Waaree Energies is India’s largest solar module maker and the biggest non-Chinese one in the world, but it is rapidly outgrowing that label - it is rebuilding itself as a full-stack energy transition company that makes nearly everything from the raw silicon to the power line. Founded in 1990 by Dr. Hitesh Chimanlal Doshi, who had earlier built and sold an instruments business, the company started making solar panels in 2007 and has since expanded step by step into cells, ingots, wafers, glass, and a widening circle of electrical equipment. The pattern that explains the whole is a “book and build” discipline - it commits capital only after locking in demand, and it has kept debt below equity for nearly a decade while doing so. # Business segments Five engines at different stages - a solar module cash cow, a fast-growing retail and projects franchise that rides on it, and a cluster of new-energy bets being built out with the cash flows of the first two. ## 1. Solar module manufacturing: the factory that funds everything else **With 26 GW of capacity, Waaree is the largest non-Chinese module manufacturer on earth, and it sells through four distinct channels, three of which command a premium over plain-vanilla utility supply.** - **Four factories, three continents** - 12 GW sits in the Mumbai-Surat belt across Tumb, Nandigram, Chikhli and Surat; another 1.3 GW runs at Indosolar in Greater Noida; 1.6 GW is coming up in Brookshire, Texas, with a path to 4.2 GW; and a 6 GW integrated plant is planned on 595 acres in Odisha. - **One line, many products** - the same manufacturing platform can produce modules from 400W to over 700W, across PERC, TOPCon, bifacial and half-cut technologies, in form factors from 182mm to G12R, so the company can serve utility-scale, rooftop, commercial and specialised buyers from a single asset base. - **Three premium channels pay more** - roughly 20-25% of revenue comes from a retail counter-sales network that took over a decade to build; another 30-35% comes from exports and US local manufacturing, which are also premium markets; together with high-margin EPC and O&M, about 70% of revenue flows through channels with structural barriers to entry. - **Certifications are the ticket to global customers** - the company holds a PVTECH Bankability Rating “A”, is the only Indian manufacturer in the Terawatt PV Top 10, and carries over 50 global and domestic certifications, which marquee international buyers require before they will place an order. - **Raw materials are locked against orders** - once an order is booked, the company tries to secure raw materials against that order as much as possible, aiming to lock in the margin from module-price declines between booking and delivery. ## 2. Solar cells, ingots, wafers and glass: backward integration to cut import dependence **Waaree is pulling the supply chain inside its own walls - from polysilicon supply rights to the glass that makes up three-quarters of a module’s weight - so that fewer dollars leave the group on every panel it sells.** - **India’s largest cell plant is already running** - the 5.4 GW cell facility, the biggest single-location cell plant in the country, produced 2.3 GW in FY26, up from just 0.1 GW the year before, and a large part of module capacity has moved to G12/G12R. - **Ingots and wafers are under construction** - a 10 GW integrated ingot and wafer complex is being built on 300 acres at Butibori, Nagpur, with a capex of INR 6,200 crores, completing the ingot-to-module chain inside India. - **Polysilicon is secured at source** - Waaree’s US subsidiary took a strategic stake in United Solar Holding Inc., which runs a 100 KTPA polysilicon plant in Oman, giving the company a long-term, fully traceable non-Chinese supply of the most upstream material in the solar value chain. - **Glass will be made for its own modules** - the board approved INR 3,900 crores for a 2,500 tonnes-per-day PV glass plant, enough for roughly 16-17 GW of modules a year; glass accounts for over 20% of module cost and 75% of module weight, and the US factory guarantees offtake from day one. ## 3. Retail and distributed solar: India’s biggest solar brand on the rooftop **Waaree has built a distribution engine covering 27 states and over 600 franchises, and roughly one in every six solar installations in India now carries its name.** - **A channel that took a decade to build** - the network spans more than 580 retail stores, over 4,000 distribution points, approximately 15,000 pin codes, and more than 2,500 authorised service partners, with 24-hour order-to-door delivery capability. - **Retail customers pay a premium** - the retail segment is less price-sensitive than utility buyers and pays 1-1.5 cents per panel more, which is why the channel delivered INR 5,515 crores in revenue in FY26, growing 84% year-on-year. - **One network, many products** - the same distribution engine that sells modules today can roll out battery storage, inverters and future products with no incremental go-to-market investment, because the franchise and service infrastructure is already in place. ## 4. EPC, O&M and independent power: building, running and owning solar plants **Waaree designs and builds solar plants, operates them for recurring fees, and increasingly owns them to sell electricity under long-term contracts - three ways to earn from the same project lifecycle.** - **Built more than 5 GW already** - the EPC business, run through 74.5%-owned subsidiary Waaree Renewable Technologies, has executed over 5 GW of projects and has around 3 GW under execution, while the O&M portfolio stands at 1.18 GW. - **Owning the power, not just building it** - through subsidiary Waaree Forever Energies, the company has signed power purchase agreements for 713 MW and secured grid connectivity for roughly 8 GW of solar, wind and battery projects across central and state networks, with total commitment of INR 3,250 crores. ## 5. The new-energy cluster: inverters, transformers, batteries, electrolysers and beyond **Waaree is assembling a portfolio of electrical equipment businesses - each small today, but each designed to plug into the same customer base that already buys its modules.** - **Inverters and transformers are already shipping** - 3 GW of inverter capacity is commissioned at Sarodhi, Gujarat, with 1 GW more to come, while the transformer business has around 4,000 MVA of capacity and plans to add another 16,000 MVA at Alwar, Rajasthan. - **Battery storage is the biggest bet** - a planned 20 GWh of battery energy storage capacity, with the first 3.5 GWh expected this financial year and the remaining 16.5 GWh the next, targets data centres, utilities, commercial buyers and homes, with a capex of roughly INR 10,000 crores. - **Green hydrogen electrolysers are starting small** - a 1 GW electrolyser plant is targeted at Dungri, Gujarat, backed by PLI awards of INR 444 crores for electrolysers and roughly INR 510 crores for hydrogen, with the plan to move from manufacturing into build-and-operate projects and eventually green derivatives. # Group structure and partners **Waaree Energies sits at the centre of a web of majority-owned subsidiaries, each holding a distinct piece of the energy value chain, with strategic partners supplying the technology and raw materials that the group does not yet make itself.** - **The listed parent owns the core** - Waaree Energies Ltd directly holds the module and cell manufacturing operations, while each new business sits in a separate subsidiary: Waaree Renewable Technologies (74.5%) for EPC and O&M, Waaree Power (100%) for inverters and smart meters, Waaree Energy Storage Solutions (90%) for batteries, Waaree Clean Energy Solutions (100%) for electrolysers, Waaree Forever Energies (100%) for IPP assets, Waaree Green Glass (100%) for PV glass, and Waaree Transpower (64%, rising to 75.1%) for transformers. - **The US arm connects to global supply** - Waaree Solar Americas Inc. (100%) runs the Texas module factory and holds the strategic stake in United Solar Holding Inc., the Cayman Islands-based polysilicon producer that secures a non-Chinese supply chain. - **Dozens of project SPVs hold the power plants** - Waaree Forever Energies has incorporated more than 25 wholly owned special-purpose vehicles, each created to hold a specific solar, wind or hybrid power project under the IPP framework.