Despite the safeguard duty imposed on imports from China, Malaysia and the West, effective July 2018, solar panel prices continued to fall in the domestic market, as a 25% year-on-year fall in global prices has more than offset the duty impact.
Though demand for the panels could look up in 2019, with a sharp cut in China’s installation target (down 60%), supplies might still continue to outweigh demand keeping prices low through the year, analysts feel. Panels constitute 60% of the solar project cost; a precipitous fall in prices over the last five years has facilitated installation of 28,000 MW of solar capacity in India as of December 2018. Between 2013 and 2019, solar panel prices have fallen 71%.
