Wednesday, August 21, 2013: There is a possibility that India may extend local sourcing conditions on solar thin films in the upcoming round of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Already, similar condition applies to solar cells and modules and this comes as an addition.
Solar thin films are imported mostly from the US. However, the mandatory norms will apply to only that part of the 750MW solar power production (meant for the second phase), which is targeted for supply to government agencies. Rest of the projects will not have any sourcing restrictions, informed an official, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Business Line reported.
The Ministry is considering to float two separate tenders in the second phase, both with mandatory sourcing condition for equipment and without mandatory condition. “We have made an estimate of the power that is supplied to government agencies. Based on that, we will divide the power generation in the second phase into two parts,” the official added. This decision is meant to prevent anymore trouble at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) because earlier, US had filed a case against India for imposing the local sourcing mandate during the first phase of the Solar Mission.
However, this time hopefully US should not complain for the simple reason that its companies are free to supply solar cells, modules and thin films as part of the non-reserved project category.
