing capacity have boomed in recent years, domestic wafer, ingot and polysilicon production are all lagging.

The Indian government is planning to support the higher stages of solar value chain, with the flagship Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) policy, which supports local manufacturers, set to expand into wafer production from 2028.

With the prospect of this policy on the horizon, Raana Semiconductors revealed plans to launch a commercial-grade 12-inch CZ ingot growth machine in September, with Indian manufacturers its main target market.

Raana’s CEO Rajasekar Elavarasan said the company hoped to manufacture machines that can support up to 10GW of cell production within the next three years.

“Indian cell and module makers are investing in ingot and wafer capacity, and they need equipment partners who can deliver, service and upgrade machines locally. Our 12-inch CZ platform is built for exactly that,” he said.

PV Tech understands that Swelect has not yet decided on a location for its ingot and wafer facility. In comments to local media, the company’s MD and CEO Arulkumar Shanmugasundaram said Chennai in Tamil Nadu, its current main base, was under consideration, but that other states were also being looked at. No timeline for the facility has been given.