Vikram Solar

The government’s renewed efforts to curb solar equipment imports and upscale domestic manufacturing have started bearing fruits. The launch of the production-linked incentive (PLI) Scheme and the imposition of a basic customs duty (BCD) on imports have favored domestic capacity expansion.  

Jinchen Machinery has landed module production equipment orders from leading Indian solar manufacturers. It has already installed 2 GW of production lines and plans to supply the balance within three months. The company will open an India office in Surat, Gujarat. 

The Indian solar manufacturer’s Series 6 module exceeded the international quality and performance benchmarks in testing under PV Evolution Labs’ Product Qualification Program.

Following a 140 MW solar capacity, the EPC contractor has commissioned an additional 85 MW for NTPC at Bilhaur in the Kanpur district. This takes the total project capacity to 225 MW, making it the State’s largest single-site PV plant.

Solar manufacturers have welcomed the bidding criteria which apply to the incentives offered for setting up gigawatt scale, high-efficiency PV production lines but would like a bigger budget, to finance significant capacity build-up.

The national production-linked incentive scheme introduced to encourage domestic manufacturing will now encompass solar. The PV policy will offer increased rewards for the production of more efficient panels and for Indian content.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore has set up a solar-powered charging station to conduct the system’s impact assessment. The system—designed by UK-based renewable energy advisor GreenEnco—uses Vikram Solar’s 16 mono PERC solar modules of 400 Wp each, a hybrid inverter, and battery storage.

Domestic sales by manufacturing units located within special economic zones (SEZs) are treated as exports, attracting customs duty levy. This puts the SEZ manufacturers at a disadvantage compared to those in the domestic tariff area.

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 EPC contractor said it is the largest solar plant by capacity commissioned so far in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The plant is estimated to generate 319 million units of electricity per year, which is enough to power 1,45,662 houses annually.