India is expected to deploy just 4.1GW of solar in FY2018/19, down 55% year-on-year and roughly a quarter of the government’s annual target of 16GW, according to the latest report from consultancy firm Bridge to India.
Indian state-run utility NTPC has issued a tender for 1.2GW of solar PV to be connected to the national grid (ISTS) through NTPC Generating Switchyards in Western Region.
Trade delegations from India and Taiwan have failed to reach an agreement in a dispute regarding India’s safeguard duty on solar cell and module imports from developed countries as well as China and Malaysia, according to a World Trade Organisation (WTO) filing dated 2 November.
Indian solar developer Azure Power has commissioned a 95MW solar power plant in Gujarat as the first phase of a 260MW capacity award from the distribution company Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) .
The distributed renewable energy (DRE) sector, necessary in a world with millions of people without power, is being held back by a chronic shortage of skilled workers. Indeed, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) has just 16,000 people working in renewable energy in a region with 600 million un-electrified people, according to the founders of a new campaign aiming to fill this skills gap.
Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) has awarded 150MW (3x50MW) of solar projects to Giriraj Renewables at a tariff of INR2.92/kWh (US$0.04), and awarded 100MW (5x20MW) to Asian Fab Tec with a tariff of INR2.89/kWh (US$0.039).
Indian solar developer Azure Power has had a hugely successful period of raising financing, but consultancy firm Bridge to India has said that the overall domestic PV sector is facing hard times in raising debt finance.
Indian buildings are silent energy guzzlers, but the game-changing potential for making zero energy buildings (NZEBs) has not been explored extensively, according to think tank Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP).
Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Corporation Limited (GVSCCL) has inaugurated a 2MW grid-connected floating solar power project on the Mudasarlova reservoir in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in the second quarter of 2018, were slightly higher than the previous quarter, although activity slumped specifically in June, after China’s decision to suddenly cap utility-scale and distributed generation (DG) projects (531 New Deal). But large-scale multi-gigawatt production plans in the first half of the year may have hidden an inevitable slowdown, despite the impact on downstream demand from the 531 New Deal.
