While India will hit 20GW of installed solar PV capacity this year, its annual deployment is expected to slow down to 5GW, according to consultancy firm Bridge to India, which released its latest ‘India Solar Map 2017’ today.
After two years of tumbling solar tariffs hitting the headlines, the Indian industry is feeling the consequences of its risk-taking for the first time, with a series of reversing market conditions and contract renegotiations sparking serious concern.
India recently proposed a new strategy of supporting its domestic solar manufacturers by allocating 7.5GW of local content tenders to Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs), but analysts have identified a number of limitations.
Indian states are slowly adopting new forecasting rules that will force solar energy plant operators and Regional load dispatch centres (RLDCs) to provide more frequent and accurate projections of energy production or face penalties.
India is now considering imposing safeguard duties on the import of solar cells and modules from China and certain other countries, while it continues contemplating imposing anti-dumping measures.
India reached 1,396MW of rooftop solar deployment at the end of March, with nearly half (678MW) of this installed just in the fiscal year 2016-17, according to the latest ‘India Solar Rooftop Map’ from Bridge to India.
India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill was enforced on 1 July bringing in a 5% tax on solar PV modules, but there is still uncertainty around taxes on other solar equipment, according to consultancy firm Bridge to India.
India’s famously weak grids should be able to integrate the planned addition of 175GW of renewable energy by 2022, according to a report released by the central government.
India has put forward two separate policies that both promote and mandate rooftop solar for certain buildings – complementing the economic benefits of rooftop PV.
Although Tamil Nadu’s latest 1.5GW solar tender has seen significant oversubscription with 3,774.5MW of submissions, most of the key solar players in India have not participated.
India installed 5.5GW of utility-scale solar capacity in the last fiscal year and the country is expected to add another 8GW in the coming year, according to consultancy firm Bridge to India’s ‘India Solar Map’.
With stricter quality standards due to be brought in for Indian solar tenders, including inspections for modules, cells and wafers, energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal has warned the industry about failure to keep equipment quality high.
