Blogs
Draft National Energy Policy lacking in both vision and substance
10 August 2017 | Surbhi Singhvi
NITI Aayog, India’s central planning agency, recently released the draft National Energy Policy (NEP). The document sets out national objectives and planning framework for the energy sector for the next 23 years (up to 2040). It comes at an opportune time when India is going through a critical energy transition period. Its main thrust is to let market-based mechanisms guide growth in various...
Greenko and Azure close record green bond issues
31 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Greenko and Azure Power have together raised USD 1.5 billion from sales of green bonds in the last two weeks. Other offshore green bond issuances by ReNew Power, NTPC, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), IDBI Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank and L&T Infrastructure Finance mean that India is amongst the top ten green bond markets in the world with a cumulative issuance of over USD 4 billion. In...
India initiates another anti-dumping investigation on solar cells and modules
25 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India has initiated a new investigation to probe dumping of solar cells and modules from China, Taiwan and Malaysia. The petition for this investigation was submitted by Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) on behalf of Indosolar, Websol and Jupiter Solar. The...
Indian rooftop solar market growing at over 80% annually
18 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
BRIDGE TO INDIA has released its latest edition of the India Solar Rooftop Map report. As per the report, India added 678 MW of rooftop solar capacity in FY 2016-17, growing at 81% Y-o-Y. Total installed rooftop solar capacity reached 1.4 GW as of March 2017. Strong market fundamentals including...
Is Uttar Pradesh ready for business?
10 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Two months ago, we wrote about how Uttar Pradesh (UP) could be the dark horse for solar power demand in the country. Since then, the state has announced
GST launched but clarity still missing for the solar sector
03 July 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Three days into implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Indian solar industry continues to face uncertainty regarding GST rates. We know that GST will be applied to solar modules at a concessional rate of 5%. Central government officials including the Minister for Power, Piyush Goyal, have
Growth in solar imports increasing the risk of a knee-jerk reaction by India
19 June 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India imported 5.7 GW or about 89% of its total solar module requirement in FY 2016-17. Value of these imports is estimated at USD 3 billion, equivalent to 2.8% of the country’s total merchandise trade deficit. An increasing reliance on imports in a growing and strategically important sector is creating various stress points and raises the risk of a knee-jerk policy reaction by the government...
Greenko, Trina Solar and ABB lead in the Indian solar market
12 June 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
BRIDGE TO INDIA has released the March 2017 edition of India Solar Map. As per our project database, India installed 5.5 GW of utility scale solar capacity in the last fiscal year reaching total cumulative solar capacity of 12.5 GW by March 2017. Another 12 GW capacity has been allocated to developers and is in various stages of development. – We expect southern states to continue to...
Renewable sector to ‘trump’ Trump
05 June 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
“In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord,” US President Donald Trump said last week. The move has already been criticized extensively...
Solar modules to be taxed at 5% under GST as against 18% declared earlier
29 May 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last week, we wrote that the proposed 18% Goods and Service Tax (GST) on solar modules could cause major disruption in the industry and affect over 10 GW of projects. Following uproar in the industry, India’s revenue secretary, Hasmukh Adhia, has
Southern region to lead the nation in grid integration of renewable energy
29 May 2017 | Surbhi Singhvi
India’s southern region comprising Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala accounts for 25% of national power consumption but 45% of total wind and solar power capacity in the country. Penetration of variable wind and solar energy, defined as generation from both these sources as a percentage of electricity consumption, in the southern region was 9% in 2016-17 as against...
GST to cause significant disruption to the solar sector
22 May 2017 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Indian government has released final Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates under the new indirect tax regime proposed to be rolled out from July 1. The biggest surprise for the power and renewable sector is the announcement of 18% tax rate for solar modules as compared to a present effective rate of zero. In contrast, GST rate for coal has been lowered to 5% as against current rate of 11.69%...
