The webinar was conducted by EQ International magazine on the topic ‘Impact Of BCD And ALMM On The Indian Solar Market’, which was sponsored by Eversola. It included discussion over whether the decision taken over BCD and ALMM are in favour or against the solar industry. The webinar was moderated by Ritu Lal, Senior Vice President and Head of Institutional Relation, Amplus Solar.
Eversola launched as a premium brand by the joint initiative of ReneSola & the Zhongnan Group which is one of the largest conglomerates in China with revenue >40 Billion dollars annually, is an independent organization today that manufactures & delivers high quality & high rating solar modules worldwide.
Today, Eversola is one of the prime suppliers of high-performance Solar Photovoltaic products and is committed to providing customers with one-stop clean energy solutions, with wholesale energy supply, management, distribution, and storage worldwide.
The company is also involved in providing EPC services, project development, rooftop solutions to a large customer base while exploring similar opportunities in other growing solar markets too.
An increment in the basic custom duty which is announced a year ago and is going to be levy from 1st of April to the extent of 40% on the import of solar module and 25% on the import of solar cells. Also, Indian government has created an approved list of module manufacturers to drive quality in a module market. This ALMM is going to be required for all projects that are going to be bid out by any government entity. It is going to be a requirement for open access project. So, if someone wants to set up solar business in India, they first need to use ALMM approved modules.
Arijit Mithra, DGM, India Distributed Solar and Srilanka Business, LONGi Solar talked about impact of ALMM and BCD on the Indian market and how long is it going to be. He said that it is a decision taken with a good intention and because of Covid-19 restrictions, cross border inspections were not possible. So, we will expect that when the government is implementing the mandate from 1st of April, government will also take some effort and enlist international module manufacturers in the list.
In terms of BCD, he said that it is for the betterment of the country’s financial future. Solar industry has seen a threshold of economy. When the module price came down below a certain level the solar industry suddenly started growing.
Indian government is pitching for Make In India which is a good thing. India wants people to buy local module. For this, we must have such kind of infrastructure and capacity within India. In the long run, it is always good to have a local market and manufacturing said Srinivas Popuri, Vice President,Group Quality, Greenko Energies Pvt Ltd on the impact of BCD and ALMM on the Indian market.
With a different take on BCD and ALMM, Karan Mitroo, Partner, Luthra & Luthra said that BCD is not the solution. We need to further encourage Indian manufacturers by providing them incentives but not in form of subsidies. Enable the manufacturers by providing through technology. Encourage more technology transfer agreement between foreign and Indian manufacturers and ensure that happens.
Kartikeya Sharma, Growth & Strategy, SunSure thinks that ALMM is bigger hit than BCD because BCD was expected for some time. The project requirements have to be sourced from the domestic module developers.
India is on a relentless pursuit of achieving self-reliance in critical sectors of its economy. The challenges from COVID-19 further emboldened its resolve in becoming a manufacturing superpower and cutting dependencies. The BCD and ALMM will accelerate the much-needed indigenization of the solar industry and help India become ‘Atmanirbhar’ in solar manufacturing.
