Blogs
Carbon market – key details still missing
20 November 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), an agency set up under the Ministry of Power to promote energy efficiency, have issued more details of India’s carbon trading scheme announced back in June. In the first phase starting FY 2024, 89 companies across four sectors including iron and steel, cement, petrochemicals and pulp & paper shall be subject to GHG emission intensity based annual targets. The targets shall be…
RPO tinkering creating confusion
14 November 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Ministry of Power has again revised Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) trajectory for FY 2025-30. Total target of 43.3% by FY 2030 remains intact but sub-targets for wind and hydro power have been reduced sharply from 6.9% and 2.8% to 3.5% and 1.3% respectively. The gap has been filled by a new sub-target of 4.5% for distributed renewable power, to be met by power procured from rooftop solar and…
Project pooling mechanism to find few buyers
06 November 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Ministry of Power has amended Electricity Rules, 2002 to harmonise power tariff across a pool of ISTS-connected renewable projects in central government tenders. The government is planning to create separate pools for different project types including solar, wind, solar-wind hybrid, hydro, RTC, peak power and firm power. A weighted average tariff shall be determined for total power output from each pool using tariffs of individual projects.
Improving domestic debt outlook a big plus
30 October 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The three central government financial institutions (FIs) – PFC, REC and IREDA – have been aggressively expanding their debt exposure to the renewable sector. In the last few months, REC and PFC have together sanctioned debt of INR 57 billion (USD 684 million) to Serentica Renewables for its 960 MW wind solar hybrid project portfolio.
Record low module prices a boost for project developers
23 October 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Module prices have been on a downward trajectory for fifteen straight months now. China FOB prices plummeted to a record low of USD 0.14/ W last week, 53% lower than all-time highs reached in Apr-June 2022 and down 46% YOY. The sharp price decline owes to massive supply glut in China and fall in…
No cogent plan for offshore wind
16 October 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
MNRE has again revised offshore wind plans and outlined alternative project development models. The revised target is to auction 37 GW capacity by FY 2030, up from 30 GW as announced last year, primarily off the coast of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Three different models are proposed…
Rooftop solar market stagnant
09 October 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
As per our latest data collection exercise for rooftop solar market, total capacity addition in the 12-month period ending June 2023 was about 2,540 MW, up only 1% YOY. The residential market witnessed steady growth with annual installations totaling 797 MW (up 21% YOY) but the corporate installations were down 6% YOY at 1,743 MW. Total installed capacity is estimated to have reached…
Indian green hydrogen standards will need to catch up
25 September 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
MNRE has announced the widely awaited green hydrogen standard for India. The standard –covering only green hydrogen production stage and excluding all pre and post-production emissions – has been set at an average of 2 kg CO2e/ kg over 12 months. No standards have been defined for derivative products like green ammonia and...
Energy storage framework needs more oomph
18 September 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Ministry of Power has issued a framework for promoting energy storage to support integration of variable renewable power capacity. The framework mostly seeks to combine the different policies and plans already announced – energy storage obligation of 4% by FY 2030, projected capacity of 74 GW/ 411 GWh by FY 2032 in line with...
Solar capacity addition to boom over next two years
21 August 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India added 2,206 MW solar capacity in Q2 2023, 40% lower YOY, declining QOQ for five straight quarters in a row. Main culprit for the slowdown was utility scale solar, which added a mere 420 MW in the quarter. Open access was the saviour with volumes jumping steadily and outpacing utility scale capacity addition for the first time since the start of 2023.
Lucrative module export opportunity waiting to be tapped
14 August 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Indian module exports have been on the way up for a year now. Q2 2023 export volume amounted to 1.3 GW modules, up 1,492% YOY. Total exports in the year ending June 2023 were estimated at 4.3 GW, up from just 247 MW in the previous year. Share of exports in total module production has now increased to 45% from just 4% in the previous year…
Enough room for more players in the OA market
07 August 2023 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
There has been a slew of new entrants in the open access (OA) market over the last two years. Vedanta, a large industrial conglomerate has set up a dedicated platform, Serentica Renewables, to decarbonise group companies. International IPPs like BrightNight, Ampyr and AB Energia have entered the market recently and are already developing 100+ MW capacities across multiple states.
