India’s Solar Panel Import Bill Could Hit $30 Billion

India could end up paying $30 billion annually for imported solar panels if it is to hit its 2030 capacity target of 500 GW in wind and solar.

The forecast comes from a local think tank, the Global Trade Research Initiative, which said such a path would deepen the dependence of the country on its neighbor China, the Business Standard reported. The think tank added that building its own solar components supply chain at home would be a challenge, requiring substantial investment, especially in polysilicon and wafers, ET Energy World noted in a report.

As things stand now, India does manufacture some equipment locally but it is heavily dependent on input imports, the founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative told the publication.

“Local production is import-dependent and mainly focuses on the final two stages,” he explained. “90 percent of solar manufacturing in India involves assembling solar modules from imported cells with 15% local value addition,” Ajay Srivastava said.

India is already installing solar and wind capacity fast but nowhere near fast enough if it wants to make that 2030 target. In fiscal 2023-24, total solar installations in the country stood at 15 GW, bringing the national total to 90.8 GW as of September.

That was up from a meager 2.8 GW in newly installed capacity back in 2014. However, it was way short of what needs to be added on an annual basis, which is between 65 GW and 70 GW, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative. As much as 80% of this would come from solar, the think tank said.

“This target seems ambitious, particularly given India’s reliance on imports, which could push solar import to USD 30 billion annually,” GTRI said in its report. In its last fiscal year, India imported solar components and equipment worth $7 billion, with 62.6% of that total coming from China.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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