Highlights

Nexcharge, a joint venture of India’s largest lead-acid storage battery manufacturer, Exide Industries Limited, and Swiss Lithium-ion battery manufacturer Leclanché, has fully automated assembly lines of li-ion battery packs, modules, and cell testing labs in Gujarat. Ketan Chitnis, vice president-stationary BU, tells pv magazine the government’s PLI Scheme is a major incentive for attracting investment into Li-ion cell manufacturing.

State-owned NTPC Limited has selected California-headquartered Bloom Energy’s electrolyzer and hydrogen-powered fuel cell technologies for the nation’s first green hydrogen-based energy storage deployment.

Advances in solar power and other clean energy technologies have failed to keep up with demand for electricity as economies rebound from the Covid crisis and China and India’s fossil fuel appetite will ensure the world stays well short of what is needed for a net zero 2050 for at least the next three years.

The developer installed a record 1.5 GW of renewable energy capacity within the current fiscal year alone. This includes more than 1.3 GW of utility-scale solar projects and over 150 MW of wind.

A new report analyzes the current status of banking provisions across solar and wind energy rich states in India, along with the implications of these restrictive provisions upon the renewables sector.

The Mumbai-headquartered natural resources company has acquired Goa-based Nicomet, a producer of cobalt, nickel, and their derivates in India, as it looks to capitalize on the electric vehicles and energy storage boom.

The device was designed by scientists in Portugal to optimize light absorption by the semiconductor and ensure an effective diffusion of redox species while offering minimal electronic and ionic transport resistance. The cell has a 25cm2 photoactive area and relies on ferrocyanide/anthraquinone redox flow chemistry and a nanostructured hematite photoelectrode.

The company has landed a substation extension package to help strengthen power transmission from Bhadla Solar Park in the Indian State of Rajasthan. It shall also work on grid extension in Southern India.

An international research team has examined combining solar power generation with energy-intensive hydroponic horticulture and has found that this may be a viable solution depending on project size and available incentive policies. Their approach considered various factors impacting PV system efficiency, including environmental factors, the type of solar array, and the electricity demand from the hydroponic farm.

The industrial gas producer will set up special-purpose vehicles in joint ventures with developers to source renewable energy for self-consumption.