India

Bangalore-based Orb Energy is gearing up to double its solar PV panel manufacturing capacity from 60 MW to 120 MW, and aims raise US$55 million by the first quarter of 2019.

Chinese giant boasted 18% of the Indian market, to be crowned the nation’s top dog for the third consecutive year. Canadian Solar, First Solar, Hanwha Q Cells and JA Solar also enjoyed a big export market from the rising solar power.

Madhya Pradesh recently floated a tender for the implementation of grid connected rooftop solar PV projects under the RESCO (renewable energy service company) Model. Manu Srivastava, principal secretary and commissioner, New and Renewable Energy Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, and managing director of Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam (MPUVNL), speaks to pv magazine about the tender and initiatives taken by the state government.

ACME Solar has bagged a 600 MW solar PV project in a reverse auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) at a tariff of Rs 2.44 (US$0.036) per unit.

On the sidelines of the Renewable Energy Dialogue 2018, organized by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in New Delhi recently, pv magazine spoke to the Counil’s founder and CEO, Arunabha Ghosh, senior programme lead, Kanika Chawla, and Hero Future Energies CEO, Sunil Jain about the performance of India’s renewable sector over the past year, the reasons for the deferral of solar PV project auctions, and the poor uptake of rooftop solar in India.

Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL), an arm of Tata Power, has commissioned 100 MW of solar capacity at the Anthapuramu Solar Park in Andhra Pradesh, taking its overall renewable capacity to 2,215 MW in India.

Israel-based Ecoppia has partnered with SB Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., to deploy 2,000 robots across its five sites in the Bhadla Phase III and IV Solar Park Project in Rajasthan, India. This announcement follows its recent completion of large-scale deployments with ENGIE and Ostro Power (Actis Group) in the Bhadla park. pv magazine speaks to Ecoppia CEO Eran Meller about the project.

All future bids for renewable projects would have at least 50% domestic manufacturing component for developers. The government will also soon make it obligatory for project developers to manufacture storage systems.

Despite this, at least half the companies among the top 10 – in terms of shares of projects sanctioned – changed every year between 2014 and 2017. International independent power producers (IPPs) accounted for around 45% of the sanctioned projects in solar parks. Around 35% of the park projects were awarded to IPPs registered in Mauritius, where companies benefit from preferential taxation.

India’s Exide Industries Limited and Switzerland-based Leclanché S.A. have announced a 75%-25% joint venture (JV) under which lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells, modules and battery packs will be manufactured in the state of Gujarat.