Waaree Energies CEO: Committed to investing in United States

The company is also scouting for a separate land parcel for the solar cell unit.
| Photo Credit:
ANNEGRET HILSE

Despite the uncertainties surrounding “retaliatory tariffs” announced by the Trump administration, Waaree Energies Ltd said it remains “committed” to the promised ₹1 billion investments in the United States which includes setting up a solar cell manufacturing facility and increasing the solar module manufacturing capacity to 5 gigawatt (GW).

“What really plays out well is the strategy that we have adapted a year ago. For all the key geographies where there is a big market and where we want to go and establish ourselves, the best strategy is to have a manufacturing footprint. Even before the tariffs were announced, we had got approval from our board to double the capacity of our solar manufacturing unit at Texas in United States to 3.2 GW from 1.6 GW,” said Amit Paithankar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Waaree Energies Ltd during a recent interaction with businessline.

However, the company is silent regarding the quantum of investments it plans to park for doubling its solar module manufacturing capacity at its Brookshire facility in Texas, US. “What we need to understand and realise is that a lot of changes are going on at this point in time from a tariff regime perspective. So we have to wait for the dust to settle to really understand what would be overall investment numbers (in the US),” Paithankar added.

“Depending on the tariff regime, we can decide to manufacture more in the US. If we do that, managing tariffs becomes easier,” he said, adding that the company is currently in a “wait and watch mode” and will take a decision on future investments in the US at an appropriate time. “In our long term plan we have committed about ₹1 billion of investments in the US. We are committed to this goal and the we plan to invest in the next 4-5 years and it includes a new solar cell facility, expanding the solar module manufacturing to 5 GW,” Paithankar said adding that the company which is presently utilising just one-third of the land in Texas will use the remaining portion to expand the solar module manufacturing unit. 

The company is also scouting for a separate land parcel for the solar cell unit. “We have not decided on the solar cell capacity for the US and the location where the plant will come up. However, we will not be building the solar cell plant at the existing facility,” he said, adding that the company was examining various offers made by different States in the US.

Order book

Currently the company has an order book of over ₹47,000 crore of which 43 per cent is from India while the rest are from overseas customers. When asked if the company plans to capitalise on the 90-day pause in tariffs announced by the US and fast-track some of its deliveries meant to be made to customers in the US, Paithankar said, “About 55 per cent of our order book is exports and a large portion of it is from the US. There is a bit of maneuverability and elbow room. We can change and tweak and we will try to look at the possibility of early deliveries.” Of the total revenues of the company 17-20 per cent comes from exports.

When asked if the company was looking at other export markets other than the US, the official said the company was looking at Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Australian markets. ‘We will take some steps to keep expanding our order book from a geographical perspective. In FY 2026, our factories are completely booked till March 31, 2026. We have a very full order book which is dominated by India and the US,” Paithankar added.

Published on April 24, 2025