Plenty of naysayers have warned about unrealistic bidding and various delays damaging the Indian solar sector, but the head of ACME Solar, one of the largest developers India, approaching 1GW of installed capacity, has a very positive outlook on the industry's future. PV Tech caught up Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, the founder, chairman and managing director of ACME Group at the company offices in Gurgaon, New Delhi, to discuss delayed PPAs, transmission infrastructure, the approaching Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and a unique point of view on India's Ultra Mega solar power parks.
India’s first grid-scale solar-plus-storage tender from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has received very strong interest with a total of 13 developers submitting bids.
Utah's sPower surpasses 1GW of operating PV assets, Sunnova expands its solar system ownership programme, PI Berlin takes on a consultancy role for Adenium's Jordan PV projects and ACC partners with VAST China for a rooftop PV power station.
Mexico's SENER forecasts massive solar growth, with a 20-fold increase totalling 5.4GW by the end of 2019. In Spain, the long-anticipated renewable energy auction is given a confirmation for the first quarter of this year. Over in Chile, solar energy is being used to power the Santiago metro, through SunPower's El Pelícano project.
Solar development in India is being held back by delays in preparing the 20GW of solar park capacity planned by the central government, according to consultancy firm Mercom Capital Group.
NLC tendering for 500MW(ac) in Tamil Nadu, Off-grid solar power for 1,000 villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu 500MW utility-scale tender avoided.
Experiencing some of the highest irradiation hours on the globe, Africa has potential to reach more than 70GW of solar PV capacity by 2030, a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has said.
Bill Gates once again shunned solar power from his vision for energy access in Africa in his talk at the University of Pretoria in South Africa on Sunday, where he argued that whilst “cheap, clean energy” is what Africa needs, solar does not fit the bill.
Developers including Italy’s Enel Green Power and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) have pulled out of the running for the upcoming 350MW solar tender in Abu Dhabi.
