President Trump has made no secret of wanting to quash the American solar industry.
He may well be making trouble for a nascent solar industry half a world way, in India.
India has spent the past several years trying to become a clean-energy manufacturing hub, and has succeeded to a large degree. Earlier in August, the government in New Delhi said that Indian companies had grown their solar manufacturing capacity 50-fold in the course of a decade and produced enough solar panels to generate 100 gigawatts of electricity. That would go some way, the government said, to “establish the country as a major player in the global value chain.”
Then came the Trump administration’s tariffs, which took full effect on Wednesday.
The United States had been by far India’s biggest export market. Now solar panels made in India, like almost all other Indian-made goods, are subject to a 50 percent tariff, making them far less economical for American buyers.
India’s geopolitical troubles don’t end there. Its bid to compete with China as a supplier of renewable-energy technologies is also challenged by China itself. India relies on Chinese suppliers to provide most of what it needs to make solar panels at home, namely solar cells. And even those Indian companies that make solar cells mostly import silicon wafers from China.
The big question for India now is whether its huge domestic market will be able to absorb its home-grown solar modules. The government has said it wants to be energy self-sufficient, and it has rolled out a raft of incentives to encourage local manufacturing. Solar installers who aim to get government contracts to install rooftop solar for 27 million Indian households have to source locally made equipment.
Until recently, there were subsidies for Indian factories making solar panels. New subsidies are kicking in for locally produced solar cells that go into panels.
China controls more than 80 percent of solar manufacturing globally, all stages combined, according to a 2022 report by the International Energy Agency.
Somini Sengupta is the international climate reporter on the Times climate team.
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