India’s famously weak grids should be able to integrate the planned addition of 175GW of renewable energy by 2022, according to a report released by the central government.
India has put forward two separate policies that both promote and mandate rooftop solar for certain buildings – complementing the economic benefits of rooftop PV.
Although Tamil Nadu’s latest 1.5GW solar tender has seen significant oversubscription with 3,774.5MW of submissions, most of the key solar players in India have not participated.
India installed 5.5GW of utility-scale solar capacity in the last fiscal year and the country is expected to add another 8GW in the coming year, according to consultancy firm Bridge to India’s ‘India Solar Map’.
With stricter quality standards due to be brought in for Indian solar tenders, including inspections for modules, cells and wafers, energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal has warned the industry about failure to keep equipment quality high.
Consultancy firm Bridge to India explains how southern India represents a test case for grid integration of variable renewable energy, accounting for 45% of the country’s total wind and solar power capacity.
A Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) tender for 750MW of PV capacity at the Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan has been massively oversubscribed, with roughly 8.75GW worth of technical bids received.
India added 5,526MW of solar PV capacity in the fiscal year 2016/17, up 83% on the previous year, according to new figures from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
