Friday, August 29, 2014: The solar industry in India is getting full support from Indian government and further assistance has been promised for domestic solar manufacturing plants so that they run at full capacity and expand their productivity. Minister for power, coal, new and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, has promised solar equipment manufacturers, project developers and stakeholders that government is with all of them in their initiatives.
A statement from the minister has been released by the Press Information Bureau which says that, “Renewable power is the future of the country and will be supported fully.” In its support of domestic manufacturing the government has already dismissed recommendations for anti-dumping duties (ADD). The dismissal followed an argument by industry experts who said these duties would severely affect the solar industry in India. Not only the Ministry of Commerce, but some domestic manufacturers like Tata Power was in support of imposing these duties as they think that without ADD, India’s solar manufacturing would be “dead in six months”.
The statement issued by MNRE said further that the government is now “open to provide all support which is required to develop a robust ecosystem which is efficient and sustainable.” Goyal also assured that an adequate market will be made available for domestic cell and module capacities. Goyal has also reinstated that the government will continue its domestic content requirements for the National Solar Mission. This kind of support will help solar power get decentralised and reach rural regions in India. Larger solar projects are aimed to feed national grid.
The government is mostly working on getting access to lands to set up solar projects in the country successfully. Solar stakeholders have also been urged to make the national mission a success and more investment in this sector. As per the statement the government is mainly working on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Electrification Programme and for the same the government is “very much concerned about the large number of households who do not have access to modern sources of energy and, therefore, adequate attention would be paid to providing power to the left out households by deploying renewables in a big way.” As per revelations by Goyal India’s largest power company NTPC will provide 1GW of tenders for solar projects and domestic cells and modules will be used for the same. Goyal addressed an interactive session in New Delhi which was attended by several top bureaucrats from the Ministry of Power, MNRE, Ministry of Defence, NTPC and solar stakeholders.
