Blogs
Weekly update: Can India achieve 100 GW solar in 8 years?
02 December 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last week, speaking at a UNEP and FICCI conference on ‘Designing a sustainable financial system for India’, the Minister for Coal, Power and Renewable Energy, Shri. Piyush Goyal reiterated the government’s plan to achieve 100 GW of solar by 2022. This is a very ambitious goal – to say the least. Is it feasible? The short answer is: it depends on political will. And it will...
Weekly update: How real is India’s solar target for 100 GW by 2022?
26 November 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Over the past few weeks, India’s minister for power, coal and renewables, Mr. Piyush Goyal has publicly stated on several occasions that he envisions India to have 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. This is very ambitious. For this target to be achieved, India would soon have to start ramping up solar capacity at a pace similar to that of China, which plans to add another 40 GW in the next...
Sunny days are here for solar power in India
24 November 2014 | Tobias Engelmeier
India under Modi’s regime is being deliberated as a preferred destination for solar investments from rest of the world. An upcoming mega exhibition is going to be held in Delhi in February, to facilitate the international investment in India, “RE Invest Summit” (link). Though solar makes sense in India, but the question still...
Weekly Update | India looking at all options for low cost financing of solar projects in the country
18 November 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The Indian government clearly understands the impact and importance of low cost finance for the solar sector in the country and has taken up efforts to woo international institutional capital to the sector. Latest step in this direction is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between US-EXIM and IREDA for a financing support of up to USD 1 billion (INR 61 billion) for...
Small project sizes in Uttarakhand have increased average tariffs
12 November 2014 | Mudit Jain
Uttarakhand has opened the financial bid for a 30 MW tender which was floated in August’14. Despite the projects lacking scale advantage, Redwood projects has quoted a highly aggressive bid of INR 6.85/kWh for a 1 MW project. This bid is the lowest and is INR 0.71/kWh below the next bid. Overall, the median winning bid is INR 7.75/kWh, which is 12% higher than the median winning bids in...
Weekly update: MNRE revises subsidy benchmarks for off-grid and decentralized solar
11 November 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last week, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced revised subsidy benchmarks for various off-grid and decentralized solar applications (refer). The subsidy amounts have been fixed in absolute Rupee terms instead of as...
Utility scale projects are easiest to implement in India due to an existing track record
06 November 2014 | Mudit Jain
We believe that India could easily add 100 GW of solar power in the next ten years.[1] Such a capacity addition would likely be divided into different segments: small rooftop (solar bees), large rooftop (solar...
Climate Change: how close are we to the point of no return?
05 November 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Since the 1950’s, the world has witnessed (and recorded) global warming at an unprecedented speed. This radical change in the climatic system has been attributed to massive emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, due to industrialization and related, modern lifestyles. While there have been debates in the past over the reality and validity of global warming, there is now an overwhelming...
Weekly Update: Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh allocate 1 GW solar PV projects
04 November 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Last week, Karnataka opened financial bids for 500 MW solar PV projects, just a few days after financial bids for another 500 MW solar PV projects were opened in Andhra Pradesh. The bidding process in both the states was based on reverse bidding: on the basis of flat tariff in Karnataka; 3% escalation per year until the 10th year in Andhra Pradesh. The median winning bid in Karnataka is INR...
Andhra Pradesh: solar tariffs very close to new, imported coal
29 October 2014 | Mudit Jain
Andhra Pradesh has opened the financial bids for allocation of 500 MW solar projects. Developers have quoted a tariff for the first year, which will then increase at 3% every year till the 10th year. The term of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is 25 years. First Solar has quoted the lowest bid at INR 5.25/kWh (levelized at INR 6/kWh) and has shown the way to reach parity with imported...
Weekly Update:What do the latest coal and power sector reforms mean for solar in India?
28 October 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the various positive and ambitious announcements of the new Indian government on the solar sector (refer blog 1, blog...
Madhya Pradesh: The preferred new investment destination for solar in India
24 October 2014 | Jyoti Gulia
Madhya Pradesh has emerged as the preferred state for new solar investments, overtaking earlier favorites Gujarat and Rajasthan. With close to 322 MW[1] of solar capacity installed, MP is now ranked third after Gujarat and Rajasthan in...
