India's solar financing may have peaked for now at $10 bln in 2017 -consultancy

Indosolar

13/03/2018 11:32

By Krishna N. Das
    NEW DELHI, March 13 (Reuters) - India's solar industry more
than doubled its fund raising to $10 billion in 2017, clean
energy consultancy Mercom said, but activity is likely to slow
this year as New Delhi plans to slap high tariffs on imports.
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of raising
India's solar power generation to 100 gigawatt (GW) by 2022,
five times current levels. The government says India will need
to raise at least $125 billion to reach its goal of generating
175 GW of energy from all renewable sources in five years.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1PC4GB
    New large-scale and rooftop solar installations in India
jumped to 9.63 GW last year, compared with the addition of 4.31
GW in 2016, Mercom said, but predicted additional installations
will fall by 22 percent to 7.5 GW this year.
    "The lower forecast reflects a smaller pipeline of projects
scheduled for commissioning in 2018," Mercom said. "Auction
activity was not very robust in 2017 and though there was a
surge in activity at the end of the year, most of the projects
that were tendered are not likely to be commissioned until
2019."
    Mercom called a proposal by India's safety watchdog to
impose a 70 percent duty on imports of solar equipment from
China and some other countries, to protect domestic
manufacturers, as an "unexpected and aggressive recommendation
that has brought the industry to a standstill".
    Any duty would hurt big project developers in India such as
SoftBank  9984.T -backed SB Energy but would be good for local
solar component makers such as Indosolar  INDL.NS  and Moser
Baer  MOSR.NS , which have struggled to compete with Chinese
companies such as Trina Solar and Yingli  YGE.N .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1IV2YG
    Reuters also reported in January that solar modules worth
more than $150 million were stuck at various Indian ports due to
a dispute over their classification and the import tax
applicable to them.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1P03IA
    Most of the modules come from China, but several
consignments were held up because customs officials demanded
that some of them be classified as electric motors and
generators, attracting a 7.5 percent duty, not as diodes,
transistors and similar semi-conductor devices with no duty.
    India aims for renewable energy to make up 40 percent of
installed power capacity by 2030, compared with 18.2 percent at
the end of 2017, and the ministry of new and renewable energy
said in January it was looking to address issues facing solar
companies.
    "The imposition of any additional duties would make solar
more expensive and potentially scare away financially strapped
distribution companies who are looking to procure the cheapest
power generation source available," Mercom said.

 (Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Susan Fenton)
 ((Krishna.Das@tr.com; +91-98711-18314,  +91 11 4954 8026;
Reuters Messaging: Krishna.Das.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net,
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