Monday, February 28, 2011

On behalf of James Abraham, MD and CEO, SunBorne Energy:

                        

 

- The FM has reduced the import duty on PV cells and modules to zero.  But, this ignores the needs of the solar industry more widely.  In PV, there are other solar components such as inverters and cables.  And the entire solar thermal components of mirrors, receivers, and solar turbines have been ignored.  Also, as an industry, we will be relying on imported engineering services provided from experienced players.  This too has been ignored.

 

- The surprising increase in the MAT to 18.5% only hurts the thin returns in the solar industry.

 

- I am encouraged by the infrastructure bond fund.  The FM is encouraging foreign funds to invest in infrastructure by reducing the tax they would pay on their returns.  In solar, funding large-scale deployment remains a hurdle and such infrastructure bond funds can help.  However, I would have liked to see an solar bond fund, focused specifically on supporting large-scale deployment of solar plants.

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