Having acted against Turkey, the Trump administration has removed India too from the list of nations exempt from import tariffs on solar cells and modules.
Falling PV panel prices led to notable year-on-year falls in the cost of developing solar plants around the world. India led the way with PV projects costing a weighted average of just $793/kW of capacity installed in 2018. Costs in China dipped to $879/kW last year, while solar projects in US and Australia cost $1,500.
While the world’s biggest solar manufacturers are confident there are plenty of alternative markets for a rising volume of panel exports, the message spelled out by first-quarter shipment figures is that protectionism works.
Chinese solar modules currently meet around 80% of India’s demand. Domestic modules face stiff competition from those imported from China, which cost 10-20% less, even after the imposition of safeguard duties.
With Narendra Modi’s government stunning pollsters with another huge victory, the solar industry expects renewable power momentum to be maintained with steps including anti-dumping duty on solar module imports, a national policy for rooftop solar and an emphasis on easing private-sector participation in the power sector.
With Turkey now deemed too developed to qualify for exemption from import tariffs, the nascent Indian solar manufacturing sector is one of the few markets left whose cells and modules can be shipped to the U.S. free of tariffs.
The contraction in Chinese trade flows to the U.S. is likely to result in the dumping in India of Far Eastern electronic and electrical components as well as steel, iron, chemicals and plastic products.
Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments Limited, Jaipur has invited bids to supply 2.87W crystalline silicon solar cells. The quantity to be supplied is 450,000. The deadline for bid submission is May 24, and bids will open on May 25.
State-owned Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) has once again extended the bid submission deadline for its latest 3 GW, manufacturing-linked solar tender, following a tepid response.
Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments Limited (REIL), Jaipur, has invited bids to supply 4.3 W and 4.5 W multicrystalline silicon solar cells. The deadline for submissions is June 4.
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