Source: EFY Magazine
India seems to be trying its best to make its people optimise the use of solar energy in the form of various sources. The country's energy ministry has also taken the initiative by drafting Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). But all efforts seem to be going waste. The impact of cheap solar panel being imported from China, US has given a huge blow to the fortune of domestic solar equipment manufacturers and now, these people are facing a hard time with the price of solar panels crashing in the global market.
Over the last six to 12 months, most of these developers
have either stopped their operations or have scaled down to 15 to 30 per cent
of their capacity. The country has installed 1,100 MW of solar power capacity
in the last two years and out of this, Gujarat has close to 750 MW of solar
power projects, which explains the reason for lack of overall growth of the
solar sector in India.
According to estimates, Indian solar panel makers have a
total capacity of about 1 GW and none of them have substantial orders. Indian
manufacturers blame low cost of imports for the slow (or stunted) growth.
While imports have definitely been affected but the export
market is no different, as the business is evidently facing troubles. Most of
the major players like Moser Baer, Lanco and Tata Solar have already shut down
their manufacturing units.
Even foreign players like First Solar, US leading solar
manufacturer idled 25 per cent of its capacity since July last year due to
decrease in demand from EU whose solar market has been completely captured by
Chinese imports.
If this is how things stand over the next year, then India's
solar power dream could become a distant memory.