Can Indian Solar Companies survive in India

I receive a lot of queries regarding which solar panel to buy in India. One thing that is common across these queries is that a buyer generally states that he wants to buy a panel without many specifications. And that dear readers, is the biggest problem of the Indian solar panel manufacturers. They lack specialization and differentiation!! Most of the foreign companies rank high in the list of top module suppliers in India according to Bridge to India. This is either because they are offering us a price benefit or other features that the local manufacturers lack.

Here is the list:

You might also like to read list of top rooftop solar panels to buy in India

What is the biggest problem of the Indian Solar Panel Companies

India is aggressively marching towards its 2022 target of 100GW of solar installation. The country installed an impressive 5,525.98 MW in 2016-17 according to MNREand has a cumulative solar capacity of 12,288.83 MW as of March 2017 from just 6,762.85 MW at the end of March 2016. Though Waaree Solar, Tata Power Solar and Vikram Solar are present on the list, they command small marketshare.

The Chinese solar panel companies supply mostly to the Indian solar market owing to their close proximity to India and low prices. Others like First Solar have an old association with India since its thin film modules are best suited for the Indian climate. Likewise, the Indian panel companies need to come up with some competitive strength that can beat foreign competition.

Given the huge potential of the Indian solar market, it would be a shame for Indian companies to not make the most of it! In the current scenario, I highly doubt that the Indian Solar panel Companies will take advantage of the Solar Boom in India. However, we cannot overlook the challenges that these companies face and the lack of proper government policies that has resulted in stunted growth of local solar companies in India. India’s $3 billion PRAYAS (Pradhan Mantri Yojana for Augmenting Solar Manufacturing) or “Make in India” policy for the solar industry announced in October last year, aims to create a 5 GW of manufacturing capacity by 2019. However, the policy details are not very clear and India already has idle solar manufacturing capacities because either they are obsolete or not operational.

Thus we see that the potential is huge in India but the means are less. It would have been good to see our domestic companies prosper rather that using outside produce. India has a large pool of talent and labor force. I think the Indian companies should invest more on advancing technologies and R&D rather than just increasing manufacturing capacities or following their international counterparts. The only way the domestic Indian companies could survive the international onslaught and stand out from the crowd is through innovation, technology advancements, improving efficiencies or reducing costs. After all, the domestic companies have the advantage of better knowledge of local people and locations. It is a matter of time to see whether Indian solar companies will make it to the top or continue taking the lower ranks even in India.