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Mumbai, May 10 () The supply disruption from China due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent decline in domestic solar capacity addition offer a golden opportunity to ramp up local manufacturing of solar modules and cells, according to industry experts.However, the industry feels there is an urgent need for a national vision policy for local solar modules manufacturing as well as ancillary products, in line of solar power generation target of 100 gw by 2022 under National Solar Mission.Till 2011, India controlled 70-80 per cent of global supplies of solar modules, but today the opposite is the case, as 80-90 per cent of modules are imported, as domestic modules are not cost-effective."The COVID pandemic is a wake-up call for us. We must focus on domestic manufacturing but for that to happen we need a long-term business proposition."We've world-class technology, but we don't have scale like China. For manufacturing to succeed, we need a policy framework that ensures long term off-takes at sustainable prices," Tata Power Solar managing director and chief executive Ashish Khanna told .Vikram Solar chief executive Saibaba Vutukuri also underlines the need to focus on local manufacturing."The vision of 100 gw solar capacity by 2022 is fantastic and can be achieved. But to meet the target, there is a need to push local manufacturing so that our dependence on imports comes down," Vutukuri said.Noting that till 2011 India was one of the largest exporters of the best-in-class modules, he said with a strong policy push we can reclaim that position again and we need to learn a lesson or two from China in building scale."Realising the huge potential, China changed its focus from generation to manufacturing of solar modules and set up large plants that offered them economies of scale, helping it lower the cost and capture global market," he said.Chinese government also helped companies with heavy subsidies, which helped them kill competition without much efforts and capture markets that were dominated by India till then, Vutukuri added.Currently, India has an installed solar generation capacity of 34 gw, while the installed module capacity is only 10-11 gw.Domestic manufacturers, including Bhel, Tata Solar, Moser Baer, Indosolar and Lanco, were the pioneers of the industry. However, over the years, due to stiff competition from China some of them could not sustain and some of them are fighting bankruptcy now.New &amp; Renewable Energy secretary Anand Kumar recently called for increased domestic manufacturing capacity to ensure energy security."Till now we've been manufacturing cells, modules, ingots and wafers. But now, we need to go beyond and start manufacturing other ancillary equipment like back-sheets, glass, inverters, transformers, cables etc so that we have an entire manufacturing ecosystem for renewable energy," Kumar had said.To offer a level-playing field to domestic manufacturers, the government had slapped safeguard duty on imports in 2018 and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade is now looking at whether to continue with the duty or not after July, when the high duty regime is supposed to end.The Budget 2021 has imposed a 20 per cent basic customs duty on imported solar cells and modules. But, industry leaders say there is no clarity new customs duty as of now.According to the data from industry tracker Mercom, as of December 2019, Chinese firm Trina Solar was the leading module supplier in India in terms of volume.Chinese firm GCL System Integration Technology is reportedly planning a 60-gw module factory at Hefei in the Anhui province, adding 15 gw each year to 2023."If such plants actually comes up then that will be the biggest challenge for us. If they start dumping this capacity into our market, domestic module manufacturing will become unsustainable," Vutukuri said.Many domestic manufacturers are willing to increase their capacities, but all they need is strong support from the government, concludes the Tata Solar chief. PSK BAL

COVID-19 provides opportunities for domestic solar module manufacturing

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Some homeowners with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tesla" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tesla</a> solar panels say they have been left frustrated as they wait for the company to fixed damaged panels on their roof. </li><li>On August 1st, Colorado resident Briana Greer's home caught on fire as she waited for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tesla" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tesla</a> to send a crew out to look at her panels. The company has yet to investigate the situation, she said. </li><li>Greer said that Tesla didn't properly maintain the panels. Homeowners in states from Maryland to Arizona with Tesla Solar Panels have also found dealing with Tesla to be frustrating, and they've been forced to pay regular fees as their systems have been shut off.</li><li>Current and former Tesla employees say that this is all related to Project Titan, a secret program Tesla launched in the summer of 2018 to quietly change out <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-project-titan-replace-bad-solar-panel-parts-2019-8">faulty wiring on solar roofs across the country</a>.</li><li>Business Insider sent Tesla an extensive list of claims made by customers and current and former solar employees for this story. Tesla did not reply to repeated requests for comment via phone calls, emails, or text messages. </li></ul>Briana Greer was out of town when the fire started in her <a href="https://kdvr.com/2019/09/19/solar-panels-catch-fire-on-louisville-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tesla solar roof panels</a>. Luckily her neighbors in Louisville, Colorado - a town outside of Boulder - were vigilant, and they were able to put the fire out before the fire department arrived. That was August 1st of this year. The day before Greer said Tesla had contacted her to let her know its system had been detecting voltage fluctuations for a couple of days. The company said they would send a crew to check it out on August 8th. That was too late. Greer, an environmental consultant, said she has yet to receive a report explaining why any of this happened."They purposely keep a lot of people in the dark. For an energy company that's ironic," Greer told Business Insider in an interview last month. Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this article, but a local <a href="https://kdvr.com/2019/09/19/solar-panels-catch-fire-on-louisville-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox station in Colorado</a> previously reported that Tesla told them that "its solar panels are safe and very rarely catch fire." The Fox report also stated that Tesla said it's working with Greer's insurance company. Tesla has not agreed to let her out of her contract yet, and so Greer has set up a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/tesla-solar-panel-fire-fund?rcid=r01-157012254776-07503a6b45ba49b9&amp;pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w">GoFundMe</a> to raise funds for an attorney to deal with this matter.Greer said she believes Tesla was in breach of its agreement with her and Xcel, a third-party company that installed her meter. According to her contract with Tesla, which was viewed by Business Insider, Tesla maintains the solar panels according to manufacturer specifications. Xcel did not respond to a request for comment. Greer's panels were made by a solar panel manufacturer called Trina, and Trina's handbook says that its panels should be physically inspected twice a year. Tesla was not doing that, Greer said. Trina did not respond to a request for comment. Greer's contract also said that Tesla should maintain the panels according to state law. In 2017 - the same year Greer had her panels installed - Colorado adopted National Electrical Code for the year. But according to Greer - who provided Business Insider with diagrams of her system - Tesla did not update her solar panels to code. For example, the NEC 2017 rules set the requirement that all solar panels be capable of a rapid shut down at the module level, and according to Greer the system that caught fire did not have that. Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment.In an email dated September 23rd, a Tesla representative told Greer the company did not have maintenance records "aside from remote monitoring and reactive response." The company does not visit people's homes proactively, the email said, unless they're performing a mandatory service on a customer's neighborhood. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wal-mart-suit-against-tesla-may-prove-buying-solarcity-mistake-2019-8">In August Wal-Mart sued Tesla</a> claiming it failed to maintain the solar panels on stores across the country. Seven of those stores caught fire, the company said - one ultimately shut down for a week this spring - and millions of dollars in losses and damages occurred. <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/422555099/654765-2019-Walmart-Inc-v-Tesla-Energy-Operations-Inc-Summons-Complaint-1#from_embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to Wal-Mart's complaint</a> - just as Greer alleges - Tesla never provided an explanation as to why the fires started, she said. Wal-Mart had the resources to look into it. Its complaint details its finding that Tesla had installed faulty amphenol connectors that were not capable of regulating heat going into the solar panels. As a result, they claim, the panels experienced temperature spikes that could lead to fires.After the Wal-Mart suit was made public, Business Insider reported that last year <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-project-titan-replace-bad-solar-panel-parts-2019-8">Tesla had started a secret program called 'Project Titan'</a>, meant to replace as many of these amphenol connectors as quickly and quietly as possible.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-project-titan-replace-bad-solar-panel-parts-2019-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Tesla told Business Insider</a> that its software-monitoring applications found a "small number" of the connectors experienced failures and disconnections higher than their standards allowed.In that September 23rd email to Greer, which was viewed by Business Insider, the most Tesla said about the fire was that her system "was not flagged" as having issues with amphenol connectors. To her, that simply isn't enough."They're playing with my life while collecting money from the rate-payer," Greer said.Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Greer's claims. If you would like to share your experience as a customer or employee at Tesla's auto or solar companies, email me at llopez@businessinsider.com.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><h1>Shut down and paying anyway?</h1>To understand how customers may be impacted by Project Titan, Business Insider spoke to five Tesla customers as well as one former and two current Tesla solar employees. Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment about their claims. All of the customers - who were located in Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland - said they were given little to no explanation of why their panels needed to be serviced. They said they were told to turn off their systems, and to wait for a crew to come and do maintenance. All of them said they were forced to continue paying Tesla leasing fees as well as an estimate for power while their systems were shut off.One customer, Christina Caron of Phoenix, Arizona told Business Insider that her system started having problems in August 2018. Then in November, she said she received an email from Tesla informing her that her system was producing an arc fault reading. According to two current Tesla employees who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, an arc fault reading shows that the connectors have overheated at one point.Inside the company, the people said, there is a ranking system for the severity of an arc fault. The employees said an X means that a customer should be serviced right away. An arc fault 1 is next in line for severity, then an arc fault 2 and finally an arc fault 3, the employees said. Caron said she does not know where her arc fault ranked.A Tesla crew inspected Caron's system in February and determined that it had been damaged and needed to be replaced. The crew didn't say why, but they told Caron that there were hot spots and moisture patches in the panels. The system's been off, at Tesla's request, ever since. However, Caron said she is still paying Tesla to lease the panels as well as an average energy rate that the company calculates. Plus, she has to pay her local electricity provider."So my electric bills are not $250 or lower, they have ranged from $400-$800 for one month because my solar has been shut off, and that is with roughly the same usage as last year and the year before," Caron told Business Insider. "Nobody could give us any answers except to say 'we are not responsible for the high electric bills that are coming in when the system is off'." Jeffrey Sutherland, a homeowner outside Boston, also experienced an arc fault error, but he said he had to let Tesla know about it."The claim that they are actively monitoring their systems is not true," he said of his experience in a phone call with Business Insider. "I had to call them in March, to ask about the arc fault errors I had been seeing on my inverter for months. The tech support person looked at the logs and immediately instructed me to turn the system off."Sutherland said that Tesla sent someone out to inspect the system in April and they said that they needed to "replace parts that are sending faulty signals to the inverter." They also said there were "faulty components," but they did not elaborate on what exactly the problem was, he said. So Sutherland, after seeing that he was still being charged for 400KW of production despite the fact that his system was turned off, turned his system back on."The billing representative insisted that I needed to pay under the purchase power agreement, even though they turned off the system. He would not reverse the charges," Sutherland said.In August, Sutherland said his system would intermittently go into standby mode. He would turn it back on only to have it shut down 15 to 20 minutes later. It wasn't until Sutherland read about Project Titan, Tesla's secret project to replace faulty connectors, that he said he became concerned and shut the system off entirely. As of October 3, his panels had yet to be replaced.If you would like to share your experience as a customer or employee at Tesla's auto or solar companies, email me at llopez@businessinsider.com.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><h1>Inside out</h1>Two current employees and one former Tesla employee told Business Insider that the company instructed its people not to say the word "fire," instead to say the phrase "thermal event." Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the employees' claims. They also said that there was a widespread concern within the company about the quality of the Trina panels that were on Greer's house. Trina did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on the claim. If a customer asked what was happening above their heads - one current Tesla employee who works in solar panel installation told Business Insider - employees were to read a script that sounds something like this, according to our source:We are here today to replace a part on your system that has shown a propensity to fail and can cause interruption to your service. We're here to prevent that today, and once the work is complete you'll be able to enjoy uninterrupted flawless service.Two current Tesla employees said that they were instructed not to tell customers anything specific about why their roof needed maintenance, or anything related to Project Titan."At the start, Tesla was being transparent about the connectors. Then they began to hide why maintenance was required," the person said. "I think people need to understand that we're lucky that no one has died..."This could be on your home over your kids bedroom." Indeed, at Greer's house in Colorado, the fire started over her 16-year-old son's bedroom.Business Insider sent Tesla an extensive list of claims made in this story. Tesla did not reply to repeated requests for comment via phone calls, email, or text messages. Get the latest Tesla stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/TSLA-Quote"> here.</a>

Tesla solar panels have become a nightmare for some homeowners, especially for 1 Colorado woman whose roof went up in flames

<keyword id="45681" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Solar">Solar</keyword> industry stocks are tanking today. Yesterday, First Solar issued an ugly outlook.
First Solar was down as much as 16 percent today.
The Arizona-based company said it now expects sales of $650 million to $750 million for the first quarter, which is below the $822 million consensus forecast, <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/first-solar-shares-hammered-on-outlook-2013-02-26">according to Marketwatch</a>. Management also put their cash flow from operations forecast range at breakeven to up to $100 million, compared with analysts' expectations of $214 million. 
Meanwhile, Changzhou-based Trina Solar posted a fourth-quarter loss of $1.23, nearly $0.50 worse than analysts' expectations, Marketwatch said. The company also had gross margins of just 4.4% in 2012 compared with 16.2% in 2011, which it attributed to oversupply and aggressive pricing.

Solar Energy Stocks Are Getting Burned

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image">Shutterstock</div></div>If you abandoned the American solar story after the Solyndra debacle, you've missed one of the greatest growth stories in the country.
Since 2011, solar generation has <a href="http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0?agg=2,0,1&amp;fuel=vtvo&amp;geo=g&amp;sec=g&amp;linechart=ELEC.GEN.SUN-US-99.M~~~~~&amp;columnchart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.M~ELEC.GEN.WND-US-99.M&amp;map=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.M&amp;freq=M&amp;start=200101&amp;end=201310&amp;ctype=linechart&amp;ltype=pin&amp;maptype=0&amp;rse=0&amp;pin=">skyrocketed more than 2,300%</a>. For the first time ever last year, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/more-new-solar-than-wind-in-2013-2013-11">the U.S. added more solar capacity than wind</a>.
Goldman Sachs analyst currently see a 40GW medium-term opportunity in the US residential segment alone, <a href="http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-industry-data">and we only just breached 180 MW per quarter</a>. This has all been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-solar-surged-in-america-2013-10">thanks to a combination</a> of falling prices, state subsidies and plain old demand by more environmentally conscious consumers. 
It is true that there have been lots of bankruptcies along the way. At the end of 2012, GTM Research predicted that 180 solar module manufacturers would go under by 2015. This appears to have come to pass: According to Mercom Capital Group, a clean tech consulting firm, global VC investments (which are mostly concentrated in the U.S.) dropped 40% to $600 million in 97 deals in 2013 compared with $992 million in 106 deals in 2012. "Since mid-2012 the new normal for VC funding has been smaller funding quarters and smaller deal sizes," Mercom says. Of the American solar firms <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_renewable_energy_companies_by_stock_exchange">once active on this list</a>, just a handful remain.
This winnowing process has left four main publicly traded American players:
<ul>
<li>San Jose-based SunPower (SPWR) </li>
<li>San Francisco-based SolarCity (SCTY) </li>
<li>Beltsville, Md.-based SunEdison (SUNE) </li>
<li>Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar (FSLR) </li>
</ul>
The good news is, almost everyone agrees they're poised for another year of incredible growth. But that's not to say it's time to buy the stocks.
It will be a difficult act to top: In the past 12 months, the top three have climbed more than 250%. The "laggard," First Solar, climbed more than 50%. By comparison, the S&amp;P500 gained 25%. Chart:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">Yahoo</div></div>
<h2>SunPower</h2>
SunPower has the longest track record among the four, having gone public in 2005, and it had a stellar performance in 2013. It also figured among the top-5 fundraisers among U.S. solar firms, according to Mercom. It has led the way in one of the biggest emerging themes in solar: leasing, which allows customers to avoid installation fees and only pay a basic monthly fee. Also, Warren Buffett <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-midamerican-solar-project-2013-1">spent $2.5 billion at the beginning of last year</a> to buy the largest solar photovoltaic project in the world from SunPower.
SunPower is now partnering with Digital Federal Credit Union to provide up to $100 million in loans to finance solar installations using SunPower hardware, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. IHS says the firm plans to increase its solar cell production capacity by 25%, or 350 megawatts, by 2015.
Goldman is neutral on SunPower shares, Deutsche Bank rates them "hold," and BAML rates them "underperform."
<h2>SolarCity</h2>
Next up is SolarCity, the solar service provider chaired by Elon Musk and run by his cousin Lyndon Rive. The firm just launched the first-ever bonds backed by revenues from solar electricity generation. The $54.4 million facility priced at 4.8%, according to BAML. It now leads market share in the residential sector, and acquired two key companies to beef up customer service and installation.
The company has said publicly that it plans to pursue a second, substantially larger solar bond program in the first half of this year. Goldman estimates they can earner over $350 million for the new round, and get to $700 million by 2016. Goldman also forecasts 50%-60% volume CAGR for the firm through 2016, ahead of 45% market growth. SunPower is rated "buy" by both Goldman and BAML. It is not covered by Deutsche Bank.
SunEdison rounded out the top five U.S. solar fundraisers of 2013, and places in the top-three installers in the country. In 2014, it is likely to be among the first renewable energy companies to form a yield co firm, which are publicly-traded companies formed to own operating assets that produce cash flow. The cash is distributed to investors as dividends. Goldman believes SunEdison will more than double its current installation target to 250 megawatts, which would add to the 200 megawatts it installed in 2014. 
SunEdison is rated "buy" by Goldman and BAML. It is not covered by Deutsche Bank.
 
<h2>First Solar</h2>
First Solar is the only firm on this list with a substantial international presence. It recently opened an operations center in Japan and is expected to partner with local manufacturer TetraSun to distribute there. It also recently bought into a utility-scale project in Mexico. According to Deutsche Bank, it has more than double the cash "of any other player in the industry," and has now "closed the cost gap" with Chinese module manufacturers, which had a slight advantage in the beginning of the year. 
But First Solar shares remain controversial - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/david-einhorn-cuts-entire-stake-in-controversial-stocks-yahoo-and-first-solar-2012-5">David Einhorn dropped his stake entirely in 2012</a>, it <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-shorted-stocks-december-2012-2013-1#first-solar-25">once came in No. 1 on our most-shorted-stocks list</a>, and JP Morgan <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jp-morgan-said-to-avoid-first-solar-2013-12">named it the No. 1 stock to avoid in 2013.</a> 
Still, as previously mentioned it ended up surging more than 50% - not as much as its peers, but way better than the broader market.
And yet, Goldman has now downgraded First Solar from "hold" to "sell" in its new note. Analyst Brian Lee and his team said First Solar has benefitted from the rush in utility-scale solar projects, but believes the company will get left behind as the rooftop-based market proliferates. That's because the company uses too much "low-efficiency technology" not suitable for smaller projects. Lee also notes First Solar is the only stock he covers that has seen its price-to-earnings ratio expand without any EPS revisions. Deutsche Bank currently rates it "hold." 
While these four firms will get the lion's share of attention since they're public, it's also important to note that there are plenty of private guys out there that are still sailing along. Provo, Utah-based Vivint and San Francisco-based SunRun were among solar's top five fundraisers in 2013, according to Mercom. We've also left out the two major Chinese firms, Yingli and Trina, that survived that country's own massive culling process among solar developers.
But we now have our four protagonists that we'll be watching closely this year.

You Searched For "Trina Solar" and got 4 results

COVID-19 provides opportunities for domestic solar module manufacturing

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