Covid-19

The Asian Development Bank says developing countries in Asia and the Pacific should consider developing their own solar industry supply chains as the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed their over-reliance on China to carry through the energy transition.

Solar season had already started in the month of March. The demand for solar consumption is the highest during April-June quarter as summer picks up. This is the time when factory runs with full efficiency. India was estimated to install nearly 8 GW of solar panels in 2020, in which 90% consumption happens in utility-scale […]

Planning ahead is crucial to ensure the Indian solar industry bounces back quickly and the slowdown is not carried forward to 2021-22, say BloombergNEF analysts even as they estimate 75% fall in PV imports in the first quarter of year 2020 over the previous quarter and revise annual capacity addition forecasts.

The ministry further announced waiver from section 144, Nationwide Lockdown, Curfew, or any other limitation on the number of people required for operation and maintenance of solar power plants. The directive came a day after lobby group National Solar Energy Federation wrote to the ministry asking for waivers.

Sliding electricity demand and declining commercial and industrial activity could prompt distribution companies to block or delay payments to solar power producers.

The digital platform automates the entire distributed solar project design and net metering approval process, which is crucial in today’s era of social distancing and remote business operations driven by COVID-19 globally.

U.S.-owned analyst Wood Mackenzie expects solar demand to decline but predicts the market will recover, with the prospects for the energy transition remaining intact.

Developers are also expected to drag their heels over project completion during the first half of the year as the safeguarding duty applied to imported Chinese and Malaysian solar products is due to expire at the end of July.

Contracted revenue, minimal volume risk and moderate-to-strong counterparties mitigate cash flow concerns in solar assets.

As the contagion continues to spread, its impact is beginning to be felt on the solar industry outside China with the cancellation or postponement of major trade shows and conferences that were set to take place over the next few weeks.