Residential PV

The region’s climate, developing economies and demographic growth are driving increased electricity demand in the Middle East and North Africa. However, as a hub of conventional energy supply, the region has been slow to embrace PV. To capture more of the value chain and deliver the full potential of solar, there are increasing calls for distributed generation deployment to play a bigger role.

Subsidies from central and state bodies will help photovoltaics get within reach of similarly sponsored conventional electricity, which begs the question, why not remove subsidies for both?

The cost of wind would fall to Rs 2.3-2.6/kWh, while solar tariff would reduce to Rs 1.9-2.3/kWh. The cost of storage will fall by about 70%, according to a report.

The project is one among 300 odd projects worth Rs 65,000 crore including solar parks to be launched during a ground breaking ceremony in Kanpur later this month.

The National Solar Energy Federation Of India says the recent decision to exclude commercial and industrial premises, as well as public buildings, from self consumption remuneration unfairly penalizes businesses and public bodies which have gone down the solar path.

Owing to the general elections this year, little progress on the policy front is expected in the near term, according to the report.

Considering the remarkable advances made by the solar sector since the Rio ‘Earth Summit’ of 1992, PV was notable by its absence at the Convention of Parties climate change summit held by the UN in Poland.

The last 10 years have seen India emerge as a solar superpower, setting an example from which many emerging countries in Africa and Southeast Asia are eager to learn.

Dutch researchers have come up with a system they claim has a maximum estimation error of less than 10% and which reduces the computational requirements for calculating the output of PV systems in complex environments. The approach is based on the correlation between a skyline’s profile and annual irradiation.

Tamil Nadu government has unveiled a new solar energy policy 2019 that aims at generating 9 GW for the state by 2022. The policy would be applicable to projects, programmes and installations relating to both solar PV and thermal energy, including utility as well as consumer categories.