Saturday 20 June 2015

Three big changes that will give boost to India’s nuclear programme

NEW DELHI: India's nuclear programme is set to get a huge boost thanks to three big changes. First, Japan has asked India for a dedicated nuclear reactor site, signaling that not only is it willing to shed all inhibitions of doing nuclear commerce with India but is also keen to be counted with the US, France and Russia as a power building nuclear parks here.
 
Second, India is giving big contracts for six reactors each to US blue-chip companies GE and Westinghouse. This is a big shift from India's long-standing policy of signing deals for two reactors at one go. The six-reactor deal with the two American companies will mean cheaper pricing for India.
 
Third, a critical component of the nuclear industry, the insurance structure, will be activated next month when Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) buys a nuclear insurance policy at Rs 100-crore premium from a consortium that includes General Insurance Corporation (GIC) and a group called Nuclear Risk Insurers from Britain.
 
The Japanese willingness to set up a nuclear park in India is a major foreign policy advance. This is because Japan is the only country that has faced a nuclear attack and is still willing to invest in India, which despite the Indo-US nuclear deal is still a nuclear weapon state outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Meetings are slotted over the next few months to close Indo-Japan nuclear negotiations.
 
Tokyo's decision shows an even wider global acceptance of India's nuclear programme. Plus, Japan's government-driven investment plans have typically suited India most. Critical infrastructure projects, the Metro for example, took off on the back of the Japanese government's financial commitment. Capital-intensive nuclear programmes will benefit from Japanese involvement.
 
The 6-reactor-each order for Westinghouse and GE, which got finalised following US President Barack Obama's visit earlier this year, will lower costs, and costs have always been an issue while negotiating nuclear commercial deals with the US. The sites for these reactors are in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
 
One reason why high per unit cost of power have typically been cited by US companies were the provisions of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CNLD) that asked for what many stakeholders thought were very high order of compensation.
 
An insurance pool was a critical part of the liability setup, and GIC plus the British group's Rs 1,500-crore insurance pool will cover India's civil nuclear programme, with NPCIL buying the insurance next month. According to the CNLD Act, this sum would be made available as compensation right away after any nuclear disaster or accident that impacts areas 10 km beyond the site. Payment will not depend on fixing responsibility and will be quick.
 
Since the CNLD Act made suppliers - say, GE or Westinghouse - liable for a nuclear accident, as opposed to global norm of holding the operator, in India's case NPCIL, responsible, nuclear liability rules became anti-investment. This issue was resolved through an insurance pool that covers risks for suppliers.
 

The resolution happened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came back from the US late last year and instructed officials that the issue must be solved without changing the law and without putting a big financial burden on the government.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

PM Narendra Modi likely to inaugurate Vizag Steel's revamped unit in July

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the Rs 12,300-crore first phase expansion project of RINL's Vizag Steel Plant in the first week of July.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd ( RINL) had initiated an expansion and modernisation plan at its Vizag facility to enhance its liquid steel capacity to 6.3 million tonne per annum (MTPA).
 
The project is complete and currently the plant is running tests and other necessary procedures, a source said.

"The plant will be commissioned next month and the Prime Minister is expected to visit Vizag in the first week of July to inaugurate the project and formally commission it," the source added.
 
Earlier this month, Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had told: "RINL's expansion plan is over and trials has started. We have requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the plant in July."

The plant produces about 3.6 MTPA liquid steel at present and once the inauguration is done the capacity will go to about 6.3 MTPA, he had said.
 
Vizag Steel Plant is the country's first shore based integrated steel plant and is known for its long steel products used in construction, manufacturing, automobiles, general engineering, etc.

Earlier the Prime Minister had urged the domestic industry to boost steel output to surpass China in order to become the biggest producer in the world.
 

While dedicating to the nation Rs 12,000-crore expansion project at SAIL's Rourkela Steel Plant, Modi had said India has surpassed the United States in production, but stood behind China and "we must go to the top."

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Nalco to invest Rs 5,540 crore in 1 million tonne alumina refinery

KOLKATA: The board of National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has approved a significant capacity expansion plan to set up a one million tonne alumina refinery at Damanjodi, Koraput, Odisha at a proposed investment of Rs 5,540 crore. Nalco already has a captive bauxite deposit at Pottangi in the state, which will be utilized in this project. This is the first major expansion in the state run aluminium company in step with the Modi government's Make in India campaign.
 
With a view to boost the ancillary and downstream industries, Nalco is also committed to supply 50,000 tonne of aluminium metal to 'Angul Aluminium Park' which has been formed as a joint venture between Nalco and Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha. Apart from investing in its mainstay metals business, the company is also stepping up its fledgling presence in the renewable energy sector. In a statement on Monday, the company said is "in an advance stage of setting up of 100 MW wind power plant at a suitable location with an estimated investment of Rs 660 crore."

The aluminium major reported a more than two fold rise in net profit to Rs 354.87 crore in Q4 FY15, due to an exceptional gain. Against this the company had posted a net profit of Rs 172.45 crore in the previous corresponding period. Total income, however, declined by 2% to Rs 1,801.25 crore in January-March quarter of 2014-15 from Rs 1,838.20 crore in the same period of 2013-14.
 

For fiscal FY15, Nalco's net profit went up to Rs 1,322 crore in FY15 against Rs 642 crore in same period of FY14. During the year, the company achieved its highest ever gross turnover of Rs 7,771 crore, a 10.6% rise against Rs 7,024 crore achieved in 2013-14.

The company's export turnover for the fiscal 2014-15 was Rs 3,307 crore. The company's board which met in New Delhi last Saturday (May 30), recommended final dividend at a rate of 10% (Re. 0.50 per equity share of Rs 5 each), amounting to Rs 322.16 crore for the financial year 2014-15, on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs 1288.62 crore.

Nalco produced 3.27 lakh tonne (lt) of cast metal in FY15 against 3.16 lt produced the previous year. Alumina hydrate production was a shade lower in FY15 at 18.51 lt against 19.25 lt in the previous year. While Nalco's captive power plant achieved net power generation of 5,131 million unit against 4,989 million unit achieved in last fiscal, Nalco also generated 175 MU of wind energy during the year by operating a 50.4 MW wind power plant at Gandikota, Andhra Pradesh and another 47.6 MW plant at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Tuesday 26 May 2015

JBM to invest Rs 1,600 crore on solar power vertical

JBM group's ambitious 1,600 crore foray into solar power will be funded by a mixture of equity and debt.

The solar diversification, to be called JBM Solar, will conduct ground-mounted and roof top power projects. This is the second big diversification by the auto component manufacturer after its bus making facility.

"Our 1,600 crore investment in the solar business will comprise 25% equity and 75% debt," said Nishant Arya, executive director, JBM Group. "The equity element will, initially at least, come from internal accruals." The 1,600 crore investment is intended to cover 3 years and generation of 300 MW. Positioned as an independent power producer, the company is also looking at diversifying into wind energy and biomass in future. The solar business is expected to contribute 15% of total revenue at group level to JBM. Solar apart, the company is also lining up a capex of around 200 crore for capacity expansion for group company JBM Auto.

"We will be enhancing capacity in different locations in FY15-16 and this includes the 100 crore we have earmarked for capacity expansion at our Chennai plants." The company has four plants in Chennai - 2 at Maraimalainagar and one each in Oragadam and Sriperumbudur. As for the bus division, JBM Auto expects 15% of its revenue to come from this business, said Arya. "We are adding to the topline in FY16," he said.

JBM Auto, which saw a 15% drop in net profit for the fourth quarter, took a hit on its bottomline due to tooling sales. "Tooling is a seasonable business and our profits would have dipped more if not for the improved efficiency and value addition in the components business which contributed a lot more to the bottomline," said Arya.

In FY16, JBM Auto will "benefit from new model development. We are working in a big way on new model development and with double digit model launches in passenger vehicles, we expect a lot of action," said Arya. The passenger vehicle industry should roll out 9-10 new models in FY16 in the passenger vehicles segment alone, he said.

Monday 25 May 2015

Adani plans 1,000-Mw solar park in Tamil Nadu

After announcing solar parks in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Adani Power has firmed up plans to set up a 1,000-megawatt (Mw) one in Tamil Nadu. The proposed energy park is likely to attract around Rs 7,000-crore investment.

Although an Adani spokesperson declined to comment, a state government official and sources in the company confirmed the development.

Monday 6 April 2015

Delhi University students devise way to tap power from Metro

Harnessing renewable energy is the need of the hour in today's fuel-driven world. In what could be a novel way of generating non-conventional energy, a group of Delhi University students have proposed an innovative way to tap the potential of wind churned out by Metros.
The project, which has been undertaken by students of Kalindi College, has also garnered the support of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
A 10-student team of the physics and computer science department, have proposed to set up a turbine at an underground metro station to check if it can be successful in harnessing energy from the wind generated by the Metros.
DMRC officials found the project viable and gave consent for setting up the turbine at the Chandni Chowk metro station. "One day, while standing at a metro station, the students realised that the wind generated in the tunnel by these trains is being wasted. They then decided to come up with an idea to harness the energy," principal investigator of the project Dr Punita Verma told MAIL TODAY.
It was decided to install the turbine alone the underground tracks at the mouth of the tunnel, where the maximum wind velocity is 6.5 m/s, without obstructing the operation and safety of Metros.
"We installed a three-blade turbine and a five-blade light rotor turbine with a cut-in speed of less than 1.5 m/s as part of the first phase. We connected it to a battery and measured the amount of power it generates. We also discovered that as stations have varied constructions, the same turbines cannot be used at all Metro stations," Punita said.
The project, which kicked-off in 2013 by a different group of students, has received a grant of Rs 15 lakh from the university. While the first phase involved research work, DMRC engineers were roped in to test the project's feasibility.
"We are working on different designs of the turbine. We will customise them according to the wind velocity and frequency of trains at different stations. Once design is approved by DMRC, firms will make the turbines," Punita said.

Sunday 29 March 2015

India to become world's 3rd largest automobile manufacturer by 2020, says Ford MD David Dubensky

COIMBATORE: India's automotive industry is expected to reach 7 million vehicles milestone by 2020, making the country the third-largest auto manufacturer in the world, behind the US and China, a top official at Ford Motor has said.

The automotive sector has a direct bearing on the economy with a near 7 per cent contribution to the GDP, playing an important role in the development of other crucial sectors as well, David Dubensky, President and Managing Director, Ford Motor Private Ltd, said here today.

Addressing the students at the graduation function of the Kumaraguru College of Technology, Dubensky said India is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world and as the country moves towards this milestone, the opportunities to build a career in the automotive sector are tremendous.


He said by working together as one global team over the last 110 years, Ford been able to fully leverage the resources around the world.

"We are building great products, creating strong business, and contributing to a better world", he added.

Advising students to be open, flexible and willing to learn, even if the lesson is a hard one, Dubensky said, "Bring people together, and work together, for something bigger than yourself." 

Saturday 28 February 2015

Budget 2015: 5 new mega power plants of 4,000 MW to be set up

India will set up five more ultra mega power projects, entailing investments of around Rs 1 lakh crore, the government said on Saturday.

"Five more ultra mega power projects (UMPPs), under the plug and play model will be set up with total investments of Rs one lakh crore," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his first full-year Budget for 2015-16.

UMPP is coal-based thermal power project that has 4,000 MW generation capacity.

The minister, however, did not announce the states where these projects are proposed to be set up.
Under the "plug and play" system coal blocks will be auctioned after they are granted various clearances to speed up and simplify mining and get better valuation, Jaitley said.

One such project is likely to be set up in power starved state of Bihar. The proposed plant in Bihar may be fed from a mine either in Jharkhand or Odisha.

Power Minister Piyush Goyal had said in November that sufficient number of coal blocks will be allotted for the purpose.

Power Finance Corporation (PFC) is the nodal agency for UMPPs in the country.

So far, 4 UMPPs have been awarded, of which Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) have been bagged by Reliance Power. Tata Power is operating the Mundra UMPP in Gujarat.



Monday 16 February 2015

India: World's largest solar plant that will generate 750 MW of power commissioned

The world's largest solar power plant that will generate 750 MW of electricity once completed was commissioned recently in India.

The solar power plant in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India will overtake America's 550-megawatt solar project in California.

The 1,500 hectares of land on which the £417m (Rs 40bn) plant will come up is barren. It is hoped to be completed by August 2016.

The joint venture agreement between state-run PSU Urja Vikas Nigam and Solar Energy Corporation of India will invite tenders from developers by April.

In a bid to move to clean energy, India plans several ultra mega solar power projects in its states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The renewable energy ministry has proposed a gross budgetary support of £422m (Rs 41bn) for setting up 25 solar parks of 500 MW each and ultra mega solar power projects to add 20,000 MW green generation capacity in the next five years.

The country plans to install 100 GW capacity of solar power by 2022, a five-time increase from a previous target.

In comparison, China aims to achieve 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2020.

Solar parks with installations of multiple solar photovoltaic modules by various firms are expected to reduce costs owing to economy of scale. Smaller parks are also considered where tracts of contiguous land is difficult to acquire.

Problems of transmission in the country with losses of almost 24% and constraints in taking electricity to remote areas have seen solar power getting a boost.

India's renewable energy sector is looking at attracting $200bn in investments from several domestic and international firms.

While the country's plans to expand solar energy 30-fold to 100,000 MW in seven years could create many new jobs, the demand for huge chunks of land cumulatively larger than some of its metros has seen experts advocate a mix of large, medium and rooftop solar plants.


The global installed capacity of solar electricity has increased by six times between 2010 and 2013 to 135 GW from 23 GW.

Wednesday 28 January 2015

New-generation solar panels far cheaper, more efficient - scientists

 A new generation of solar panels made from a mineral called perovskite has the potential to convert solar energy into household electricity more cheaply than ever before, according to a study from Briain's Exeter University.

Super-thin, custom-coloured panels attached to a building's windows may become a "holy grail" for India and African countries, Senthilarasu Sundaram, one of the authors of the study, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"In those countries these types of material will be like a holy grail: they can both shade windows ... and at the same time produce electricity," he said.

With a thickness measured in billionths of a metre, solar panels made of perovskite will be more than 40 percent cheaper and 50 percent more efficient than those commercially produced today, Sundaram said.

Unlike other solar panels, those made of perovskite can absorb most of the solar spectrum and work in various atmospheric conditions, rather than only in direct sunlight.

"This type of material for solar cells works in diffused conditions much, much better than the other types of solar cells," said Sundaram. "It won't be 100 percent, but it will be much more than what we have now."

Researchers have already tested the material in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Current commercial products used to generate solar power, such as silicon or thin-film based technologies, are expensive because they are processed using vacuum-based techniques, the Exeter study said.

The production process for perovskite panels is very straightforward, but researchers still have to test the material under different conditions to better understand its properties, before companies embark on industrial-scale production, it said.

The photovoltaic (PV) energy market has been growing because of government targets for renewable energy production and CO2 emission controls, and the International Energy Agency has said that solar energy could be the world's biggest source of electricity by 2050. [ID: nL6N0RU2DI]
Sundaram said perovskite could also be used to power mobile gadgets like laptops and tablets.

First found in 1839 in the Ural Mountains, perovskite is named after Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

Govt to increase coal production to 1 billion tonne by 2020

With power demand rising across the country and the coal industry still in the doldrums, Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has his work cut out. And he is seen to be making the right noises as he promises to increase coal production to 1 billion tonne by the year 2020.

"We will be investing in setting up new rakes for evacuation of coal as well as in technology, equipment modernisation and efficiency measures. Already the production of Coal India has increased 15.8 per cent between June and November 2014 compared to same period in 2013," he said.

A week after scrapping the bidding process for two ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) in Tamil Nadu and Odisha, Goyal now aims to invite tenders for at least 4-5 UMPPs over the next one year. The government cancelled the bids for the two proposed 4,000 MW plants due to tepid private sector response and funding issues raised by bankers.

"The Odisha project was scrapped due to problem of the coal company and electricity company being two different entities which is not permitted in the current scheme of things, while the other one received only one bid from state-run NTPC. Since we believe that there should be competition to ensure that consumers get the benefit of lower tariffs, we scrapped both of them," Goyal informed.
He also said the ministry has set up a new expert committee that will take into consideration all the view points of all stakeholders and only then new biddings process would start. "We are reviewing the entire situation. We are consulting experts. We hope to invite bids for at least 4-5 UMPPs in the next one year."

Currently, only two UMPPs are operational -the 4000-mw Mundra UMPP of Tata Power in Gujarat and the 3,960-mw Sasan UMPP of Reliance Infrastructure in MP. Private companies, including Adani Power, CLP India, Jindal Steel & power, JSW Energy, Sterlite Energy and Tata Power, were in the fray for the Tamil Nadu plant. Of these, four bought the request for proposal document but decided not to go ahead further in the process.

The Odisha UMPP saw nine bidders, including Adani Power, CLP India, GMR Energy, Jindal Steel & Power, JSW Energy and Sterlite Energy. However, after private companies backed out, only NTPC and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) were left for bidding.

Saturday 17 January 2015

Govt to talk LNG imports during Barack Obama visit: Report

The government will use an upcoming visit by US President Barack Obama to press the United States to remove Indian oil companies from a list naming firms doing business in Iran, and to seek priority access to American LNG exports, sources in the Oil Ministry said.
The US President will arrive in New Delhi on January 25 and hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited Washington in September. An official agenda has not been released.
 
 
 
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) listed three Indian companies as having commercial activity in Iran's energy sector in a report this week, potentially making it difficult for them to do business with other countries, mainly the United States.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp , Oil India Ltd and Indian Oil Corp, which have been on the list since 2010, cited interests in Iran's Farsi concession in their 2013-14 annual reports but told the GAO they had ceased activity in 2007, the GAO said.
"This (mention in the list) could hit Indian companies' plans to invest in other countries, particularly in America," said one of the sources.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran's energy sector to put pressure on the Islamic republic to halt its nuclear programme, which the West suspects may seek to develop atomic weapons. Companies doing business in the sector face exclusion from the US financial system.
Iran says its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
Separately, Oil Ministry sources said the government will seek preferential access to US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), even though India does not have a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.
"We want them to give us the freedom to lift LNG from any of their projects on a priority basis, including the ones that are meant for FTA nations," an official said.
State-owned gas firm GAIL (India) Ltd has an agreement to lift 6 million tonnes a year of LNG from two projects in the United States.
US oil and gas production has shot up in recent years as new technology has allowed the world's largest oil consumer to exploit reserves in shale formations.
But exports are tightly restricted and LNG shipments must be approved by Washington. Exports of crude oil are banned outright, a legacy of the recent past when the United States consumed far more oil than it produced.
Since taking office in May last year, PM Modi has pledged to improve the performance of India's power sector, which suffers from frequent blackouts, to fuel economic expansion.

Saturday 10 January 2015

Rs 1 lakh-crore orders soon for power, mining equipment: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: The power and coal sectors will shortly issue orders worth over Rs 1 lakh crore for various projects, including four new giant power projects, Piyush Goyal, Union minister of coal, power and renewable energy, has said. The orders will also include mining operations and energy efficiency equipment.

"There are lot of things that have gone through various processesand will now start," Goyal said at the Economic Times Power Focus Summit on Friday.

This will be a big boost for equipment suppliers and other companies that have been starved of orders due to the economic slowdown. "NTPC is going to double its generation capacity, little more than double. Energy Efficiency Service Ltd is going to buy at least Rs 10,000 crore of energy efficiency equipment, all made in India. (At) Coal India, we need equipment, to ramp up production. I need mining equipment. It's going to do a lot of ordering. I'm going to order wagons, probably worth Rs 5,000 crore. Then the stalled projects, hydel projects. Transmission is the biggest of them all, about Rs 40,000 crore," Goyal said.

He said bids for four ultra-mega power projects (UMPPs) would be invited in the next three to six months. "These four proposed UMPPs include two for which we have cancelled the bid and we will be inviting fresh bids, and two more have been identified — one in Bihar and another in Jharkhand," Goyal said.

Earlier, the government had abandoned the bidding process of two ultra-mega power projects in Odisha and Tamil Nadu and decided to set up a committee on the matter.

The private companies that had participated in the first round of bidding for both the projects withdrew their bids citing difficulties in securing finances for the projects.

For the Tamil Nadu UMPP, the private companies in the fray were Adani Power, CLP India, Jindal Steel & power, JSW Energy, Sterlite Energy and Tata Power. Of these, four bought the Request for Proposal documents, but decided not to go ahead further in the process. The projects attracted a lacklustre response from companies due to several concerns.

Goyal said the government had taken steps to increase coal production and power generation in the country, and these efforts were beginning to show results. Industry has complained that many companies do not have enough orders because so far there has hardly been any significant pick up in project execution. Goyal said that orders are expected very soon. "It will happen ASAP (as soon as possible)," he said. 

Monday 5 January 2015

Coal India transporting extra coal to power plants

NEW DELHI: State-owned Coal India is transporting extra coal to the power plants to help them tide over the likely disruption of supplies following the proposed five-day strike by the unions beginning tomorrow.

"Coal India (CIL) is suppling extra volumes of coal to the power plants and the Railways is fully cooperating with the coal PSU," an official said.

The official further said that the CIL is making all efforts to ensure that the power plants do not face coal crunch in view of the strike call given by the trade unions.

The strike is likely to result in production loss of up to 1.5 million tonnes (MT) a day and may hit supplies to power plants which are already grappling with fuel shortages.

CIL trade unions have announced a five-day strike to press for their demands including roll-back of the "process of denationalising of coal sector" and stopping "disinvestment and restructuring" of Coal India.

Demonstrating unity, all five major trade unions of the coal PSU - BMS, INTUC, AITUC, CITU and HMS boycotted a meeting called by Coal Minister Piyush Goyal last week.

The strike by Coal India workers in November, last year was deferred after a meeting between Coal Ministry officials and trade union representatives.

Coal India, which is the world's largest dry-fuel miner, accounts for 80 per cent of the domestic production.

As per latest data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), 20 thermal power plants have coal available for less than four days as on January 1. 

Saturday 3 January 2015

China's cheap solar panels cause dark spots in Indian market

NEW DELHI: In the narrow, crowded and serpentine lanes of Lajpat Rai Market in front of the Red Fort in Delhi, there are hundreds of vendors selling Chinese solar panels at less than half the price of Indian brands, much like vegetables, to buyers from power-starved villages in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana.
However, instead of helping realise the dream of transforming the lives of more than 300 million people who live without electricity in the country, these Chinese products are wrecking the market as they often stop working within months, industry insiders allege. They say only import regulations and quality standardisation can check this "e-waste dumping" by China.

A shopkeeper at Lajpat Rai Market said most buyers go for cheap Chinese solar panels despite traders' warnings.

"We tell them these have no service warranty, no performance guarantees but they think we're fooling them into buying costly products. Within months their solar systems stop working and they call up crying after having lost all investment," he said.

Several experiences with substandard products in rural India have started making people suspicious of solar technology, forcing some Indian brands to launch awareness campaigns to counter this.
China's cheap solar panels cause dark spots in Indian market
Tata Power Solar, for example, started a 75-day campaign in 22 districts of Bihar in November to educate people to distinguish between fake and genuine products and about the value of warranties.

"We decided to start the campaign when we offered to sell a contractor in Patna 40 solar lamps for his vending carts to replace expensive kerosene lamps. He refused to buy as he had invested a lot in Chinesemade lamps, all of which stopped working within 35 days," said Gagan Pal, vice-president, products and operations, at Tata Power Solar.

According to him, substandard Chinese products dominate the Indian solar market with 60-70% share.

Kunwer Sachdev, managing director at Su-Kam, another Indian solar products manufacturer, said a large quantity of panels imported from China are just electronic waste. "Often, we are given a panel of 50 watts instead of 100 watts and no one knows how long it'll last... two or three years? Its wattage is lower," he said.
"When food products come, there's an audit out there. Why is it not the same for solar panel shipments? How can you allow China to sell us e-waste?" Sachdev said.

Many Chinese products also use fake brand names to confuse consumers. This reporter saw 'So-Kam' solar panels being sold at Lajpat Rai market. Tata Power Solar officials said they have found 'Tata BP' or 'Tata' on panels of Chinese make.
Government officials said they were aware of imports of rejected poorquality panels and are looking for solutions to curb them. "We have recently written to the Controller of Imports and Exports to check Chinese solar water heaters coming to India. We have to do something for panels next," said Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary, solar, at the ministry of new and renewable energy.
NEW DELHI: In the narrow, crowded and serpentine lanes of Lajpat Rai Market in front of the Red Fort in Delhi, there are hundreds of vendors selling Chinese solar panels at less than half the price of Indian brands, much like vegetables, to buyers from power-starved villages in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana.