Bloomberg has recently reported that Surana Ventures Ltd of Hyderabad will double production in the face of Chinese overproduction that has caused a 34% reduction in panel prices over the past 12 months. Surana seems to be betting on lowered prices making solar the power source of choice for electricity ravenous India. Surana apparently expects to be able to hang on financially until demand grows while its competitors may not be able to survive the current spell of significant overcapacity. This is a very interesting turn of events as other Indian solar panel makers have 80% of their plant space idle. Surana's advantage here may be its being part of the large Surana Telecom and Power Group which has ample financial resources.
India will be the happy hunting ground for solar in the years to come. Insatiable demand, government need to avoid more power shortages, related social turmoil, local content rules and abundant sunlight are powerful drivers of business behavior. First Solar, the Arizona based and only profitable solar panel maker, reportedly will open solar farms in India to serve non-residential customers without government subsidies.
Do these lowering prices for panels mean that solar's day in the sun is almost here? Will we be charging our Teslas and other electric cars with cheap solar electricity? It should be an interesting next decade
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