No barrier to India biz, says US solar firm

Chennai: In the background of the US government taking India to the World Trade Organisation over India’s ‘local content requirements’ for solar power plants set up under Government of India programmes, US company First Solar has said it is not too bothered by such local content requirements.

(The government has mandated local content requirements for projects set up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission).

Opportunity areas

First Solar, which makes thin-film technology based solar cells and modules, and has about 20 per cent of the Indian market, told analysts a few days ago that it did not see the local content requirements as “a significant barrier to our goals for the marketplace.”

Noting that there is hardly any production coming out of local producers, First Solar said that it saw “as much opportunity outside of the state-sponsored (Government of India-sponsored) programmes as much as we do inside those programmes.”

“There is very little production currently going on,” James Hughes, CEO, COO and Director, First Solar, told an analyst, answering a question about thin-film module production in India.