Legal

The European authorities are trying to determine whether two consortia – including subsidiaries of Longi and Shanghai Electric – violated the new EU rules on foreign subsidies when they participated in a procurement process in Romania for a 110 MW solar farm. The European Commission is expected to make a final decision within 110 working days.

India’s apex court has relaxed restrictions on the construction of overhead transmission lines in the potential areas for renewable energy generation in Rajasthan and Gujarat. It has also constituted a new committee to identify measures and safeguards to be adopted in overhead transmission that can help conservation of Great Indian Bustard.

The amended Energy Conservation Bill sets a minimum usage clause for non-fossil fuel by high carbon-emitting sectors such as power, transport, industry, and buildings. It also includes provisions to incentivize decarbonization efforts by allowing carbon trading.

A Spanish court has ruled that Spain’s largest operational PV project – the 500 MW Nuñez de Balboa solar plant – occupies a piece of land that was illegally expropriated. Project owner Iberdrola must now shut down a large portion of the installation.

A shortage of suitable sites is prompting companies to buy up land before deciding on the specifics of project construction, as a junior minister stated more solar is likely to be waved through by 2025.

While the Central and State Governments have taken several proactive steps to make it easier for solar developers to acquire land for their projects, land aggregation remains the single biggest roadblock in implementing large-scale projects, resulting in a slowdown in the industry.

In the matter of power purchase agreement (PPA) tariff renegotiation, the high court of Andhra Pradesh has directed the state discoms to honor the PPA terms and clear the pending payments to solar and wind power developers within six weeks from the date of the order. The incremental impact on power purchase cost for the AP discoms is estimated at about INR 10,500 crore, due to the build-up of dues arising out of the difference between the PPA rate and interim rate over the last three-year period.

The industry body wrote the State’s new bill to redetermine solar tariffs will render the already operating projects unviable and power producers will find it difficult to repay their loans. It sought the law minister’s intervention in highlighting their concerns to the President with whom the Bill is presently pending approval.

The dismissal is a win for the Solar Energy Industries Association, which vigorously opposed the request by American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (A-SMACC) for anti-dumping and anti-circumvention (AD-CVD) tariffs

India needs to install an average of 25 GW solar capacity every year to reach its renewable energy target of ‘450 GW by 2030’ with over 60% (280 GW) from solar. The nation must build enough manufacturing capacity back home to be ready on the supply side to support the new installations.