Highlights

The Indian multinational player, which has a solar engineering, procurement and construction portfolio of more than 10.6 GWp globally, says the latest addition will be among Egypt’s largest PV projects.

The Indian automotive battery major has announced the setting up of a 50 MW solar power plant in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh. The plant—to be built at INR 220-crore investment—will help reduce the manufacturer’s carbon footprint while lowering its electricity bill. The firm, which has already set up a pilot plant facility for Lithium-ion cell development, is also mulling investments into energy storage for the renewables sector.

Given the rapid decrease of the solar electricity cost, pv magazine explores the drivers and obstacles behind switching off coal and embracing photovoltaics and other renewable energy technology in Asia. The good news: things are moving in the right direction.

A net feed-in tariff could offer a solution for consumers, developers, and distribution companies.

Bidders have until February 26 to lodge their interest to set up the grid-interactive, decentralized solar capacity across various locations in the State. The project size will not exceed 10 MW at a particular location.

Scientists in India modeled the performance of tin-based perovskite (methylammonium tin triiodide) finding that with careful optimizations the material could achieve efficiencies beyond 28%.

The development lender’s private-sector arm helped Indian commercial clean power company Continuum Green Energy raise $561 million to refinance its debts through the bond, on the Singapore exchange.

The state electricity regulator has passed the order in Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd’s favor, allowing it to retender the 700 MW capacity to seek lower tariffs than the INR 2.78-2.81/kWh levels awarded to developers. Developers’ body says the move will impact investors’ sentiment as arranging finance starts soon after developers win a capacity.

A group of scientists in Bangladesh has developed a model to determine the optimal cleaning schedule for a PV installation at any location in the globe, requiring only the average insolation and soiling rate for a given site to make the calculation. The study also draws new conclusions regarding the influence of sandstorms and rain on soiling, and aims to be among the first studies to paint a global picture of soiling trends by region.

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is funding the research to develop high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells, including those with passivated emitter and rear contact structure, and perovskites.