India's power developers are bracing for a projected increase in solar panel costs as South Asia’s largest economy plans to levy additional taxes on Chinese panels – its biggest driver of solar-powered growth.
New Delhi is planning to impose 20 per cent tariffs on solar cells, modules and inverters imported from China starting on August 1. The move comes in the wake of a widespread backlash against Chinese investments following clashes between the two Asian countries along their shared Himalayan border. India, cancelled key contracts with Chinese developers and banned 59 apps, including the popular ByteDance-owned Tiktok, which enjoys huge popularity in the country.
India’s plan to target the solar parts manufacturing sector is particularly significant as China provides 80 per cent of its imports.
Both countries have underpinned the growth of their booming economies on renewable transition. Plagued by smoggy skies and very high pollution levels in metropolises such as Delhi, Shanghai and Beijing, India and China devoted significant political capital to realise their renewable energy targets.
China plans to drive 16 per cent of its power from renewables by 2030, while India has more ambitious targets of reaching 57 per cent renewable capacity by 2027.
India’s commitments are over and above its pledge to the Paris Agreement signed in 2016, which stipulates a target of 40 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2030.
For now, renewables account for just over a fifth of India’s power generation. However, New Delhi plans to add 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022. Of that, 100GW will come from solar, 60GW from wind, 10GW from biomass and 5GW from hydroelectricity.
With clean energy goals looming on the horizon and much of the capacity to come from solar, tariffs on the country’s biggest source of solar equipment could prove to be a set back.
But tariffs on Chinese panels are not new. In 2018, the Indian government imposed a 25 per cent tariff on solar cells and modules imported from China and Malaysia. The main motive then was to kickstart domestic manufacturing capacity, which has been unable to keep up with the country’s aggressive solar power generation targets.
The safeguard duty, as the levy is known, was subsequently lowered to 20 per cent in 2019 and to 15 per cent earlier this year. The government is considering a possible extension of the duty beyond its expiry on July 29, 2020.
However, despite the incentive, Indian domestic capacity has been unable to keep up with stiff Chinese competition.
"Indian modules are 33 per cent more expensive than imported Chinese modules,” said Kanika Chawla, director, centre for energy finance at the New Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
Poor utilisation of available domestic manufacturing capacity is one reason, she added.
"If we were able, without adding any infrastructure, just to use the domestic manufacturing capacity at scale, we would already bring down this price difference to about 21 per cent," Ms Chawla said. "So we go from about being a third less competitive to being a fifth less competitive.”
While new tariffs could put Indian producers on an equal footing with their Chinese competitors, there would be a significant mismatch over the pace at which additional manufacturing can be brought on stream and the country’s plans to add more solar power.
"As it currently stands, India’s domestic manufacturing capacity will not be able to support the country’s ambitious solar growth,” said Xiaojing Sun senior analyst, solar systems and technologies at Wood Mackenzie.
The country’s manufacturing capacity for solar modules and cells will reach 10GW and 6GW, respectively by the end of the year, according to the consultancy. India’s demand for solar power is set to reach 9GW in 2020 and will be above 12GW annually between 2021 and 2025.
"Unless the manufacturing capacity continues to expand in the next few years to beyond [the] 15GW level, domestic Indian manufacturers alone won’t be able to make up for the lost imports,” Ms Sun said.
India’s entrepreneurial solar developers are navigating a vexing conundrum.
An executive at a leading solar energy company in India said plans were being considered to ramp up domestic capacity, while continuing to import Chinese-made solar panels. Indian companies are bracing for solar panel costs to surge by 10 to 15 per cent, he added.
A silver lining in the evolving showdown is that projects that have already been tendered are likely to be exempted from the proposed new tariffs.
With movements in China restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic in the first part of the year, solar panel imports into India remained slow, with the South Asian country still processing backlogs from earlier projects.
China exported around 5.9GW worth of modules to India in 2019, according to Wood Mackenzie.
A possible “full-scale ban” on Chinese solar panels – which has not yet been considered by the Indian government – would impact Chinese manufacturers as India is a key market for them, said Ms Sun.
"However, India represents about 8 per cent of the total Chinese module exports and about 5 per cent of the total shipment of Chinese manufacturers in 2019," she added. "It’s a small scale that manufacturers can manage. The impact on the cost of solar in India should be a bigger concern here.”
The Covid-19 pandemic and policy uncertainty could weigh on the growth of non-hydro renewables capacity, according to Fitch Solutions, the research arm of the credit ratings agency Fitch, which lowered its India forecast for the short-term.
Non-hydro renewables capacity is expected to grow 6.3 per cent this year to reach 88GW, below an earlier projection of 10.1 per cent growth. Only 252MW of wind and 1,184MW of solar capacities were added in the first five months of the year, according to official statistics.
“We highlight risks of a double taxation on solar, which will increase project costs, change solar tariff rates and jeopardise the economic feasibility of several projects in the pipeline,” Fitch Solutions said in its report.
While the agency forecast a pick-up in non-hydro renewables capacity for the second half of the year, the first half of 2020 also had a few bright spots.
In late June, India selected bidders for a mammoth 12GW solar energy project tendered by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). The $9 billion (Dh33bn) scheme also has a local manufacturing component with an annual capacity of 3GW. The tender is the first of its kind to incorporate manufacturing alongside power generation to the grid. The size of the project is also significant as it eclipses the total value of solar power added in 2019, which was 7.3GW.
In another glimmer of hope for India’s solar sector, the SECI attracted a record low tariff of 2.36 rupees (Dh0.11/$0.03) per kilowatt hour from a Spanish developer for a 300MW segment of a 2GW auction in June.
“The support to renewable energy actually is one that is quite deep and clear,” CEEW’s Ms Chawla said, citing India’s renewable growth story as one of intersectionality with several development priorities.
Whether India is able to achieve its solar ambitions of 175GW in 2022 is of secondary importance, she said.
"It's less important whether we reach there in 2022 or 2020 to 2024," Ms Chawla. "But more than that, the 175GW is really the floor and not the ceiling. So we will actually continue to grow beyond that as well, if you take a 2030 outlook."
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
MATCH INFO
Manchester United v Everton
Where: Old Trafford, Manchester
When: Sunday, kick-off 7pm (UAE)
How to watch: Live on BeIN Sports 11HD
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
GROUPS
Group Gustavo Kuerten
Novak Djokovic (x1)
Alexander Zverev (x3)
Marin Cilic (x5)
John Isner (x8)
Group Lleyton Hewitt
Roger Federer (x2)
Kevin Anderson (x4)
Dominic Thiem (x6)
Kei Nishikori (x7)
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
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INDIA'S%20TOP%20INFLUENCERS
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
THE BIO:
Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.
Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.
Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
The biog
Family: Parents and four sisters
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing at American University of Sharjah
A self-confessed foodie, she enjoys trying out new cuisines, her current favourite is the poke superfood bowls
Likes reading: autobiographies and fiction
Favourite holiday destination: Italy
Posts information about challenges, events, runs in other emirates on the group's Instagram account @Anagowrunning
Has created a database of Emirati and GCC sportspeople on Instagram @abeermk, highlight: Athletes
Apart from training, also talks to women about nutrition, healthy lifestyle, diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure
Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe
Price, base: Dh201,153
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 204hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 300Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
T10 Cricket League
Sharjah Cricket Stadium
December 14- 17
6pm, Opening ceremony, followed by:
Bengal Tigers v Kerala Kings
Maratha Arabians v Pakhtoons
Tickets available online at q-tickets.com/t10
'Cheb%20Khaled'
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