India's solar push faces Chinese export controls, deepening supply-chain dependence

In a recent interview, Sumant Sinha, chairman and CEO of Indian renewables firm ReNew, outlined India's effort to cut reliance on Chinese solar imports while pursuing 200 GW of non-fossil power by 2030. The Indian government has set deadlines for firms to increase domestic sourcing, yet Beijing this month proposed export controls on several solar-related technologies and has limited Indian firms' access to critical parts.

Sinha said China’s dominance forces Indian companies to buy equipment from China even if they later sell the finished product elsewhere, and that Chinese firms can afford to sell at deep discounts, making Indian costs about 30 % higher. He projects that within three to four years India could build a fully domestic solar supply chain, but cautioned that China’s willingness to share technology is uncertain. The broader concern, he argued, is the global clean-tech sector’s heavy reliance on China, which creates a strategic bottleneck similar to past energy-supply crises.