Technology

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has addressed complaints by solar developers about a lack of power evacuation infrastructure by changing its solar park guidelines. Under the new rules, though, developers are likely to incur higher costs.

As lithium-ion battery sales boom, suppliers of equipment for manufacturing photovoltaics are branching out into the storage industry. Are these ventures leading them to bankruptcy or to a breakthrough in storing solar energy?

GE Renewable Energy will implement, in the state of Rajasthan, an advanced grid management project that will provide real-time data monitoring to better understand current and future energy usage and enable transmission of renewable energy based on demand.

The municipal council of Karimnagar has mandated rooftop solar on new buildings of a certain size as part of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy’s Smart City Mission, which requires 10% of municipal energy to be generated from solar.

The old system of regulating frequency on electricity grids with the help of the inertia provided by large spinning masses is under threat from wind, solar and batteries. But what will replace inertia-based control, and how will the transition work?

Brussels-based SolarPower Europe and the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation on operation & maintenance (O&M), installation quality, digitalisation and storage.

Aiming to localize production across the electric vehicle value chain, the government will support battery manufacturing at a gigawatt-scale. The initial focus will be on large-scale module and pack assembly plants by the next fiscal year, followed by integrated cell manufacturing by 2021-22.

The chief executive of Britain’s Proinso suggested slashing the length of power supply contracts from 25 to just five years could be a significant setback for Indian solar, and said the solution could be a hybrid agreement incorporating fixed and spot prices.

Hard-up distribution companies say they are not reaping the benefits of falling renewable energy generation costs because 25-year deals tie them to paying power prices which now appear unjustifiably high.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has invited bids for implementation of 97.5MWp grid-connected rooftop solar PV systems on government buildings in different States/Union Territories of India. The projects, under both CAPEX and RESCO models, will be awarded through international competitive bidding. The deadline for bid submission is March 27.