Energetica India Magazine

CEO Zuvay Technologies SAMIR MEHTA Q How do you assess the current state of India’s solar man- ufacturing ecosystem, and what role will advanced man- ufacturing technologies play in the next phase of growth? Samir Mehta: India’s solar manufacturing story has moved from ambition to execution at remarkable speed. Enlisted module capacity under ALMM List-I has crossed 200 GW, and with ALMM List-II for cells coming into force from June 2026, over 30 GW of domestic cell capacity is now anchored in the demand framework. The extension of ALMM to in- gots and wafers – with more than 30 GW of wafer projects already announced by leading manufacturers – completes the policy architecture for a truly integrated value chain, from polysilicon downstream to the finished module. That said, we must be honest about where we stand. The ecosystem today is module-heavy and upstream-light: cell capacity is roughly one-sixth of module capacity, and com- mercial-scale ingot and wafer production is only now taking shape. The next phase of growth is therefore not about add- ing more of the same – it is about depth, quality and cost competitiveness at every stage of the chain. This is precisely where advanced manufacturing technologies become decisive. Ingot pulling and wafering are unforgiving processes where yield, kerf loss and crystal quality directly determine cost per watt; they simply cannot be run competi- tively without high levels of automation, closed-loop process control and data analytics. Similarly, as India transitions to TOPCon and prepares for back-contact and tandem archi- tectures, cell lines demand cleanroom discipline, precision handling of ever-thinner wafers and AI-driven inline inspec- tion. The manufacturers who treat Industry 4.0 capabilities – MES integration, machine-level data capture, predictive maintenance and digital twins – as core infrastructure rath- er than optional add-ons will define the next decade of Indi - an solar manufacturing. Q What were the key trends and innovations that stood out to you at SNEC 2026 in China, and how relevant are these developments for Indian manufacturers looking to re- main globally competitive? Samir Mehta: Several themes stood out at SNEC this year. The first was the depth to which artificial intelligence has penetrated the factory floor – AI is no longer confined to end-of-line EL image classification, but is being applied to defect detection at every process step, yield forecasting, recipe optimisation and predictive maintenance of critical equipment. The second was the maturity of full-line auto- mation: leading equipment makers demonstrated produc- tion lines where wafer-to-module material flow is handled almost entirely by robotics and AGVs, with lights-out or near-lights-out operation becoming a realistic design target rather than a showcase concept. On the technology side, the momentum behind back-con- tact architectures and continued refinement of TOPCon T he manufacturers who treat Industry 4.0 capabilities – MES integration, machine-level data capture, predic- tive maintenance and digital twins – as core infrastructure rather than optional add-ons will define the next decade of Indian solar manufacturing, said Samir Mehta, CEO, Zuvay Technologies, in an interview with Energetica India. 22 energetica INDIA- Jul-Aug_2026 INTERVIEW