DhaSh PV Technologies has announced an investment of ₹3.46 billion (~$41.4 million) in a solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing plant in the Sira Industrial Area of Tumkur, Karnataka. The facility will focus on producing solar PV junction boxes with an annual capacity of 50 GW.

The plant will also manufacture 1,000 km of solar cables and fully indigenous diodes daily.

A solar PV junction box is an integral part of solar panels. This Balance of System component is an enclosure housing all the electrical bits in a solar panel.

Manjunath N Reddy, founder of DhaSh Group, said the facility will be equipped with advanced technology to ensure the production of high-quality solar components that meet international standards.

Reddy, who was among a panel of experts at one of the sessions at the Mercom India Renewables Summit 2023 last year, said building the local supply chain was very important. “We currently depend on China and Taiwan for the semiconductor technology, which we plan to bring in by 2025 to ensure all the junction boxes are made in India in the future.”

DhaSh’s announcement comes amid a slew of companies investing in manufacturing renewable energy technologies in the country as part of the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Recently, Grew Energy, a renewable energy venture of the Chiripal Group, announced plans to set up a 3.2 GW solar module manufacturing facility in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir. The company will invest ₹45 billion (~$ 538.8 million) to establish the fully integrated three-stage facility on 80 acres of land.

Meanwhile, Indosol Solar, a Shirdi Sai Electricals subsidiary, has begun the production of PV modules in Ramayapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The company said it will invest ₹13 billion (~$155.78 million) in developing the initial phase.

According to Mercom India Research’s recently released State of Solar PV Manufacturing in India 2024 Report, the country’s cumulative solar module manufacturing capacity and solar cell manufacturing capacity reached 64.5 GW and 5.8 GW, respectively, as of December 2023.

The report forecasts that module manufacturing capacity will exceed 150 GW and cell capacity will reach over 75 GW by 2026.