Rajasthan

State-owned module maker Central Electronics Limited will bid for distributed grid connected solar projects in Rajasthan DISCOMs, in tie-up with another party that will carry out the installation work using its panels in case of award of contract.

The developer has achieved a first for India and announced another 3 GW of clean energy capacity will be on the way in the next 18 months.

November 21 is the last date to bid for the solar capacity which shall come up at NTPC’s Anta project in Baran district. Bids must be accompanied with Rs 20 million as bank guarantee.

An AFP newswire report this week said Anand Kumar had announced plans for 30 GW of generation capacity in Gujarat and 25 GW in Rajasthan, all of it along a 20-25km strip of semi arid land on the border.

The selected bidders are required to install and commission solar-based water pumping systems in various villages and towns of Jaipur district. Bidding closes on November 5.

The hybrid solar plants (with battery bank) shall come up at 34 railway station sites in the 4 states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam and Bihar. Bidding closes on October 30.

A report by Indian ratings agency CRISIL points to a rising rate of tender failures, an inconsistent policy approach from central and state governments and restrictive solar energy tariff caps and says India could have just 104 GW of renewables capacity by 2022.

The rooftop solar project—commissioned under Rajasthan’s solar net-metering policy—will meet about 30% of Dynamic Cables’ energy requirement.

Research institutes have moved quickly to emulate the successes observed in a test installation at Jodhpur as India races to meet an ambitious target of doubling agricultural income by 2022.

Take-up has been slow considering the nation’s mammoth agricultural industry but, as a packed session on the topic at the recent REI show illustrated, attitudes may be changing in a nation which is already installing solar greenhouses.