Blogs
WTO ruling on DCR: a blessing in disguise
26 September 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has rejected India’s final appeal and upheld its previous ruling against Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) provision for solar projects in India (refer). But India has already built a pipeline of around 1,800 MW of DCR projects as against operational cell manufacturing capacity of only about 600 MW. Demand from these projects should provide breathing room to...
Solar industry in the midst of another huge supply glut
20 September 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Solar equipment prices are crashing in China. Polysilicon prices have dropped 30% in a month (refer), wafer prices by 20% (refer) and similar...
It’s boomtown for Indian solar industry as business volumes grow to 2-4x last year
12 September 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
BRIDGE TO INDIA published the 2016 edition of its India Solar Map last week. The report shows that India’s total installed solar capacity has grown by over 80% in the year ending June 2016 to reach 8.1 GW. Out of the 3.6 GW capacity added in this period, 75% has come from four southern states and Tamil Nadu now ranks number 1 for commissioned capacity. An additional 14,842 MW of projects are...
India’s rooftop solar market gathering speed
09 September 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Rooftop solar market in India is expected to add new capacity of 700 MW in 2016 – 15% of total solar capacity addition this year – crossing 1 GW cumulative capacity by September and growing at a sizzling 300% over last year. Significant capacity is expected to be added in the commercial and industrial segment as commissioning before the end of this month will allow investors to claim 80%...
It’s China vs China for solar modules market share in India
29 August 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Chinese module suppliers increased their share of the Indian solar PV market, which added a total capacity of 3.6 GW in the past 12 months (refer), to 75%, up from around 50% in the previous 12 months. In contrast, the share of Chinese suppliers in the US market is believed to be less than...
Tamil Nadu takes top slot for solar capacity in India
22 August 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
India’s total installed solar capacity has grown by over 80% in the last 12 months to reach 8.1 GW. Out of the 3.6 GW capacity added in this period, 2.7 GW has come from four southern states with Tamil Nadu alone adding over 1.2 GW on the back of a generous feed-in-tariff of INR 7.01/kWh (US¢ 10.4/kWh). Tamil Nadu now ranks number 1 for commissioned capacity in both wind and solar. Six...
Raising capital number one priority for Indian solar developers
16 August 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
As the Indian solar sector grows in size and prominence, equity raising and portfolio sales are also gathering pace. Three major deals were announced last week – Azure Power is selling a minority stake to Canadian asset manager Brookfield to raise USD 75 million (
International Solar Alliance needs stronger focus and more commitment from the developed world
08 August 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
International Solar Alliance (ISA) was launched at the climate summit in Paris on 30th November 2015 amid much fanfare with membership from the solar resource rich countries lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. ISA has set out lofty ambitions to accelerate development and deployment of existing clean solar energy technologies in these countries. A total of 121...
NTPC expected to announce key changes for upcoming solar project auctions
01 August 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is currently in the process of finalizing guidelines for 5,000 MW of new solar projects with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) as an off-taker. These projects are expected to be tendered over the next three years with actual timing and geographical spread depending on demand from power utilities. Draft guidelines are expected to be released...
India takes first steps to join the utility scale energy storage club
25 July 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
In a ground-breaking step for the Indian solar market, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has announced that it will soon release tenders for solar project developers to install storage solutions along with their projects. In the upcoming tenders for 100 MW capacity in Andhra Pradesh and 200 MW in Karnataka, each 50MW project would be connected to a storage capacity of 2.5 MWh (
GST to pare price reduction gains made by the Indian solar industry
21 July 2016 | Jasmeet Khurana
The Indian government seems to be ready to push through the much anticipated Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the Parliament in the upcoming monsoon session (July 18 to August 13). If passed, the government will aim to implement the reformed tax regime from April 2017. A key proposal of the reform is to do away with a maze of taxes and exemptions therein and replace them with uniform tax...
Sharp fall in PV module prices to help the Indian solar sector
18 July 2016 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Recent market reports suggest that an oversupply situation is building up in PV module manufacturing in China, especially for the second half of 2016 and this is likely to lead to significant price corrections in the market (refer to story 1,
