Commercial & Industrial PV

Simarpreet Singh, director at EPC firm Hartek Group, speaks to pv magazine about the impact of the Covid pandemic on the rooftop solar sector, technology trends shaping the market, and the outlook for 2021.

The developer claims that its 10.5 MW on-site solar plant for Tata Hitachi’s Kharagpur facility in West Bengal is the largest behind-the-meter renewable energy project in Eastern India.

The project—to be set up on a 90-acre vacant Railway land at Dahod in Gujarat—shall be awarded through competitive bidding. Western Railways shall be the offtaker for 25 years at a price discovered through the bidding process.

The solar plant, installed at Devdaithan village in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, will provide eight hours of uninterrupted electricity for agricultural loads served by the respective feeder.

Bids are invited to install and commission a 3 MW grid-connected rooftop solar project at Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IIT Jodhpur) in the state of Rajasthan. The scope of work also includes operation and maintenance for ten years.

The current developer-EPC model has increasingly turned to focus on quality over a two-year horizon. This contrasts with long-term owners who are focused on quality over the lifetime of their projects (20 to 40 years). With long-term owners now buying projects in the pre-construction phase, the current model looks set for disruption. Olivier Crepon, managing director at Skyray Engineering, reviews the emerging model of project development and explains how it will impact developers, EPCs, and third-party services and ultimately lead to a stronger, more mature PV sector.

Solar power developers have until December 28 to bid for an aggregate 6.4 GW of grid-connected solar power capacity, which shall come up across ten locations in the state. The Andhra Pradesh Green Energy Corporation Ltd (APGECL) will serve as the offtaker and supply the power procured from these projects to meet the demand of agricultural loads in the State.

The nation is already firmly positioned to lead the world in the clean energy revolution. Consolidating this position would unlock significant economic growth and competitiveness by attracting domestic and foreign investment, creating jobs, and improving public health.

The Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) shall be the implementing agency for agricultural feeder-level solar plants and shall incentivize farmers for consuming power below the benchmark consumption for their area—an important measure for conserving groundwater level.

Scientists in Russia have analyzed the most important technological advances achieved for solar water pumps over the past decades and have indicated the roadmap that future research should follow to expand their use and application.