Markets & Policy

The coronavirus outbreak in China could raise solar module prices in the near term as manufacturers have already begun experiencing wafer and solar glass shortages. Production rates are also being affected by an extended new year holiday introduced by the authorities as a measure to deal with the virus, and the requirement workers from infected areas quarantine themselves for two weeks.

Capacity additions for the current fiscal year are set to exceed the previous accounting period’s 8,532 MW. With Rs405 billion invested in clean energy in the last fiscal year, spending in the first nine months of 2019-20 has been estimated at Rs367 billion.

The joint venture will set up a factory in India to manufacture Al-Air batteries for electric vehicles and stationary applications and facilitate development of eco-system for Al-Air technology.

The proposed model is said to perform better at energy prediction than software tools such as PVWatts, PVSyst or RetScreen. The approach was validated on two 5 MW PV plants in the same district of the Indian state of Rajasthan.

A 50% fall in the price of Lithium-ion battery packs—to $76/KWh from $156/KWh today—will make the capital cost of electric vehicles lower than combustion vehicles. However, to realise the full benefits of EVs, it is important to charge them with clean power and not fossil power.

The government of Suriname will use the amount for rural electrification through installation of solar-DG hybrid PV systems in 50 remote villages of the nation.

BHEL’s scope of work includes complete engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) solutions from concept to commissioning of EV charging stations. EESL, on the other hand, will make the entire upfront investment on services, along with the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure.

Year 2019 saw some 19.5 GW of wind and solar energy contracted by corporations globally through power purchase agreements, up more than 40% from the previous year’s record. The bulk of this purchase occurred in the U.S. with tech companies and oil and gas majors leading the charge. India, however, saw a drop amid rollback of attractive policies, says a new report from BloombergNEF.

A new report from Hydrogen Council predicts that the cost of renewable hydrogen production will fall drastically by up to 60% over the coming decade due to the declining costs of renewable electricity generation and the scaling up of electrolyzer manufacturing. Thanks to its optimal renewable resources, Australia will be among the countries most favorably placed to contribute to the development of the hydrogen economy.

With this, the West African nation becomes the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) member to avail services of NTPC. Presently, there are six programmes of the ISA to develop solar capacities in member countries, which include agricultural pumps, mini grids, rooftop solar, large-scale grid connected projects, etc.