Further Delay expected for the DCR projects in India

Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase II in India emphasized on the generation of solar power through domestic cells. It called for bids to set up 750 MW of solar projects, out of which 375 MW should be from domestically manufactured cells. The government had set aside 375 MW of solar projects, which should be built exclusively using domestic solar cell and modules (this includes thin film solar PV technology), while the other 375 MW has been kept aside for foreign made solar cells and modules. Though this was done to boost the domestic solar industry in India, it has started setting up more bottlenecks for the country. The Indian Solar industry lacks the competence and the quality when compared to its international counterparts. The foreign component received a much bigger response in the number and size of bids, as it is cheaper and easier to procure solar module from foreign companies than the Indian ones. The Indian solar manufacturing has been badly hurt by the lack of DCR in the earlier phase. They are unable to compete on costs, technology, reliability and other parameters with the large Chinese and USA solar panel suppliers.

In a letter signed by the Director General of the National Solar Federation sent to the MNRE and SECI, he mentions that not more than 35% of the projects would be completed in the given time frame, pointing out the problems faced by the industry in India currently. The reasons being that the actual operational capacity of the cells manufactured locally is not up to the mark and also that most of the plants are not competitive given their old equipments and technology. There are also financing problems, with lenders not ready to lend money because of the prevailing low quality issues. This has led to the prices increasing by ~ 16% per Wp, than the initial price quotation before the bid, which has challenged the viability of the DCR projects.

India’s JNNSM’s Phase II have already been delayed due to funding and payment security concerns. However, the NSF Director General believes that given the current scenario, a further delay of 13 to 24 months can be expected for the DCR projects.

PV Magazine

The letter, signed by Deepak Gupta, director general of the federation, states, “Actual domestic cell manufacturing capacity available for current batch of NSM projects is far less than the claims made by domestic cell manufacturers. The operational capacity is not more than 100-150 MW/annum against the boiler plate / installed capacity of 500-700 MW. Most of the non-operational plants have very limited potential due to vintage equipment and technology and most of the Operational Capacities have also been unused or lying idle for quite some time. This would mean that not more than 30-35% of the projects will be completed.”