Centre considering fund to protect domestic solar industry
Solar mission mandate to promote domestic crystalline silicon technology fails to achieve desired result. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is planning to create a fund to help entrepreneurs who are setting up domestically engineered solar power plants in the country. Many project developers feel the pinch while buying solar equipment from domestic manufacturers because cheaper Chinese and US solar panels are available in the market. Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), a project developer setting up a solar photovoltaic plant based on crystalline silicon technology will have to mandatorily buy the panels and cells from domestic manufacturers. The clause was put in the guidelines of the batch 1 and batch 2 projects of JNNSM to promote domestic industry of crystalline silicon technology. But this clause does not apply to solar photovoltaic power plants based on thinfilm technology; developers using this technology can import equipment from outside the country. for full text: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/centre-considering-fund-protect-domestic-solar-industry