Manufacturing

Sustainable development expert Auroville Consulting has launched the Solar Village Search Engine to help fund its Solar Village Initiative, which aims to power 100 villages in Tamil Nadu with solar by the year 2030.

Swiss battery maker that intends to bring production lines to Gujarat has been helped along in a planned reduction of its debt pile by its domestic authorities. The way is now clear for a shareholder vote next Tuesday.

Historic Swiss brand Leclanché is on an expansionist trail, notably in India and low-carbon shipping, but restructuring its debts will involve ceding even more control of the venerable company to institutional investors.

Ministry of Science and Technology has reissued a plea for overseas solar companies to partner up with Indian concerns to kick-start production lines.

Only three bidders have come forward for huge manufacturing-linked solar and solar-wind hybrid procurement exercises. The separate auctions – originally intended to drive 12.5 GW of new generation and 5 GW of manufacturing capacity – prompted figures of just 3.05 GW and 600 MW, respectively.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) much-hyped 10 GW manufacturing-linked tender, which has already been postponed six times, received a very tepid response on Monday, the last submission date.

Developers gave short shrift to gloomy predictions about depreciation, protectionism and tax headwinds as tendering and auction figures soared, but they shied away from the tough price caps set for SECI’s procurement exercises.

While the timelines for PV power plant execution and completion of manufacturing facilities are now more realistic, production obligations – especially for capacity utilization – need to be revisited.

As price pressure continues to exert its strong grip on the inverter market, digital services make their way into the offerings of manufacturers. The new technologies create the possibility to steadily generate profits, and thus create resilience to market fluctuations. But they also allow the installation of more solar assets, as they cater to the need to improve grid resilience to compensate for intermittent renewable energy.

Despite political hurdles in key markets including China and Japan, Asia remains highly active. This year, 59 GW of solar is expected to be installed and due to further system price declines, a phase-out of subsidy schemes can be offset.