During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China last week, 3 MoUs were signed, potentially worth USD 260 million (refer) for solar cell and module manufacturing units. Trina Solar and JA Solar have signed MoUs with Welspun Energy and Essel Solar respectively to set up manufacturing facilities in Andhra Pradesh. Canadian Solar also signed an MoU with Gurgaon based Sun Group to develop solar projects and explore manufacturing in India.
- Interest to invest in the renewable sector is gaining ground among both Indian and international investors
- The central government has been making intense policy and execution efforts to grow renewable investment in India
- BRIDGE TO INDIA expects aggregate utility scale capacity to reach 27 GW and rooftop capacity to 4 GW by 2019
This is consistent with one of our recent weekly updates (refer), where we had discussed active international interest in cell and module manufacturing in India. As with many MoUs, it is possible that some of these discussions will not turn into concrete investments. But the announcements show that both Indian and international investors are exploring business opportunities in the sector and there is other evidence of activity picking up on the ground.
The central government has been making intense policy and execution efforts to grow renewable investment in India. After the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act 2003 and National Tariff Policy 2005, the government has accelerated initiatives for project development. Central government agencies are expected to meet targets of 15 GW for utility scale solar and 10 GW of rooftop solar by 2019. The government has announced ambitious investment program to strengthen the transmission infrastructure where new projects worth USD 16 billion can be awarded within six months. State governments are also being urged to implement net-metering policies for rooftop solar.
BRIDGE TO INDIA has revised its market projections following these developments. We now expect aggregate utility scale capacity to reach 27 GW by 2019 and total rooftop capacity to reach 4 GW by 2019. More details of the projections and a lot of other updated market analysis will be available in our flagship publication, ‘India Solar Handbook 2015’ to be released at InterSolar Munich in June 2015. It will be available for free download on our website.
