Installations

Solar installations in year 2020 are set to exceed 10 GW after a year hit by political uncertainties, module price increases associated with safeguard duty and a fewer number of awarded tenders. The outlook for battery energy storage installations for solar projects, however, is bleak as such combinations in India can cost 3-5 times more in 2020 than standalone renewable projects.

January 4 is the last date to bid for the plants that are to be developed in capacities of 10 KWp to 50 KWp atop government buildings. Bids must be accompanied with bank guarantee of Rs 750,000.

The project—located in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan—is being developed by the Indian developer’s special purpose vehicle Clean Solar Power (Jodhpur).

Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported in 2018 that 2,281 villages across the nation lacked access to electricity. As a vast archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia faces serious challenges when it comes to electrification, as inter-island connection remains prohibitively expensive. Two experts in the field, Ahmad Agus Setiawan and Chayun Budiono, share their knowledge.

The government’s KUSUM scheme helps farmers install standalone solar pumps with a capacity of up to 7.5 hp. There is also support to make grid connected pumps of the same size solar powered. A PV capacity of up to twice the pump capacity in kW is allowed under the scheme.

The Indian installer supplied panels for a commercial client in the U.S. who had been inspired by a trip to Rajasthan with his wife in 2008.

Touted to be one of India’s largest rooftop installations, the captive plant uses 25,770 photovoltaic panels covering 63,000 sq.m of available roof space and producing 12.2 million KWh of electricity annually.

The revolving credit facility will help the Hyderabad headquartered distributed solar developer finance new projects as it looks to add about 250 MW of capacity this year.

Developers have until December 30 to bid for the grid-connected plants that shall come up on the land within or around the premises of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited’s substations. The plants are to be developed on turnkey basis.

According to a new study by Finland’s LUT University, solar PV consumes between 2% and 15% of the water that coal and nuclear power plants use to produce just 1 MWh of output; for wind, this percentage ranges from 0.1% to 14%. Under the researchers’ best policy scenario, water consumption could be reduced by 75.1% by 2030, compared to 2015 levels.