₹5,000 crore (about $525 million) of sunshine factories: an Indian maker bets big on building solar's building blocks at home

Solar panels are only the visible end of a long chain — before a panel comes a cell, and before a cell, ingots and wafers of silicon. Jakson Solar, part of one of India's established energy groups, says it will invest up to ₹5,000 crore (about $525 million) to build 3 gigawatts of solar-cell capacity and 3 gigawatts of ingot-and-wafer capacity at home. Managing director Ivan Saha, speaking at the Renewable Energy India Expo, put dates on it: the cell plant commissioned by December 2027, ingots and wafers following in 2028, on top of the company's existing 1.2 gigawatts of module production, with equipment tie-ups already secured. The significance is in the unglamorous middle of the chain: making the building blocks domestically means more skilled manufacturing jobs, a sturdier supply chain, and cheaper clean power downstream. India's solar boom has mostly assembled the future; this is a bet on manufacturing it.

SDG 7 · Affordable and clean energy — Mechanism: funding & finance