Indian solar cell and module manufacturer Websol Energy System has secured land for the construction of its 4GW cell and module manufacturing plant in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
Located at the Falta Industrial Park, Kolkata, the government of West Bengal allotted a parcel of nearly 2.4 million square feet for the construction of the facility, to be carried out in two phases of 2GW each.
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The new solar cell and module assembly plant will be located close to the existing solar manufacturing operations at the Falta Special Economic Zone. At the existing site, Websol currently has 1.2GW of passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) cell manufacturing capacity in operation, which are on the government’s Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM), and a module annual nameplate capacity of 500MW.
According to the Indian PV manufacturer, the decision to expand its manufacturing footprint in West Bengal allows the company to access a readily available base of skilled workers, established supplier relationships and familiarity with the ecosystem.
The company secured the land for its solar manufacturing expansion nearly a month after it changed the location of the 4GW solar cell and module manufacturing facility from the state of Andhra Pradesh to West Bengal.
At the time, the company said that the relocation would not affect the timeline for the INR30 billion (US$310 million) expansion. The first phase of the project is forecast to begin operations in June 2027, while the second phase is scheduled for the year after, in June 2028.
Websol’s solar cell and module manufacturing expansion is among a long list of Indian companies building or commissioning capacity across the country in recent months. At the module level, the country has surpassed 233GW of annual nameplate capacity, according to a joint report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research & Analytics.
This represents more than threefold the current demand in India for solar PV, which, according to IEEFA and JMK Research, stands at 65GW. Meanwhile, solar cell annual nameplate capacity is slightly over 40GW, based on the ALMM List-II for solar cells.
Similar to what happens in the US, there is a significant imbalance between nameplate capacity for solar cells and modules. Indian companies have been ramping up solar cell capacity that is set to be operational in the coming months and years, including Websol’s 4GW new solar cell and module manufacturing facility.
