Financing key to scaling up SME rooftop solar in India — Deloitte
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is expected to make a significant contribution to India’s rooftop PV target of 40 GW by 2022. However, a range of issues — including low public awareness, the scarcity of low-cost financing and the need for rooftop aggregation models — must be addressed before rooftop solar can be aggressively scaled up, according to a new report from Deloitte and the Climate Investment Funds (CIF).
CNG provider IGL and Tata Power team up for solar projects and EV charging
Tata Power will set up rooftop solar projects for Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) establishments. The two companies will also explore the feasibility of large-scale ‘group captive’ solar power projects for IGL’s own consumption, and commercial-scale charging and/or battery swapping stations for electric vehicles.
Gas utility GAIL and BHEL to jointly develop solar projects
The two state-owned units will jointly pursue commercial solar power projects through participation in tariff/viability gap funding (VGF) based competitive bidding.
Siemens Gamesa commissions 10 MW solar project for Coimbatore firm
Spanish-German renewable energy developer Siemens Gamesa provided engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) support for the 10 MW photovoltaic (PV) solar farm near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
Azure surpasses 100 MW of operating solar rooftop capacity
Independent solar power producer Azure Power’s operational rooftop capacity has a levelized weighted average tariff of Rs 5.82 (US 8.4 cents) per kWh—139% higher than the lowest solar power bid in India.
Rooftop solar for Delhi schools to save 4 GW electricity daily
State-run utility Indraprastha Power Generation Company Limited will install solar rooftop plants at 30 school buildings, with capacity of one megawatt in all.
Andhra Pradesh pulls back on open access solar
The state has decided to withdraw almost all incentives available to open access solar, including exemption from electricity duty and distribution losses for projects injecting power at 33 kV or below. The policy reversal—clearly to appease state discoms—is likely to impact capacity addition.
No construction permits without solar in one town in Telangana
The municipal council of Karimnagar has mandated rooftop solar on new buildings of a certain size as part of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy’s Smart City Mission, which requires 10% of municipal energy to be generated from solar.
BYPL commissions solar microgrids with storage batteries
Power discom BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) has set up four such microgrids at its offices in East Delhi. These microgrids will combine rooftop solar with lithium-ion-based battery energy storage systems.
Solar capacity addition to slow down till FY2019-20: Crisil
While commissioning is expected to slow down in FY 2018-19 due to the impact of the safeguard duty and GST issues, FY 2019-20 is weak due to delay in auction as several tenders got delayed/cancelled. However, FY2019-20 onwards, solar capacity additions are expected to pick up due to several factors including subsiding/removal of the safeguard duty (which would ease cost pressures).
