Indian secretary of the ministry of new and renewable energy Gireesh Pradhan told the Financial Chronicle that the government is maintaining a watchful eye over the anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed by the US on Chinese manufacturers. However, Pradhan adds that “China is India’s second largest trading partner. Our efforts are to create fair conditions for competition.”

Pradhan also stressed the advantages of investing in India. He believes the “prevailing global financial market situation certainly provides investors a very good option to invest in solar energy in India. Firms are also eligible for fiscal incentives, depreciation allowance and other benefits.”

He continued, “The National Solar Mission is a policy-driven programme and contains government subsidies. It is seen as an opportunity to develop domestic manufacturing base for entire solar cell value chain. Domestic content condition provides equal opportunities for investment in setting up manufacturing units to both national and international developers.”

However, even with all these benefits in place, last month The Hindu Business Line reported that three solar power companies were in a legal debate with the government of Gujarat. The dispute concerns the breach of a stipulation of the PPA.


Contentions between another company and the Delhi government have also arisen with the state calling for the “debarring of Moser Baer for poor performance of solar projects.” According to The Hindu Business Line, Moser Baer said, in a letter to the ministry of new and renewable energy, “We have reached an agreement on resolving the issue and the same is under execution.”

However, the Indian government is optimistic about the country’s renewable energy industry. The secretary stated that the government is expecting a higher yield of deployment than the 25GW renewables capacity completed to date. “We have prepared ambitious plans for renewable power capacity addition and also a large number of off-grid and decentralized renewable energy systems during the [present] 12th plan.”