The payment security fund administered by SECI will ensure late payments by debt-laden discoms will not affect solar developers. The government is considering a levy on PV projects to help maintain the fund.

The PV system was launched recently by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in partnership with STEAG Energy Services. It can provide 24-hour electricity even without grid connection, and is expected to generate around 10,000 kWh annually.

The project is one among 300 odd projects worth Rs 65,000 crore including solar parks to be launched during a ground breaking ceremony in Kanpur later this month.

The National Solar Energy Federation Of India says the recent decision to exclude commercial and industrial premises, as well as public buildings, from self consumption remuneration unfairly penalizes businesses and public bodies which have gone down the solar path.

As India plans to set up large lithium-ion battery plants, the Lithium Triangle countries in South America (comprising Chile, Argentina and Bolivia) have offered to meet India’s growing demand for lithium.

The Philippines-based solar major will develop around 500 MW of solar capacity in India, which it describes as having favourable regulatory environment.

Developers will have to provide operation and maintenance services for ten years for the project at Kasargod Solar Park. The deadline for bid submission is in two weeks.

Considering the remarkable advances made by the solar sector since the Rio ‘Earth Summit’ of 1992, PV was notable by its absence at the Convention of Parties climate change summit held by the UN in Poland.

The last 10 years have seen India emerge as a solar superpower, setting an example from which many emerging countries in Africa and Southeast Asia are eager to learn.

“While there are ample solar PV module manufacturers in India to meet the government demands, the proposal would provide impetus to existing and new players to venture into cell production”—according to Sunil Rathi, director, Waaree Energies.

Dutch researchers have come up with a system they claim has a maximum estimation error of less than 10% and which reduces the computational requirements for calculating the output of PV systems in complex environments. The approach is based on the correlation between a skyline’s profile and annual irradiation.

Bifacial solar panel performance has become such a hot topic there are now at least four competing field test sites ramping up in the United States, each matching a different set of trackers and panels. DNV GL, Soltec, NREL and Sandia are all involved, and initial results are expected this year, once a year’s data has been collected.

According to a U.S. research team, new nanomaterials relying on dyes based on diketopyrrolopyrrole and rylene can generate a singlet fission reaction that extends the life of harvestable electronic charges.

Chinese PV manufacturer Hanergy Thin Film Power Group today announced it has achieved 24.23% cell efficiency using its silicon heterojunction technology. The efficiency has been confirmed by Japan’s Electrical Safety & Environment Technology Laboratories.

The irrigation department of the state of Uttarakhand has invited bids for setting up of 40.84 MW solar PV project at Haripura (27.34 MW) and Tumariya (13.50 MW) dams in district Udham Singh Nagar. The projects are to be built under build-own-operate-transfer model. The deadline for bid submission is February 15. Technical bids will be opened on February 18, while the date for opening of financial bids will intimated in due course.

Testing has led to the first certificate of its kind worldwide since a revision of International Electrotechnical Commission Standards in 2016. Accreditation enables Premier Solar to access markets in Latin America, Europe and Africa.

According to the Silver Institute, demand for the precious metal in the solar industry will remain stable up to 2022, despite recent changes in China’s PV policy.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a plan for projects to be enabled by public bodies in the hope that avoiding competitive procurement will enable it to circumvent WTO rules related to import parity.

“We urge the government to take swift action in launching the National Energy Storage Mission in order to support the development of an R&D and manufacturing ecosystem for energy storage and electric vehicles,” said Rahul Walawalkar, president of the India Energy Storage Alliance.

For the purchase, the government of Tamil Nadu is seeking a loan from German state-owned development bank KfW, at an interest rate of 2%, according to reports.

Setting up of the microgrid with battery energy storage is part of an extended R&D collaboration between ABB and the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee to create platforms for research on smart city technology deployment.

Sources have told pv magazine the authorities are ready to restart the nation’s residential rooftop segment and have also agreed upon subsidy payments for other distributed generation and utility-scale projects.

Electric car sales in India declined by 40 per cent to a mere 1,200 units in the financial year 2018 over the financial year 2017, while electric two-wheeler sales rose 138 per cent to 54,800 units during the same period—according to research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie.

The fate of the clutch of 500 MW-plus projects due to break ground this year could determine whether such ambitious schemes have a viable future, says Wood Mackenzie in its solar 2019 forecast. And the Indian market should brace for consolidation, add the analysts, because of aggressive reverse-auction tariff pricing.

Head of industrial conglomerate makes pledge at Vibrant Gujarat Summit as part of his company’s ambition to install 10 GW of renewables capacity by 2022.

In recent years, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has laid the foundation for a clean energy expansion through robust policies and initiatives. India’s solar energy capacity has jumped a thousand-fold from a mere 17 MW in 2010, to more than 23 GW in 2018. Similarly, the wind market has more than doubled in recent years, from around 13 GW of installed power in 2010, to 34 GW by June 2018. These developments help move India closer to its ambitious clean energy goal of 175 GW installed capacity by 2022. However, in spite of several public financial institutions, private banks, and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) providing capital, financing remains a key barrier in scaling India’s clean energy markets further.

As the deployment of renewable energy continues to expand around the world, driven by various inputs, such as capital allocation and investment, falling capital costs, competitive LCOE and various policy mechanisms, we are now moving towards a new era for renewable energy. ‘Renewables 2.0’ will have significant, wide-ranging consequences for all market players, as regulators reduce their support and power producers seek new revenue models. In this article, Duncan Ritchie, partner at Apricum – The Cleantech Advisory, will look at the key market developments for renewables, explode the myth of grid parity, highlight the need for flexibility and explain the importance of new financing solutions that are capable of meeting the new complexities brought about by ‘Renewables 2.0’.

India is currently the second largest market in the world for PV module demand. With China’s domestic demand frozen since the 31/5 notification, the country’s total module demand in 2018 will likely only achieve 32-34 GW. This will allow India, which may surpass 10 GW in annual demand, to reach 13% of global PV demand this year. As a result, the future of India’s trade war has become an influential factor in the global PV industry.

Finance in developing countries: Economics teaches that capital flows from where it is in surplus to where it is in demand. But that is not the case with renewable energy. The biggest pots of institutional capital in advanced economies are not shifting to developing ones. It is time to take a hard look and develop solutions that resolve this anomaly.

Actions taken today in the pursuit of environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive growth path in India stand to benefit more than 17 percent of the world’s population. A sustainable future for India carries an impact for the subcontinent and the entire world. At GGGI – the Global Green Growth Institute – our attention is captured […]