US-based Enfinity Global has commissioned 135 MW of solar projects in Maharashtra. It has also acquired 70 MW of operational assets in Telangana and Karnataka.

Solutions for catalyzing rooftop solar in the rural commercial and industrial market have to be looked at in terms of geographic clusters. This allows for the aggregation of demand, making it easy to run awareness campaigns in a targeted manner.

In the absence of immediate viable financial solutions, MEMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) need government intervention to get sustainable debt at a reasonable rate. A way forward could be a green finance platform for MSMEs.

The Solar Energy Corp. of India Ltd (SECI) has started accepting applications from solar manufacturers under the second phase of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme with an outlay of INR 19,500 crore ($2.4 billion).

Edelweiss’ energy infrastructure investment trust, AnZen, will invest in a diversified portfolio of energy assets including transmission lines and renewable power projects to provide long-term predictable yield and growth to its investors.

The state-owned thermal energy giant has deployed 1,421 MW of renewable power generation capacity so far, including 1,370 MW of solar and 51 MW of wind power plants.

An international research group has developed new technology to measure soiling losses in PV installations, by using a simple pocket light. They said the new system offers similar performance to their reference devices.

As Longi and other solar manufacturers kick off massive growth in hydrogen generation capacity, expect large price decreases resulting from steep learning curves, echoing the rapid advances experienced by the solar power industry since the 1970s.

Japanese scientists have described the steps that need to be taken to improve the average efficiency of CIGS solar modules, from around 18.5% at present to more than 20%. They presented all of the critical technical factors that are currently holding the tech back from broader market adoption.

Sembcorp Green Infra has signed the agreement to acquire Mumbai-based renewable power producer Vector Green, which has a cumulative 583 MW of solar and wind portfolio in India.

Longi said it has achieved a 26.81% efficiency rating for an unspecified heterojunction solar cell, as confirmed by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH).

The expected lifetime of PV inverters is significantly shorter than that of modules. In many projects, inverter replacement is included in financial calculations from the start, despite the high costs. Research is being conducted into the causes of faults to develop more durable inverters and components. But plant design can already improve the lifespan of inverters in use today, reports pv magazine Germany’s Marian Willuhn.

The hydrogen economy, particularly green hydrogen, has a long growth path ahead.

The electric car powered by Phinergy aluminum-air battery will be on display in Auto Expo India 2023 at the booth of IOC Phinergy (IOP), a joint venture of Phinergy and State-run fossil fuel giant Indian Oil Corp.

German researchers have created an algorithm to predict and identify string yield losses or underperforming strings without additional weather data. It could be used to inspect modules, strings, arrays, inverters, and transformers.

Polycab has unveiled compact-size, light-weight grid-tie string solar inverters with power ranging from 1 to 5 kW, a maximum efficiency of 98.1%, and total harmonic distortion below 1.5%.

Indian scientists have designed a new all-perovskite tandem solar cell configuration that can reportedly achieve higher efficiencies than similar devices built with the same materials. The top perovskite cell has a wide bandgap of 1.75 eV and the bottom perovskite cell has a bandgap of 1.25 eV.

Tariffs will rise by 50-70 paise/kWh for up to 6 GW of solar projects as developers are allowed to pass on the impact of basic customs duty on cells and modules under ‘change-in-law’.

Saatvik Solar will supply 4 MW of mono PERC modules to Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for PV projects at two thermal power plants in Uttar Pradesh.

Schüco has expanded its recent warning letter about potential solar panel defects to include more products. The new list includes PV modules the company delivered between 2010 and 2014.

The state government has announced its Solar Policy 2022, which places a special focus on the setting up of solar parks with storage systems. The policy also provides big incentives for the adotion of rooftop solar systems and the solarization of tubewells for agriculture.

Developer ReNew Power has signed an agreement with the Egyptian Government to establish a green hydrogen plant in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. The $8 billion project will produce 220,000 tons of green hydrogen per year.

Serentica Renewables will source 1.5 GWh of pumped-hydro storage capacity from Greenko’s upcoming projects in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, to provide firm power to its industrial off-takers.

Enel is testing a 24 MWh thermal energy storage system that could be used for seasonal renewables storage. The facility uses rocks that store excess energy as heat, then releases that heat to generate steam for electricity.

India’s GR Promoter Group has entered the green hydrogen market in a joint venture with Spanish hydrogen technology solutions provider H2B2. The JV will manufacture water-based electrolyzers and develop green hydrogen production plants based on off-taker agreements.

Faced with undulating terrains, solar PV companies are leveraging modern technologies to achieve terrain flexibility across challenging sites to deliver unmatched efficiency improvement and bring production gains to solar projects.

Robotics is evolving to ease the maintenance of solar power plants. From drones combined with thermal imaging to the robotic cleaning crew for large-scale solar PV plants, automation and robotics are constantly evolving for the cleaning and maintenance of PV plants.

The growth of utility-scale solar PV in India is marred by several challenges such as availability of land, limited local manufacturing capacity, high transmission and distribution losses, grid integration, and other inefficiencies.

With software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, EPC users can manage different silos as per the solar project requirements. The software ensures that the silos are integrated and accessible during all phases of the EPC to maintain transparency. 

At the end of 2021, the total capacity of the solar power plants throughout the world was estimated to be 940 GW. According to the forecasts of solar association SolarPower Europe, the total capacity could reach 2 TW by 2025. With the rapidly growing popularity of solar power plants, experts predict that the next breakthrough in this sector will be smart batteries. In the future, solar power plants will not be able to operate without them.