Utility Scale PV

With utility scale solar installations accelerating, Philip Wolfe, founder of PV data consultancy Wiki-Solar, drills into the data to highlight some interesting variations in relative progress around the world.

India’s growth in solar generation (+26%, +12 TWh) in the first half of 2023 was above the global average growth (+16%). In H1 2023, India contributed nearly as much new solar generation as the EU, with 12% of the global additions.

Fuji Electric India has introduced the PV 1500 series central inverters for large-scale solar plants. The inverters are available from 1,042 kVA up to 4,167 kVA and offer DC/AC ratio up to 1.6 and peak efficiency of 98.8%.

The US-based solar tracker specialist, which manufactures in India in collaboration with local partners, has achieved 10 GW per annum of manufacturing capacity in India. The company has over 5 GW of systems under fulfilment or operational.

The India-Japan Fund will actively invest in India’s environmental preservation sector, including renewable energy and e-mobility businesses.

India needs to ramp up its annual solar capacity additions by 36% year-on-year to reach an installed PV base of 185.6 GW by FY 2027, targeted under 14th National Electricity Plan. The nation installed 66.7 GW of PV capacity as of March 31, 2023, with 12.9 GW added in FY 2023.

Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Ltd has secured its third solar EPC contract from NTPC REL in Khavda RE Power Park of Gujarat. The contract price, including three-year operation and maintenance, would be INR 1,535 crore (around $185 million).

Brookfield and Axis Energy Ventures had earlier formed a joint venture platform ABC Renewables to develop renewable energy projects. The latest JV will have up to $845 million of equity investment by Brookfield. 

The French government has awarded 129 projects an average price of €0.0824 ($0.0868)/kWh in its latest ground-mounted tender. This represents the largest capacity since the beginning of the tender series held by the French authorities.

NTPC Green Energy Ltd and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) have signed an agreement to collaborate in various areas of renewable energy (including energy storage, green hydrogen and its derivatives) in India and overseas.