Blogs
Why opening up ‘Open Access’ is crucial to the success of India’s solar story
01 May 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
Gujarat recently announced a ban on private power consumers sourcing electricity from outside the state (refer). This is detrimental to India’s power sector reforms and hinders with the deployment of...
A renewed thrust for solar? – What to expect from a Congress-led government
29 April 2014 | Karan Raj Chaudri
The election season in India is drawing to a conclusion. Most observers agree that while the overall performance of the UPA-II government has been checkered at best, one area where it has had some degree of success, is solar. The party manifesto takes credit for launching the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (‘NSM’) and aims to lead a renewed push for renewables. Although unlikely as...
Weekly Update: India to invite bids for another 1,500 MW of solar PV under the NSM this year
29 April 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
BRIDGE TO INDIA understands that Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) plans to allocate 1,500 MW of solar PV projects under the National Solar Mission (NSM) towards the end of this year. These new projects are likely to follow the bundling mechanism, similar to phase one of the NSM and unlike the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) mechanism used for the recent 750 MW of NSM projects, where Power...
Why is India’s renewables sector underachieving?
24 April 2014 | Tobias Engelmeier
India is an ideal market for renewable energy. The country is immensely energy hungry but has a supply shortage: It has coal, but of low quality. There is hardly any gas or oil. Importing fossil fuels is difficult and increasingly expensive. At the same time, it has a vast potential for generating power from the sun, from wind, from small hydropower and from biomass. And yet, according to a new...
Why utilities need to wake up to the distributed solar boom
23 April 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
Utilities across the world have so far overlooked or ignored the wave of distributed generation, based on cheap solar power. This, however, represents nothing short of a revolution: it transfers power (actual and economic) from suppliers to consumers. Utilities are at a crossroads. They can focus on protecting their existing business or on mastering the new opportunities as they arise. They are...
Weekly Update: Is this the time for Indian manufacturing sector to start attracting investments?
22 April 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
In a recent meeting of members of National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI), Solar Alliance of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Saudi Arabia Solar Association, it was announced that as many as a dozen manufacturers from Gulf countries have shown interest in setting up manufacturing joint ventures with Indian companies (
Weekly Update: Decoding the solar track record of India’s political parties
15 April 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
The first solar policy in India was released by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state of Gujarat in 2009. This was soon followed by a much more comprehensive National Solar Mission at the central government level by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) headed by the Indian National Congress (INC). Both these policies have laid the foundation for the creation of a solar power...
Weekly Update: Impact of a new government on the solar industry in India: our take
07 April 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
India has begun voting for a new government today. This largest ever democratic exercise will involve up to 815m citizens. Energy and renewables have not featured prominently in the campaigns to date. Most political analysts believe that, come May, India’s primary opposition, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), might come into power. As a thought experiment, we assess the likely effect...
Solar unlimited in India: 1,000 GW on 0.5% of the land
03 April 2014 | Tobias Engelmeier
We have often argued that solar can be India’s future: not just an incremental power source at the fringes of the economy, but a real game changer. We wanted to visualize what the potential really is. Our India Solar Potential map below, is the result. 1,000 GW of solar could be built on half the area of the district of Barmer in Rajasthan 1,000 GW could generate 1,500 TWh/ year which...
Weekly Update: NSM domestic content batch of 375 MW caught in crossfire between the developers and manufacturers
01 April 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI), one of the several solar industry associations in India, has written a letter to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) suggesting that domestic manufacturers do not have adequate capacity to supply the 375 MW of capacity allocations under the domestic content requirement (DCR) category of batch one of phase two of the National...
The Indian solar market is ready for the NSM boost
01 April 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
The April 2014 edition of BRIDGE TO INDIA’s quarterly publication, the India Solar Compass, has been released. Following are some highlights. • India signs 1,232 MW of PPAs in the first quarter of 2014• India to add 1,065 MW of solar PV capacity in the next financial year• India added 89 MW of solar PV capacity in the last quarter, lowest since Q3 2012 Project...
What are India’s strategic energy options? Part 4: A game changing shift to solar
25 March 2014 | Tobias Engelmeier
India has two choices to make. The first choice is: should it actively develop and follow an energy strategy? Or should it continue to sputter along in an ad-hoc manner, with inefficient private investments into back-up infrastructure and with power deficits that inhibit development? The second choice, if India opts for a strategy, is: what should the strategy be? Should it focus on the...
