The court appears to have sided with solar developers who are complaining about a revision made late last year which ensured only 70% of the costs associated with PV project establishment would qualify for a discounted rate of goods and services tax.

With last year’s embarrassing manufacturing-linked capacity tender limping along, it has been reported that the Indian government – whichever form it takes after the current elections – is considering a new tender to incentivize the establishment of a domestic solar industry.

India’s leading solar region has been forced to apply the brakes to new solar with its power distribution companies having fulfilled their renewable purchase obligations for the next two years. Projects driven by federal agencies will continue, however.

The power company needs to secure PV energy for 11-18 hours per day this month and in September in order to meet its renewable purchase obligation. Solar energy from outside the state of West Bengal will be considered.

Reduction in solar park charges was not enough to attract developers in the same numbers that flocked to a separate 500 MW exercise two months earlier. The Raghanesda Solar Park continues to be a headache after a previous attempt was cancelled because the tariffs were deemed too costly.

Founded in 2006, Bengaluru-based Orb is a rooftop solar provider that manufactures panels and provides finance for SMEs through a collateral-free loan that matches the payback period for its solar systems. Orb has sold more than 160,000 units in India, with cumulative installations of around 65 MW of PV rooftop capacity.

In September 1988, the United Nations spelt doom for the Maldives when the organization predicted that a gradual rise in average sea levels would leave the Indian Ocean nation of 1,196 small islands completely covered by water within 30 years.

Lack of road access meant PV panels had to be brought in by boat to be installed on the roof of every home under the government’s Saubhagya rural electrification scheme.

Founded in 2016, Prescinto Technologies is an industrial internet of things solution provider to the solar sector. After two years, Prescinto has found a footing in 13 countries across 4 GW of solar plant capacity. Backed by Gensol Group’s engineering experience across 20 GWs of renewable projects, Prescinto is able to transform that knowledge into code and empowers plants ‘onboarded’ on its platform.

The nation is trailing behind peers such as the EU when it comes to policy guidelines for materials and recycling and the lack of a viable business case for reusing materials doesn’t help matters.