India hit by China's solar energy war

Notwithstanding the economic slowdown, several countries across the globe are engaged in a bitter fight for firmer control over solar energy - a key energy source in future. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Mar 25, 2013, 02:20:27 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Notwithstanding the economic slowdown, several countries across the globe are engaged in a bitter fight for firmer control over solar energy - a key energy source in future.

The epicentre of the war is China, which has flooded the global market with its cheaper variants of solar equipment. However, the major economies are trying to hit back using trade restrictions.

The year 2012 witnessed the US announcing its anti-dumping tariff against Chinese manufacturers, which was followed by the European Union's restrictions against Chinese solar equipment. But China hit back soon after with the announcement of its own anti-dumping case against the poly-silicon suppliers from the US, EU and South Korea.

Now, India has also been hit by this syndrome.

The US has threatened to take India to World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime for prescribing conditions for domestic use of solar technology under its flagship Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission. The US is already financing projects under the mission provided they source the equipment from the US-based companies.

India has become part of the fierce trade battle by initiating anti-dumping proceedings against manufacturers from China, Malaysia, Taiwan and US. "Around 60% of Indian solar market is occupied by equipment coming directly from China or other countries such as Malaysia and Taiwan," a senior official said.

Raj Prabhu - co-founder of Mercom Capital Group, a Bangalore solar energy consulting firm - said anti-dumping cases and protectionist measures became too common across the world as countries tried to rescue their own manufacturers in the face of massive over supply and falling prices.

The solar energy generation prices in India had halved in the last five years with equipment getting cheaper. However, despite the fall in price, the solar energy market had witnessed around 27% rise in 2012.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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