Asia

pv magazine’s Quality Roundtable at this year’s Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo in Greater Noida saw industry experts touch upon issues arising out of wrong component selection and handling—including for cables and connectors to module mounting structures. They also shared the best practices to ensure long life of solar system installations.

The Chinese manufacturer claims to be the first company in the nation to supply that volume of solar modules. The news is unlikely to be welcomed by a government desperate to foster its own solar manufacturing sector.

Trade tariffs are spreading across the global PV industry. The United States has been especially active with its sandwich of old antidumping and countervailing duties coupled with new Section 201, 232 and 301 duties. Some of these are part of the Sino-U.S. trade dispute; others impact not only Chinese producers, but manufacturers around the world. So, what will be the impact of this new era of PV protectionism on the solar sector?

India’s total installed solar capacity touched 34.1 GW on June 30, 2019. The total was split between 27.9 GW of utility-scale PV, 4.6 GW of rooftop solar and 1.26 GW of off-grid solar. The nation’s total project pipeline – projects allocated to developers and those in various stages of development – stood at 19.69 GW as of June 30. Bridge to India’s Sai Nandamuri looks at the outlook for Indian solar in 2019 and 2020.

Revision in the outlook to ‘stable’—from ‘positive’—stems from resurfacing renegotiation fears and continued delay in payments from some of the offtakers.

The project—commissioned for food processing firm Keventer Agro—is spread across 250×70 m2 and uses 6240 numbers of Vikram’s high-efficiency 345Wp monocrystalline modules.

The plant—with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd as the offtaker—is the company’s first ISTS connected solar project.

The projects—in various capacities ranging between 1 KWp and 25 KWp—are to be set up across the state. Proposals can be submitted till October 4.

A memorandum of understanding signed by the institutions was not solar specific but the use of PV modules for shading, especially in agriculture, can reduce water consumption and help halt the expansion of deserts.

Integrated power infrastructure offers an emerging investment opportunity in Asia as the region expands and adapts its energy mix to address sustainability and resilience goals. Narsingh Chaudhary and Mitesh Patel, of engineering, procurement and construction business Black & Veatch, tell pv magazine more.