Author: Saur News Bureau, Saur Energy International
Budget 2020, which carried the hopes of many leaders in the solar sector, has finally come and gone. Even as industry welcomed it with the usual platitudes of ‘good intent’, ‘long term planning’, and praise for the ‘higher allocation’ for renewable energy, the full impact of the Coronavirus crisis has already overtaken the sector. The 2020 budget has done little to solve the biggest challenge facing the sector. Not only are DISCOM delays on dues creating cash flow issues, but other DISCOM related issues like curtailment of renewable energy purchases also are still not resolved completely. The coronavirus in China, from the day China reported its first death on January 11, has been hanging like a sword over the sector ever since. And unlike a hanging sword, the virus has already wrought some serious damage on the ground in India. That was bound to happen, in a sector where over 80 percent of materials come from China.
According to Mr. Sanjeev Jha, Operations Head, U-Solar Clean Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd: “There are concerns in the markets and the government does not have any timeline for when this will be resolved. Future projects are in a dilemma and we don’t know how much more supply chain disruptions will affect the availability and price of materials”. He further added, “the one thing we cannot have in this case, due to the nature of the parties involved, is to have our regulators take the official version as the final word.”
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