India

India’s transition toward electric vehicles and renewable generation makes a strong case for grid-scale battery storage. And with the government going all out to ensure that demand is met through local manufacturing, ample opportunity is being created for joint ventures – as the country, at present, lacks the requisite experience.

The government’s move to slash corporate tax rates to 22% from 30%—and to 15% for new manufacturing companies—has largely been hailed by the solar industry even as it feels impact will be limited.

High levels of interest in floating solar installations in the Indian market was demonstrated on the second day of the Renewable Energy India Expo, which concludes today in New Delhi. The pv magazine Future PV Roundtable addressed the theme in a full-house conference session, where many questions were raised about module and array durability and performance, along with monitoring, O&M and safety considerations.

The ground-mounted plant—located at the Kadapa cement manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh—was completed in a record two months for captive electricity consumption.

While some of the industry insiders gathered at REI 2019 have made predictable calls to be free of the restrictions imposed by regulators, others maintained policy support is crucial and audience members voiced concern about India’s lack of recycling rules.

Policies, non-government initiatives and market forces have started driving the adoption of more rigorous quality-assurance practices in Indian PV project and module manufacturing this year.

pv magazine’s Quality Roundtable at this year’s Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo in Greater Noida saw industry experts touch upon issues arising out of wrong component selection and handling—including for cables and connectors to module mounting structures. They also shared the best practices to ensure long life of solar system installations.

The Chinese manufacturer claims to be the first company in the nation to supply that volume of solar modules. The news is unlikely to be welcomed by a government desperate to foster its own solar manufacturing sector.

Trade tariffs are spreading across the global PV industry. The United States has been especially active with its sandwich of old antidumping and countervailing duties coupled with new Section 201, 232 and 301 duties. Some of these are part of the Sino-U.S. trade dispute; others impact not only Chinese producers, but manufacturers around the world. So, what will be the impact of this new era of PV protectionism on the solar sector?

India’s total installed solar capacity touched 34.1 GW on June 30, 2019. The total was split between 27.9 GW of utility-scale PV, 4.6 GW of rooftop solar and 1.26 GW of off-grid solar. The nation’s total project pipeline – projects allocated to developers and those in various stages of development – stood at 19.69 GW as of June 30. Bridge to India’s Sai Nandamuri looks at the outlook for Indian solar in 2019 and 2020.