Pralhad Joshi Hails Solar Innovation at IIT Bombay's NCPRE, ART-PV India

Reinforcing India’s commitment to self-reliance and global leadership in renewable energy, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Shri Pralhad Joshi visited the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE) at IIT Bombay. The visit marked a major milestone in India's clean energy roadmap, spotlighting a groundbreaking innovation in solar technology—a 2-Terminal Monolithic Silicon/CdTe-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cell developed by ART-PV India, an IIT-Bombay-incubated startup, achieving a conversion efficiency of 29.8%.

This significant leap in efficiency places India among the global leaders in next-generation photovoltaic technology, and represents one of the highest recorded performance levels ever achieved in the country.

A National Platform for Solar Excellence

NCPRE, established in 2010 with funding from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), has grown into India’s premier institution for research, development, and education in advanced solar technologies. With cumulative funding of over ₹200 crore from MNRE over the past 15 years, NCPRE has been instrumental in supporting India’s 100 GW Solar Mission, acting as a critical bridge between fundamental science and large-scale commercial deployment.

During his visit, Shri Joshi toured key facilities, including:

• Perovskite Tandem Solar Cell Laboratory

• Silicon Fabrication Laboratory

• Medium Voltage Laboratory

The Minister also held an in-depth interactive session with Principal Investigators and Advisory Board Members, exploring avenues to accelerate India’s transition from lab-scale innovations to market-ready solutions.

ART-PV India: Pioneering Tandem Solar Technology

A central highlight of the visit was the breakthrough by Advanced Renewable Tandem-Photovoltaics India (ART-PV India)—a startup born out of NCPRE and incubated at IIT Bombay. The startup has engineered a 2-terminal monolithic Silicon/CdTe-Perovskite tandem solar cell that reaches 29.8% efficiency, significantly surpassing the 15–22% range of traditional silicon panels.

With MNRE’s financial support of ₹83 crore ($10 million), ART-PV India is now setting up a state-of-the-art pilot manufacturing facility on the IIT Bombay campus. This plant is envisioned to commercialize the technology and reduce the levelized cost of solar electricity across utility and decentralized sectors.

Shri Joshi praised the development, calling it a "game-changer for India's solar energy future" and a concrete demonstration of India's Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) mission.

Driving Innovation with Policy and Vision

Addressing the media after the visit, Shri Pralhad Joshi emphasized that the Ministry is focused not only on deploying renewable energy at scale but also on defining the future of clean energy through innovations in:

• Perovskite solar cells

• PV reliability and inverter technologies

• Green hydrogen

• Advanced energy storage systems

He underscored the Ministry’s commitment to facilitating lab-to-market transitions through initiatives like the Renewable Energy Research & Technology Development (RE-RTD) Program, and the recently approved Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme, which allocates ₹1.27 lakh crore under the current GERD (Gross Expenditure on Research and Development).

He also encouraged the ART-PV India team to focus on commercial viability, urging them to prove that Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells are scalable, manufacturable, and economically competitive. This alignment of public-funded R&D with national industrial capacity will strengthen India’s standing in the global energy innovation ecosystem.

Collaboration, Self-Reliance, and Global Competitiveness

The visit reiterated the strategic importance of institutions like NCPRE in nurturing domestic innovation, intellectual property, and manufacturing. Shri Joshi emphasized that innovations in India should not remain confined to academic journals but must become global benchmarks through industry collaboration, startup incubation, and export-ready product development.

He noted that India is no longer just adopting renewable energy technologies, but is actively shaping their future, with R&D-led breakthroughs in high-efficiency photovoltaics at the core of this transformation.

Leadership Presence and Future Directions

Present at the occasion were:

• Prof. Shireesh Kedare, Director, IIT Bombay

• Prof. Baylon G. Fernandes and Prof. Chetan Singh Solanki, Principal Investigators, NCPRE

• Prof. Dinesh Kabra, Co-Founder, ART-PV India

Together, they outlined future directions for collaboration, commercial scale-up, and potential exports. As India pushes forward on its 500 GW renewable energy target by 2030, such innovations are vital for achieving energy security, climate targets, and economic growth.

With institutional support, visionary leadership, and robust financial backing, India’s journey towards clean energy self-reliance is well on course—and the tandem solar cell innovation by ART-PV India is a shining example of that progress.