Installations

For a long while, it looked as if hydrogen fuel cells would be the technology of choice for emissions-free road transport. However, truck manufacturers and freight forwarders recently turned their attention to battery-electric vehicles. This will require special charging technology and PV looks set to play an important role.

LG has developed an air source heat pump with the capacity to heat 200 liters to 270 liters of domestic water. It uses R134a as a refrigerant and the pump has a coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 3.85.

Tata Power will deploy US-based AutoGrid’s software application for electricity load management in Mumbai. It aims to engage 55,000 residential consumers and 6,000 large C&I customers to achieve 75 MW of peak capacity reduction within the first six months. It also plans to scale up the capacity reduction to 200 MW by the summer of 2025.

Coal India Ltd arm CIL Navikarniya Urja Ltd has tendered the engineering, procurement, and construction work for 35 MW (AC) of solar plants for captive consumption by Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL). The plants will come up at three locations of ECL in West Bengal. Bidding closes on February 22.

An international research group claims that raw materials and land availability do not present a real barrier for a global energy system with solar at its center. They said that forecasts for PV growth should not have their axis on utility-scale power plants and instead consider vertical PV, agrivoltaics, and floating PV as the source of future big market volumes.

The budget signifies the government’s intent to drive domestic manufacturing of lithium battery cells as it waives customs duty on the import of machinery required for manufacturing these cells. It also continues with nil customs duty on critical inputs for solar manufacturing. The budget also aims to support large-scale battery storage projects through viability gap funding.

The Mumbai-headquartered natural resources company will invest INR 444 crore ($54.23 million) in 691 MW of renewable energy projects to power its aluminum, copper and oil & gas operations across India. It will implement these captive projects through special-purpose vehicles formed with Serentica Renewables.

UK scientists have discovered that second-life batteries could provide a lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) than conventional batteries in school buildings equipped with PV in East African schools. They said the cheapest system configuration uses either 7.5 kW or 10 kW of solar with 20 kWh of storage.

Rays Power Infra has signed an agreement with the Rajasthan government to build a 1.8 GW solar park in the state with an estimated investment of INR 9,140 crore.

State-run hydropower producer THDC has formed a 74:26 joint venture with Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corp. Ltd to develop 10 GW of renewable energy projects in Rajasthan. The JV partners also plan floating solar and pumped hydro storage projects in the state.