The nation has earned the highest score of 62.7 in terms of attractiveness for solar PV investment and deployment in the latest ranking of top 40 countries by Ernst & Young.

According to a new report by BloombergNEF, 58% of global passenger vehicle sales in 2040 will come from electric vehicles, yet they will make up less than 33% of all cars on the road.

With an additional investment of INR 33.17 crore, Exide Industries’ shareholding in the joint venture company has increased by 2.28% to 80.15% of the paid-up equity share capital.

The three-day event will connect the global investment community with Indian renewable energy stakeholders. It is expected to be attended by over 75 international ministerial delegations, over 1000 global industry leaders, and 50,000 delegates.

Low-cost batteries and novel perovskite materials are among the topics selected for joint research and development.

Land has already been identified for the solar park in Kaza town of Lahaul and Spiti district. State-owned Satluz Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd is developing the solar park.

The analyst said currently, India and Australia are the only Asia Pacific countries where renewable power already costs lower than new-build coal. It predicted the trend would spread to the entire region by the end of the decade, while India and Australia would see renewables becoming further cheaper than coal.

The solar installation in India is making a slower-than-expected recovery as Covid-related disruption continues to hurt construction progress. Safeguard duty extension and module price increase have added to the pain.

A recent SECI auction secured the lowest bid of INR 2/kWh, 15% lower than the INR 2.36/kWh record-low winning bid by Spanish developer Solarpack in a 2 GW auction previously.

Coal project finance in the year 2019 stood at just INR 1100 crore (US$190 million), compared to renewable energy lending aggregating to INR 22,971 crore (US$3220 million).

Manufacturers have until December 4 to bid for the supply of 286,000 multicrystalline silicon solar cells using five bus bars. The cells are required in the peak power rating of 4.62W (10,000 quantities), 4.67Wp (60,000) and 4.72Wp (216,000).

A British-German research team claims that organic PV technologies may become mature enough to compete with crystalline silicon and thin-film products not only in BIPV, but also in power generation in the electricity market. In order to get there, however, organic PV products will have to achieve higher efficiencies.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the India arm of Norwegian energy company Greenstat to set up a Centre of Excellence for hydrogen in India and accelerate deployment of hydrogen technologies in the country.

Avinash Hiranandani, global chief executive officer and managing director, RenewSys India, speaks to pv magazine about solar module technology trends and their company’s manufacturing focus.

Bids are invited to install and commission various capacities (11-500 kWp) of grid-connected rooftop solar plants at individual households and residential buildings across the state. Bidding closes on November 25.

An underdeveloped charging ecosystem is one of the many factors restricting the uptake of electric four-wheelers in India. A limited number of products and higher costs than combustion-engine powered vehicles are the other deterrents.

The solar panel production line at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University’s campus in Gujarat will demonstrate the process of cell-to-panel integration, lamination and EL testing.

Bifacial modules have brought significant opportunities to PV project developers, but they have also increased complexity in system design and the modeling of plant output. Australian software developers PV Lighthouse believe they have created a fix, by allowing the complexity to be handled by the use of cloud computing. PV Lighthouse CEO Keith McIntosh and CCO Ben Sudbury argue that their software can be useful for module makers, tracker suppliers, and PV project developers alike.

According to its creator, Swedish start-up Evolar, the new technology can be applied to existing production lines for crystalline silicon modules and increase a product’s efficiency by around 5%.

An ambitious, INR146,000 crore, five-year expansion of a previous domestic industry spending program includes money to attract investment into the sustainable energy and transport technologies.

The network consists of a 96 V, 5.2 kW solar power system and a 96 V, 7.5 kVA PV inverter plus 96 V, 150 Ah of lead-acid battery storage. The microgrid will provide backup power during emergencies.

Bangalore-based Nunam—which enables second life for used lithium-ion battery cells—is the winner of Pulse India competition conducted by French energy giant EDF. The EDF contest aims at supporting Indian startups committed to developing low-carbon and sustainable energy solutions.  

The clean energy major has raised investment from Finnish impact investor Finnfund in its public charging point operator business Fortum Charge and Drive India.

The lithium battery assembly facility at Okhla, New Delhi, would initially produce batteries for energy storage in residential, commercial and industrial sectors, and for electric mobility applications. The plan is to eventually cater to critical applications like telecom and healthcare as well. 

The thermal energy storage system with a 775 tonnes-of-refrigeration heat rate is installed at IIT Kanpur’s Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering building. It is part of an urban pilot under a joint Indo-US project called UI-ASSIST on Smart Grid and Storage Technology. 

It has been a rocky year for installers with issues like availability of modules from Chinese suppliers, restricted construction due to local lockdowns, and uncertainty over import duties. Going forward, the market could see a dramatic rebound if net-metering is allowed with a current cap of 1 MW and re-introduced in the states that have shifted to gross-metering.

A study by Auroville Consulting assesses the techno-commercial impact of generating solar power close to the point of consumption. The study was undertaken on ten feeders of a substation in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu. The results indicated that 100% solar energy penetration, in energy terms, is not only possible but a winning proposition, especially for the distribution companies.

Quality of testing is equally important even as new test labs come up for solar modules. Proper equipment selection and frequent calibration of equipment are prerequisites to ensure the credibility of the test results.

The nation must look at innovative PV technologies that are low-cost and can be applied in a vast range of new applications.

The government is trying to harness renewables to increase domestic output but will need a more liberal energy market and to consider the structure of procurement auctions, cloying red tape and the financial travails of state utilities if it is to achieve its goals, says Rakshika Kaul of Amp Energy India.