Markets & Policy

The engineering, procurement and construction services contractor – which has a 1.2 GW module production facility near Kolkata – will establish a wafer, cell and module manufacturing site in Tamil Nadu under a five-year timescale.

The investigating arm of India’s commerce ministry has proposed continuing to apply the duty levied on solar cell imports from the east at a rate of 14.9% from July 30 and falling to 14.5% six months later.

The Haryana-based developer will invest Rs 1500-2000 crore in setting up the solar cell and module manufacturing facility, which will initially have a production capacity of 2 GW per annum.

This partnership with the government-backed infrastructure-specific investment fund will help NTPC raise capital as it aims for nearly 30 GW of overall power generation capacity from renewable energy sources by 2032.

India’s entire solar industry is dependent on Chinese imports to function. Hence, there is a comprehensive need to relook at the current policies and focus on building wafers and ingots capacity that will be used to manufacture the cells and eventually, modules.

Indian solar manufacturers have cried foul over a system which exempts imported panels from yet-to-be-announced tax regimes but offers no such protection to domestic products.

The state is also reportedly set to this year unveil ‘Asia’s largest floating solar plant’, in the shape of the 150 MW Rihand Dam installation.

The state’s Solar Power Policy 2015 was due to expire since April 1, 2020. With a 9-month extension, solar power plants installed and commissioned till December end become eligible for the benefits and incentives declared under this policy.

Noida Authority has selected Energy Efficiency Services Limited to deploy public charging stations under the second phase of the FAME India Scheme. A total of 162 public EV charging stations comprising 108 122kW fast chargers and 54 Bharat DC001 (15kW) are to be installed in the city.

The National Solar Energy Federation of India said the project timeline relaxation provided by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is insufficient as construction continues to be severely hampered. Labour exodus and procurement delays (due to restrictions on international travel) are among the reasons affecting project progress.