The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has asked all states and ports in the country to identify land parcels ranging between 50 and 500 acres in size in their regions that can be used to set up renewable energy manufacturing and export services hubs.
This announcement comes amidst the global Coronavirus pandemic, which has taken a massive toll on the Indian solar industry. At times like this, any government initiative to give the struggling industry a boost is welcome. Industry stakeholders, in their responses to the tweet, seemed to agree that this move was a step in the right direction.
The MNRE would provide full support to companies that have plans to expand or set up their base in India for manufacturing or the export of 
services in the renewable energy sector.
This announcement follows MNRE’s recent decision to push implementing the approved list of models and manufacturers (ALMM) mandate by six months from March 31, 2020, to September 30, 2020.
The government has been trying to promote local manufacturing under the “Make in India” program. In the solar sector, the largest auction concluded early this year with Adani and Azure winning the bid to develop 2,000 MW of projects with 500 MW of manufacturing capacity each. The winning tariff quoted by both the companies was ₹2.92/kWh.
Earlier, the MNRE had opened an Industry and Investors’ Facilitation Centre, which would work as a focal point to provide all the information regarding programs and policies of the government and resolve issues related to renewable energy investors and industry.
The Coronavirus pandemic is proving to be the solar industry’s biggest challenge this year, especially for the solar industry, which is heavily dependent on imported components. This has set the government to plan on developing a conducive environment for domestic manufacturing.
This is a PIB News-Feed edited by Clean-Future Team