solar energy corporation of India

With last year’s embarrassing manufacturing-linked capacity tender limping along, it has been reported that the Indian government – whichever form it takes after the current elections – is considering a new tender to incentivize the establishment of a domestic solar industry.

India’s leading solar region has been forced to apply the brakes to new solar with its power distribution companies having fulfilled their renewable purchase obligations for the next two years. Projects driven by federal agencies will continue, however.

As the nation aims for 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022 it is staring at up to 1.8 million tons of PV waste by 2050. A solar waste management seminar organized by consultancy Bridge To India in New Delhi brought stakeholders together to discuss how a PV waste management system could help.

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.

Record-setting Acme Solar has secured a third of the latest procurement exercise in the state with a lowest bid of Rs2.48/kWh. The tender was oversubscribed by more than 100% as offers came in for 1,620 MW of capacity.

The organization responsible for coordinating India’s push for 100 GW of new solar capacity by 2022 has had a busy week. But, as last year illustrated, tenders alone are not always a guarantee of new generation assets.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India has invited bids for the development of an aggregate capacity of 20 MW of lagoon-based floating PV with 60 MWh of battery-based storage systems in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep.

The payment security fund administered by SECI will ensure late payments by debt-laden discoms will not affect solar developers. The government is considering a levy on PV projects to help maintain the fund.

Developers will have to provide operation and maintenance services for ten years for the project at Kasargod Solar Park. The deadline for bid submission is in two weeks.