Solar Equipment

Solar equipment maker Waaree on Tuesday said it will ramp up its module manufacturing capacity to 12 GW by March 2023 from the existing nine GW. Waaree, a leading solar panel manufacturer, currently, has a 9 GW module manufacturing facility operational. Further, the company is setting up additional module manufacturing capacity, which will take its module manufacturing capacity to 12 GW for a 650-watt module by March 2023, a company statement. This will be the largest module manufacturing capacity in the world outside China, it added. Waaree is the lone manufacturer in India approved by ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturers) to ship high-wattage panels -- 650WP along with 600WP and 540WP -- from its manufacturing facilities in Surat, Chikhli, Tumb and Nandigram. With the addition of Indo solar, modules will be made at Greater Noida in NCR for the domestic market in Q3 of 2022, the company said. Waaree has emerged as the leading supplier of solar modules as per a report b

In a Q&A, Gyanesh Chaudhary dwells on the gaps in the PLI scheme for solar projects and his company's current and future plans in this space

The central government is looking at ways to plug a loophole in regulations that are allowing solar power developers to avoid paying duties of nearly 40% on cells and modules

NHPC on Tuesday signed an initial pact with Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) to set up a large capacity solar equipment manufacturing facility. "A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between NHPC and BEL...for setting up of gigawatt scale vertically integrated solar manufacturing unit," a BSE filing said. The MoU was signed by Biswajit Basu, Director (Projects), NHPC and Vinay Kumar Katyal, Director (Bangalore Complex), BEL. State-owned hydro power giant NHPC has an installation base of 7071.2 MW from 24 power stations including two projects in JV mode. It is engaged in the construction of 11 projects aggregating to a total installed capacity of 7,539 MW. During 2021-22, NHPC power stations achieved generation of 24,855 MU (million units). Last fiscal, NHPC reported Rs 8,181 crore as income from sale of power with a net profit of Rs 3,538 crore.

Business prospects of domestic solar original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will remain strong aided by several policy measures over medium-term, rating agency Icra said. As a result, many domestic OEMs have announced sizeable capital expenditure to augment the cell and module capacity, including the capex for integrated facilities under PLI scheme by the winning bidders. However, it stated that timely commissioning and ramping up of ongoing capex in module manufacturing value chain remains a critical factor in the near to medium-term. As a result, adequacy of the modules from the domestic OEMs to meet the demand in utility & non-utility segment as well as quality of such modules remains a monitorable. "The policy focus by Government of India in the renewable energy (RE) sector remains strong as also evident from the policy target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based capacity by CY 2030 as well as policy direction in the energy transition with net zero emission target by 2070," ...

IPO also has OFS component; proceeds from fresh issuance will be used for setting up 2 Gw solar cell unit and 1 Gw solar PV module plant

Sector executives feel this would exacerbate the problems of domestic manufacturers of solar cells and modules.

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Tuesday

The scheme to offer cash incentives for local manufacturing of solar equipment as well as batteries may require a few iterations to really click, or it may fly in the first round of bidding itself

The management believes that recent one-off events would materially impact the costs of the affected projects under execution, impacting margins for the year end March 31, 2021

India is planning to expand its renewable power capacity fivefold to 450 gigawatts by 2030

Industry body CII has urged the Ministry of Finance in its memorandum submitted on Monday to impose the basic custom duty (BCD) on solar equipment as announced in the last general Budget

All India Solar Industries Association (AISIA) on Thursday urged the government to impose at least 50 per cent BCD (basic custom duty) on solar equipment for sustenance of domestic manufacturers.

Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh on Thursday said his ministry has proposed to impose basic custom duty (BCD) from August 1, this year on solar equipment

The move is in line with the Centre's efforts to promote domestic solar manufacturing

There is already safeguard duty of 15 per cent levied on the imported solar cells and modules

Solar modules constitute 80% of the cost of a solar power project.

With India being one of the few major markets seeing a demand for solar power, Beijing would flood the market if safeguards were removed, they have said

The development comes at a time when India continues to explore all possible options when it comes to bridging its enormous trade deficit with manufacturing powerhouse China

MNRE has enlisted six standards for different types of equipment used in solar power project