SECI

Storage companies are working with solar developers towards strategic alliances, says Naveen Sharma, Vice President-Sales & Strategic Planning, Exicom Power Solutions—an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure developer that has set up an R&D centre in Bengaluru to facilitate development of lithium-ion battery packs. In an interview with pv magazine, Sharma also talked about the current scenario for Li-ion battery storage manufacturing in India and strategies to succeed.

This 1.2 MWp project would generate more than 80% of power requirements of the Akal University and 13 Akal Academies. It has been built at a total cost of Rs 5.2 crore, out of which the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has provided a total subsidy of around Rs 1.7 crore.

Nevertheless, bringing down aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses would be key to stabilising the power sector in India. Additionally, measures like smart-metering should be expedited and implemented in a time-bound manner, suggest the ratings agency analysts.

In response to feedback from the domestic renewable energy sector, the Indian government has revealed plans to launch $5 billion of tenders for new transmission lines, starting in phases from this summer.

Independent solar power producer Azure Power’s operational rooftop capacity has a levelized weighted average tariff of Rs 5.82 (US 8.4 cents) per kWh—139% higher than the lowest solar power bid in India.

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.

The deadline for SECI’s latest attempt to incentivize Indian solar manufacturing by offering generation capacity has come and gone. The government body’s attempts to kick-start domestic production have thus far made little headway.

As part of the viability gap funding scheme for 12 GW of new solar, SECI has invited bids for setting up of 2 GW of grid-connected solar PV projects. The projects, to be developed on ‘build, own, operate’ basis, can be located anywhere in India for self-use or use by government entities at maximum fixed tariffs of Rs 3.50/kWh. The deadline for bid submission is May 3.

India needs a manufacturing policy that is scalable, secure, strategical and supportive and promotes both the growth and spread of solar while protecting the interests of domestic manufacturers.

The president of India has approved the Rs 8580 crore viability gap funding (VGF) support for state-run generators to set up 12 GW of solar projects using domestically-made equipment over the next four years.