Europe

Norway’s Scatec, which has a 50% stake in Acme’s 900 MW solar project in Rajasthan, cited a lack of domestic solar panel supply and the 40% import duty on solar panels effective from April as the reasons for putting the PV project on hold.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), an Indian multinational EPC contractor, has partnered with Norway’s HydrogenPro to set up a joint venture in India for gigawatt-scale manufacturing of alkaline water electrolyzers. 

Exide Leclanche Energy Private Limited, the joint venture with Swiss energy storage specialist Leclanché, has a lithium battery pack and module assembly factory in Gujarat.

The Fluence and ReNew Power joint venture will serve a diversified customer base in India by localizing and integrating Fluence’s energy storage products and packages for the local market. ReNew will become its first customer by procuring a 150 MWh battery-based energy storage system for its 300 MW peak power project in Karnataka.

A British-Indian research group has developed an active cooling technique that is claimed to improve a PV system’s yield by around 0.5%. The system could be used in residential solar arrays and the water heated by the PV modules may be fed into a solar water heating system.

The Swiss PV diagnostics and predictive solutions provider has appointed Neeraj Dasila as chief technology officer (CTO), and Shankaransh Srivastava as vice president-marketing.

Indian renewable energy developer Hero Future Energies has partnered with US-based Ohmium International on the development of green hydrogen plants in India, the UK, and Europe with a cumulative electrolyzer capacity of 1 GW.

Reliance Industries said its solar unit will buy UK-based sodium-ion battery technology provider Faradion for GBP100 million (US$135 million) including debt, as the Indian conglomerate pushes forward with its ambitious plan to move into the renewable energy industry.

This is the fifth credit line signed between REC Limited and KfW for the financing of power sector projects and the third credit line for the financing of renewable energy projects.

The acquisition is in line with Virescent’s strategy to acquire operational renewable energy assets that have stable long-term cashflows with government counterparties across India.