Though the Ajay Shankar committee recommends mandatory domestic content (cells and modules) for grid interactive solar power plants to be put up under the National Solar Mission, developers of such plants find this difficult to be implemented. A meeting for discussion of the same was held last month with participants such as Azure power, Aston field and Sun Energy.
As per the developers, the main point of contention is the sudden requirement and that the time period is too short to change the supply chain. The supply chain, as per them, is a commitment not just for small quantities or one particular project in the next year or two but for multiple projects in the pipeline for the next few years to come. And it would be difficult for developers to negotiate these in a short time period. Though the move for domestic content is welcome, it will require a gradual shift.
The issue also is securing financial closure for projects with new manufacturers as suppliers. The banks and financial institutions are reluctant to provide funding for projects which have products from small vendors (in the global context). Also some of the global vendors provide insurance or guarantee for the products which is not provided by the Indian manufacturers and hence are lack the required bankability.
As per the developers, this also means that new technologies will not be explored as the manufacturing capacity is either not there in India (CdTe, CIGS, Nano cells, etc) or is limited in terms of players (only one manufacturer for thin Film – Moser Baer). Having mandatory content will rule out possibilities of these technologies as the manufacturers of these technologies first want to set up power plants and test these in Indian conditions. If successful, they would like to set up manufacturing capacities as well.
Thus having mandatory domestic content has issues of supply chain management, reliability and funding ability of the projects and lack of technological experimentation as regards developer’s point of view is concerned. The move, though welcome, requires a gradual shift in phased manner.
For Views from the manufacturers and recommendations of the committee Click here.
Source: SolarIndiaOnline
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