Chinese solar manufacturer GCL System Integration Technology (GCL SI) has secured a 550MW PV module supply agreement with Indian state-owned utility SJVN Green Energy.
Modules will be used for two solar parks, Khavda and MSEDCL, located in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra respectively. Shipping of the entirety of the supply will be made within 30 days of signing the contract.
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With this agreement, GCL SI continues to expand its supply of modules in the Indian market after securing a 1.1GW module supply this year with utility NTPC Renewable Energy, the largest order NTPC made with a single module supplier.
In the last six months, the Chinese solar manufacturer signed over 2.5GW of PV module supply contracts in India.
“This significant milestone in expanding our presence in the Indian PV market reinforces our commitment to collaborating closely both with private and state owned PV players in India,” said Zhang Kun, executive president of GCL SI.
As the solar manufacturer secures module supplies in India, the company also continues to ramp up its n-type module and solar cell capacity, such as with the first phase of the Hefei module assembly plant reaching 15GW of annual capacity last year and aims to have 60GW of nameplate annual capacity once fully operational.
It is also expanding its solar cell capacity with the first phase of the 20GW Wuhu cell plant becoming operational in October 2023 and with 10GW of n-type cell annual capacity, for which the company expects to raise up to RMB4.8 billion (US$672 million) to fund the plant.
Solar leading the way in India
Even though solar PV added more than half of total power generation capacity in India last year, new capacity saw a year-on-year decline with 10GW in 2023, compared to nearly 14GW in 2022.
The decline in new solar capacity was due to project commissioning delays, which in itself was hampered by module procurement issues from the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) policy. The list has been temporarily suspended for a full year – originally set to last two years – until the end of March 2024, exempting projects to procure modules from the ALMM.
Moreover, the Indian government unveiled incentives for rooftop solar in its interim budget for 2024-2025, with ten million households offering free electricity every month. Helped by the government’s subsidies, the residential solar market could see 32GW of installed capacity, according to a study from policy research firm the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).