India

An AFP newswire report this week said Ministry of New & Renewable Energy secretary Anand Kumar had announced plans for 30 GW of generation capacity in the state of Gujarat and 25 GW in Rajasthan, all of it along a 20-25km strip of semi arid land on the border.

Developers have until November 18 to submit bids for projects anywhere in India. The projects are to be set up on a develop, build, demonstrate and transfer basis.

India's largest utility NTPC has tendered for 1GW of grid-connected solar capacity under the Develop Build Demonstrate Transfer (DBDT) programme.

The first solar power plant was commissioned under the state bona fide entrepreneurship programme at Mundkhar village in the district.

India plans to build a string of renewable energy projects along its sun-baked, wind-whipped western border, officials said Monday (Oct 21), as New Delhi continues an ambitious programme to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels.

Solar photo-voltaic cells that are predominantly domestically manufactured will be the only ones eligible to be used under the mandatory local sourcing category according to a statement from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Thailand hypermarket chain Tesco Lotus has entered into a solar PV power purchase agreement with Singapore-headquartered renewables company Cleantech Solar.

Visitors to this year’s Solar Bangladesh Expo have called for the implementation of quality standards on solar imports – action which the government is currently pursuing – with one industry insider rubbishing Indian-made products.

The latest blow in the political battle between clean energy project developers and an anti-renewables state government has seen the electricity regulator order power distribution companies to honor PPAs signed after a public tender.

Philippines-based AC Energy will work with UPC Solar Asia Pacific – the solar energy unit of Hong Kong-headquartered UPC Renewables – to build more than 1 GW of solar in the coming years, with an initial focus on Asian markets such as India, South Korea and Taiwan.

Automotive Electronics Power Private Ltd. (AEPPL), an India-based lithium-ion battery manufacturing venture between three Japanese companies, aims to produce 30 million cells per year by 2025.

India has released new draft guidelines for the bidding process under its Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy, which includes e-reverse auctions and allows for the addition of energy storage capacity.

Expert warnings that India will be falling short of its renewable deployment targets have sparked a strong-worded rebuke from the government, which has slammed them as “ill-founded”

A report by Indian ratings agency CRISIL points to a rising rate of tender failures, an inconsistent policy approach from central and state governments and restrictive solar energy tariff caps and says India could have just 104 GW of renewables capacity by 2022.

This year will see strong growth for the global PV market, to 114 GW, and that pattern will continue in the years ahead, according to analyst Wood Mackenzie. a report has highlighted soaring inverter replacement costs for PV project owners as a side-effect of the solar success story.