India-based solar manufacturer Websol Energy System has begun a brownfield upgrade of a 600MW mono passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) cell manufacturing line to tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon).
Websol is upgrading one of its existing 600MW mono PERC solar cell lines to TOPCon technology, increasing its total TOPCon cell capacity to 750MW and overall cell manufacturing capacity to 1.35GW from 1.2GW.
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The company said the upgrade would require an estimated investment of around INR 2.7 billion (US$28.3 million) and would enable cell efficiencies of more than 25%.
Once completed, TOPCon will represent approximately 55% of Websol’s total cell manufacturing capacity. The project is expected to be completed by March 2027.
Websol said the upgraded capacity would strengthen its product mix as demand shifts towards higher-efficiency cells, particularly for utility-scale projects and large tenders where higher power output per module is increasingly important.
The project also forms part of the company’s longer-term plan to expand solar cell manufacturing capacity to 4GW in two phases.
Production ramps up
For the first quarter of its fiscal year 2027 – covering April through June 2026 -, Websol reported revenue from operations of INR3.7 billion in Q1 FY27, up 70% year on year from INR2.2 billion. Module production more than doubled year on year to 103MW in Q1 FY27 from 50MW in Q1 FY26, with module capacity utilisation rising to 81% from 39%.
Sohan Lal Agarwal, managing director, said, “Q1 has started FY27 on the footing we wanted. Revenue is up 70% over the same quarter last year and both our lines are running close to the levels we had planned for, with cell utilisation at 92% and module utilisation at 81%. Margins are lower than a year ago, and the reason is we sold considerably more modules this quarter, and modules earn less than solar cells.”
Cell production also increased substantially, reaching 259MW in Q1 FY27 compared with 126MW in the same quarter a year earlier. Websol said the higher module offtake indicated that both module lines were operating close to their intended run-rate.
Ingot and wafer integration
The TOPCon expansion is being developed alongside Websol’s plans to strengthen upstream integration into ingot and wafer manufacturing.
Last year, Websol signed an MoU with Rochester, New York-headquartered Linton Crystal Technologies, a supplier of Czochralski (CZ) crystal-growth furnaces and process-control systems.
Under the agreement, the companies agreed to explore PV ingot and wafer manufacturing in India, with Websol planning to acquire ingot and wafer production equipment from Linton.
During its latest financial results, Websol said Linton would provide equipment and technology support for its planned upstream expansion, as the company scales towards its planned 4GW cell capacity.
Websol operates a manufacturing facility at the Falta Special Economic Zone in West Bengal, with a current annual nameplate solar cell capacity of 1.2GW and an annual nameplate module capacity of 550MW.
In April 2026, Websol added 600MW of monocrystalline PERC P-type bifacial cell capacity at its West Bengal plant to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) List-II, taking its total listed cell capacity to 1.2GW.
