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.
The Indian Power Ministry has put forward plans to compensate for grid curtailment of existing renewable energy projects, according to credit rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind Ra).
California broke a new renewable energy record earlier this month, generating 80% of its overall energy capacity in one day solely from clean energy sources.
China added 7.21GW of solar PV in the first quarter of the year, roughly 70MW compared to the same quarter last year, according to figures from China’s National Energy Administration (NEA).
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.
Even though monkeys were allegedly wreaking havoc on India’s solar rooftop systems last year, 2016 was remarkable for the Indian PV sector. With solar taking 1% the nation’s electricity share and India set to become the world’s third largest market in 2017 , Bloomberg New Energy Finance has proclaimed that ‘solar is king of Indian renewables’. Add the completion of the world’s largest solar plant to these accolades and you have a good indicator of the South Asian giant’s ambitions. Even India’s biggest oil, steel and mining companies are getting on board the solar rush.
China has released its latest five-year plan for the solar industry with a focus on tackling curtailment, improving project quality and further reducing its feed-in tariff.
Tariffs for utility-scale solar power in India are expected to go below the four rupee (US$0.059) mark next year, which would be a “radical moment” for India’s entire power sector, according to consultancy firm Bridge to India.
Around 75% of all India’s solar capacity additions in the last 12 months have been in southern states, according to the latest industry update from consultancy firm Bridge to India.
