A preliminary recommendation from India’s Directorate General of Safeguards Customs and Central Excise to impose a provisional 70% safeguard duty on solar cells imported from China and Malaysia has been branded as “ridiculous” and potentially catastrophic, by PV industry members involved in finance, project development and analysis.
Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has issued an expression of interest (EOI) for the setting up of 20GW of vertically-integrated solar PV manufacturing capacity in India over the next three years, in an unclear and poorly worded release.
Aiming to make its local solar manufacturers competitive on the global stage, the Indian government has proposed direct financial support of INR110 billion (US$1.7 billion) and a 12GW allocation of public sector tenders mandated to include locally sourced PV equipment.
There were no takers for roughly 55% of the capacity up for grabs in India’s 500MW government buildings rooftop tender, however the final installed capacities could still rise again.
India has announced plans for an unprecedented solar procurement regime that aims to tender 20GW in 2017/18, followed by another 30GW in each of the two following years, but analysts have described the policy as "completely unrealistic".
The Ministry of Power in the Indian state of Kerala has directed the state utility to provide training on grid-connected solar rooftop systems to its field-level employees, in what has been claimed to be a first in India. Meanwhile, a 200MW solar park has also been downgraded to 50MW.
Going to Indian courts over renegotiations of solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) can be a costly and time-consuming process, but is this where the trouble ends?
India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is finalising laws that will include penalties for state governments and distribution companies (Discoms) that do not honour power purchase agreements (PPAs), according to power minister R.K. Singh.
