Solar market in India has shown a manifold growth in the past 3 years mainly because of massive push given by central as well as state governments. Today India is leading the world by going for mega scale solar project deployments which not only help us in reducing our country's dependency on fossil fuels, but also commit to a cleaner and healthier world to live in. India is a country with tremendous solar potential. To harness the same and foster the industry, the government has offered lucrative subsidies for the power generation equipment. As per a latest report from MNRE as of June last year a whopping 5,848 MW has been installed in terms of solar cell capacities across nationwide projects. "Solar module prices are expected to continue declining in 2017 as global supply continues to exceed demand," observes Krishnan Rajagopalan, Head Solar Business, Anchor Electricals.
While China caters to still more than 85 per cent of solar module requirements in India, manufacturing in India has started in a big way in last 3 years and will definitely see a further boost with increase in demand for modules. However, Chavali points out, "Indigenous manufacturers have a long way to go on maintaining quality and performance of modules, in addition to being price competitive with reference to imported suppliers. I feel this will happen only as volumes picking up for indigenous players."
Acknowledging China’s domination in the global solar module manufacturing sector, Rajagopalan said, “As the largest supplier and installer of solar module, China will continue to drive global pricing. The country’s demand is expected to be up to 20 per cent lower than in 2016 – as against a record 34 GW of installations in 2016, it is expected to add only about 28 GW in 2017 – putting downward pressure on prices as per a recent report.”