A Very aggressive bidding round was seen at the Scope Complex Auditorium for the Batch II of Phase 1 of JNNSM’S 350 MW OF SOLAR PV Projects. French Co. Solar Direct Emerged as Lowest Bidder @ Rs.7.49 per solar KWHR while Green Infra highest bidder @ Rs.9.39 per KWHR. Cost of Solar Power has already beaten the cost of diesel-generated power and the price at which electricity is traded at Indian Energy Exchanges at times. Its exciting to note that solar power could soon hit grid parity for some areas in India atleast.On the flip side the bankability and feasibility of the projects remains a concern.
CERC recently fixed the floor price of solar REC for the period 2012-2017 as Rs.9300 / MWH which makes projects under the REC Mechanism more profitable in the short term. In the long term even if one predicts the Solar REC’s price falling, the expected rise in the price at which electricity could be sold after 2017 would keep projects under REC Mechanism in line with JNNSM projects. It is noteworthy that REC projects have no domestic content mandate, no requirements for bid-bonds, bank guarantees etc thus reducing the burden of financial costs on the cost of solar power. However REC Mechanism has its own flaws and ambiguity on many aspects.
What is the true cost of Solar Power ? Is this price sustainable in the long run or will the cost fall down more as some predicts the polysilicon prices to come down or will it rise in the future. Is this an artificial price?
The United States Department of Energy estimates that last year alone, the Chinese government provided its manufacturers with over $30 billion in subsidies, including $7 billion alone to one company, Suntech.SolarWorld Industries America Inc., petitioned the federal government to halt what the company describes as an ever-rising tide of heavily subsidized solar cells and panels that China’s state-supported solar industry is illegally dumping into the American market. According to SolarWorld “China actually has no production cost advantage. Labor makes up a modest share of solar-industry costs, China’s labor is less productive, its raw material and equipment have come from the West and China must pay for long-distance shipping. Yet, massive state subsidies and sponsorship have enabled Chinese manufacturers to illegally dump their products into a wide-open U.S. market.”
Chinese Multinationals like Trina,Suntech,Canadian,Yingli, Jinko etc..have denied the allegations and said that the petition is exaggerated and without merit.Meanwhile the PV Market worldwide is going through difficult times.PV Manufacturing Equipment Revenues is predicted to More Than Halve in 2012 According to IMS Research .Senior Research Analyst Tim Dawson comments: “IMS Research estimates that the PV manufacturing equipment market, after a record year in 2011 ($12.8 billion revenues), will be worth just over $5.7 billion in 2012.Bank Sarasin's sustainability study on the solar industry: just a few German solar companies will survive the market shakeout. A shakeout of the solar industry is inevitable as the imbalance between production capacities and demand has become too great with around 50 gigawatts (GW) of production capacity for solar modules compared with sales of 21 GW at the end of this year. The companies best positioned for the next stage of growth in the PV market from 2013 onwards include Suntech Power, Trina Solar and Yingli Solar from China, First Solar and Sunpower from the USA and Solarworld from Germany. The companies under the most threat are mainly small to medium-sized companies with comparatively modest growth prospects, such as Germany's Conergy, Q-Cells, Solar-Fabrik and Sunways.
With this we Welcome you to India to celebrate Intersolar India in Mumbai December 13-16, 2011 and present our November/December 2011 Issue which talks about PV Manufacturing, Grid Connected PV Plants, Inverters, REC Mechanism, Nanotechnology etc…Hope you enjoy reading the same !!!
