The outbreak of Coronavirus in China has put a major dent in the Indian solar industry. Since the solar industry heavily depends on China for equipment imports, it is undergoing price pressures which may squeeze solar players working under Narendra Modi’s 100 GW solar mission.
The restriction on shipments is also likely to push the deadline for the ongoing solar projects. While traders want to keep the margin on a higher side, the compact supply has become another reason for the higher prices.
The prices have increased by up to 10 per cent due to paranoia. Since Indian developers are at the end of the value chain, they are hit the worst.
The estimates say that China, Taiwan, and Malaysia supply 80 – 90 per cent of India’s panels. Thus, if the supply is stopped for India, the ongoing projects in the country may have to wait for a longer time for completion.
One solution to filling the gap created by the low imports of PV modules could be increasing domestic production. However, for the production in India too, the raw material has to be imported.
“PV module manufacturing in the domestic market is also hit due to the fall in cell imports, which is a raw material.”
Reference- Wikipedia, MNRE website, Financial Express, livemint, Clean Technica