Make In India

The Indian solar manufacturer supplied its 385Wp and 390Wp mono PERC solar PV modules for US-headquartered CIM Group’s 250 MW solar photovoltaic project.

The Indian solar manufacturer has started trial production of high-efficiency solar cells at its new Telangana site. The fab can produce 19.2%-efficient multi-crystalline cells using MCCE textured black silicon, as well as making 22.5%-efficient mono PERC products.

The federal government will provide INR968 crore of soft loans for a INR1307 crore, 100 MW solar park near the Jamuna river in Bangladesh’s Jamalpur district, where a second park of a similar size is being planned by Dhaka and a Chinese partner.

The Telangana-headquartered lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery manufacturer has teamed up with Las Vegas-headquartered Barrel Energy to develop and manufacture lithium batteries for electric vehicles. The joint venture will establish factories in India and North America.

The Indian automotive battery major has announced the setting up of a 50 MW solar power plant in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh. The plant—to be built at INR 220-crore investment—will help reduce the manufacturer’s carbon footprint while lowering its electricity bill. The firm, which has already set up a pilot plant facility for Lithium-ion cell development, is also mulling investments into energy storage for the renewables sector.

The energy storage system arm of Waaree Group has designed and developed Lithium batteries to power ACE Ltd’s electric forklifts running at Chennai airport.

Imported solar inverters and lanterns will get costlier, as the union budget for the next fiscal year has proposed customs duty increases from 5%, for both items, to 20% and 15%, respectively. The budget, which also incentivizes Indian manufacturing of solar project components whilst giving a helping hand to raw materials, makes no mention of solar cells or panels.

The Mumbai-based battery startup develops advanced nano-material composites to enable quick-charging batteries for electric vehicle (EV), industrial storage, and consumer electronics space.

The government should consider offering a 50% capital subsidy for setting up R&D and quality testing infrastructure within the manufacturing units and a 200% super-deduction for the R&D expenditure on new and clean solar technology development. Simultaneously, it should look at implementing tariff barriers on imports for at least four-five years.

A new report says the imposition of safeguard duties and basic custom duties is only a partial solution to help the domestically produced solar modules remain competitive with imported panels. The government needs to adopt a long-term strategy towards PV manufacturing that supports backward integration and sustained innovation.