Blogs
Solar sector faces growing water risk
30 October 2018 | Vinay Rustagi
India’s solar sector is growing rapidly – total installed capacity has risen from just 1 GW in 2012 to over 25 GW at present and is expected to go up by over 10 GW every year. Fast growth and concentration in water-stressed areas exposes solar to growing water risks – scarcity, rising cost, poor quality, conflict with other social and economic uses and environmental degradation. We...
RE debt financing gets tougher
29 October 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
RE projects are facing increasing financing challenges. Liquidity in the Indian financial system has dried up considerably pushing up cost of debt finance by 1.0-1.5% over last year. To make matters worse, we...
Impressions from an international module conference
25 October 2018 | Vinay Rustagi
I attended one of the world’s leading solar module industry events – PV ModuleTech in Penang, Malaysia – this week. There were about 200 participants from across the world including mainly all leading module manufacturers, various testing agencies and independent engineers. There were also a few project developers and investors such as Brookfield, Shell, 8minuteenergy, Clara and...
Solar sector needs robust quality standards
23 October 2018 | Surbhi Singhvi
A recent report by PI Berlin, supported by MNRE, NISE, SECI and KFW, has highlighted major risks facing Indian PV projects – sub-optimal design, inadequate EPC contracts, poor installation and lack of proper maintenance. The study confirms longstanding concerns about poor quality in the Indian solar...
NTPC jumps into the bidding arena
22 October 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Uttar Pradesh conducted auction for its 500 MW utility scale solar tender on 10 October 2018. Winning tariffs came at between INR 3.17-3.23/ kWh (USD cents 4.4). Capacity was won by NTPC (160 MW), Adani (100 MW), Sukhbir Agro, Eden, Solar Arise and Avaada...
One more extension for the 10 GW integrated solar tender
15 October 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
SECI has again extended bid submission date for the 10 GW integrated project development and module...
GST problems refuse to go away
08 October 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has issued its final decision in response to appeals filed by Adani and Azure against NTPC and SECI respectively for ‘change in law’ compensation claims arising from GST implementation. It has opined that implementation of GST constitutes ‘change in law’ as defined in the respective PPAs. It has also ruled that project developers can claim...
Renewable energy – going through a period of peaks and troughs
03 October 2018 | Arti Mishra Saran
Total utility- scale solar and wind installed capacity reached 58 GW on September 30, 2018. Solar and wind capacity individually stood at 24 GW and 34 GW respectively. 9874 Figure: Total solar and wind capacity on September 30, 2018 Last 12 months were notable for exponential surge in tender announcement. 46 GW of solar and wind tenders were announced in between October 2017-...
Spot price spike unlikely to have any impact on solar power
01 October 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Spot prices for power on the energy exchange in India touched an all-time high of INR 17.61/ kWh (USD cents 24) last week. Average daily price on October 1, 2018 shot up to INR 7.64 (USD cents 11), about 150% higher than average for last year. Trading volumes have also simultaneously shot up by about 18% over last year. The price spike owes largely to short-term supply and demand side...
Tamil Nadu issues a ‘feel good’ draft solar policy
27 September 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Tamil Nadu Energy Development Authority (TEDA) has released a draft solar policy for comments. The draft policy envisions a total installed capacity of 8,884 MW by 2022; 40% (3,553 MW) of this capacity is expected to be added by rooftop solar systems. Key proposed provisions in the policy are: Gross as well as net metering proposed to be allowed; group metering and virtual net metering have...
International strategic investors hedging their bets in India
24 September 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Hongkong’s CLP Group has agreed to sell 40% equity stake in its Indian subsidiary, CLP India, to CDPQ, a Canadian pension fund. Meanwhile,
Power sector reform still a distant dream
21 September 2018 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Ministry of Power has proposed a number of progressive ideas for the electricity sector in the form of draft amendments to the National Electricity Act and National Tariff Policy. Proposed amendments include obligating DISCOMs to supply...
