India’s Domestic Content Requirement on Solar Cells Begins 1 June 2026

From 1 June 2026, all net-metering rooftop solar projects and other domestic, commercial and industrial solar installations in India must use only solar cells manufactured in the country, under a Union government mandate that extends the existing Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) framework. The aim is to reduce India’s dependence on imported solar cells — currently mostly from China — and to deepen the domestic solar manufacturing ecosystem from modules to cells, wafers and polysilicon.

Solar modules — the panels visible on rooftops and in solar farms — are assembled from cells, which themselves are made from wafers cut from silicon ingots. India has built a large module-assembly base of nearly 200 gigawatts (GW) per year, but cell-manufacturing capacity is far smaller at around 30 GW. As a result, much of the current module assembly relies on imported cells. The new mandate therefore brings an immediate mismatch: demand for domestic cells will jump, while supply takes time to scale up.

Industry has welcomed the long-term direction but flagged short-term risks. Smaller module manufacturers may struggle if they do not have their own cell-manufacturing lines and have to depend on a small set of larger Indian cell producers. There are also fears of market consolidation and a temporary increase in costs. To address the gap, the government has been backing capacity expansion through the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for high-efficiency solar PV modules and measures under the Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana for rooftop solar.

For exam aspirants, the mandate connects the National Solar Mission, the ALMM list, PLI for solar, the value chain of solar PV manufacturing (polysilicon → ingots → wafers → cells → modules), and India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target of 500 GW of non-fossil installed capacity by 2030.