Wednesday, October 23, 2013: Much against the wishes of the US, the same compulsory local sourcing conditions will be extended in the second phase norms of the India’s National Solar Mission too.
However, in the second phase norms, domestic sourcing conditions would be imposed on just 50 per cent of capacity decided for the second phase. This was shared by a senior Government official with Hindu Business Line.
This may not go down very well with the Americans as the Ministry for New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has plans to widen the coverage of local sourcing norms in order to accommodate solar thin films that are mostly imported from the US during the first phase.
This comes despite the Commerce Ministry warning it against continuing with its domestic sourcing clause, which could lead to further disturbance at WTO.
Additionally, MNRE is floating tenders for a 750 MW grid connected solar projects as part of the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission tomorrow.
The official told HBL, “We made a mistake in the first phase by not including thin-film in the local sourcing norms as it led to power producers importing cheap thin films rather than use domestically produced modules.”
