Blogs
Acme, Azure Power and SunEdison get the biggest share of the NSM
25 February 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
On 21st February 2014, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) opened the financial bids for the allocation of solar PV projects under batch one of phase two of the National Solar Mission (NSM). A total of 122 project bids were received from 58 developers. The lower the VGF sought, the higher the chances of success. Four bids – those by PMP Auto Components, Zandu Realty, Golden...
Weekly Update: Kerala announces a draft net metering policy
15 February 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) has announced its draft net metering policy titled, ‘Draft Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (Grid Interactive Distributed Solar Energy Systems) Regulations, 2014’. Stakeholders are...
Weekly Update: Is solar in Tamil Nadu back?
08 February 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
Barely two weeks ago, after being challenged by the Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association and Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers’ Association, the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity termed the state’s Solar Purchase Obligations (SPOs) as illegal. Tamil Nadu had an original and rather innovative plan to drive the demand for solar power through procurement...
Weekly Update: Solar Power Developers’ Association meets Dr. Farooq Abdullah
31 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
On 29th January 2014, associates from the newly organized Solar Power Developers’ Association (SPDA) met Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary MNRE, for the first time to discuss and examine critical issues from the perspective of the project development and investment community in India. For this meeting, SPDA was represented...
Weekly Update: Tamil Nadu solar market in peril
25 January 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
In Tamil Nadu (TN), the Solar Purchase Obligation (SPO) order, mandating HV power consumers to buy 3-6% of solar power, has been set aside by a TN appellate tribunal on technicalities. To that extent, the judgement is a temporary win for the consumer bodies TNECA and TNSMA. The cornerstone of the judgement is that there was poor coordination between the various state and...
National Solar Mission allocations showcase positive trends for solar in India
22 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
On 20th January 2014, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) opened bids for the allocation under batch one of phase two of the National Solar Mission (NSM). A total of 68 bids were received from 58 developers, covering 122 projects and having a cumulative capacity of 2,170 MW. Of this, 36 projects with a capacity of 700 MW opted to bid under the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) part of the...
Weekly Update: As international solar manufacturing companies boom, India gets left behind
21 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
The year 2013 has been good for investors in solar companies listed on the US stock market. Manufacturers like SunPower, Yingli, Jinko, First Solar, ReneSola and Trina have all had a spectacular bull run with share values of companies like Trina more than tripling over the year. SolarCity, the rising star of distributed installations in the US, has seen a five-fold jump in stock price. All this...
Kerala’s rooftop programs – Lessons for other states
14 January 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
Media reports claim that Kerala’s ambitious rooftop plan to set up 10,000 off-grid solar power plants would be missing the deadline. However, based on our interaction with the officials, it seems that the program is likely to be completed well ahead of schedule as per the December 2014 deadline set by MNRE. As of now, around 6,000 plants have been commissioned and the rest are already in...
The market for solar irrigation pumps in India
14 January 2014 | Tobias Engelmeier
Solar irrigation pumps in India could be a very attractive market. They could replace diesel powered pumps in many parts of India’s agricultural heartlands, especially in the under-electrified Gangetic plains. They could even increase agricultural output by making more irrigation water available to farmers. However, at the moment, neither the products nor the distribution chains are anywhere...
Weekly Update: Kerala’s rooftop programs – Lessons for other states
11 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
Media reports claim that Kerala’s ambitious rooftop plan to set up 10,000 off-grid solar power plants would be missing the deadline. However, based on our interaction with the officials, it seems that the program is likely to be completed well ahead of schedule as per the December 2014 deadline set by MNRE. As of now, around 6,000 plants have been commissioned and the rest are already in...
Weekly Update: How will financing of NSM projects work?
07 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
Developers are in the process of finalizing their bids for National Solar Mission (NSM) projects. The use of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) mechanism for the first time, resulting in significantly different cash flow profiles, poses many interesting questions for developers. Financial structuring will play a very important role in determining bid outcomes. SECI has the right to claw back VGF in...
Tamil Nadu’s 10,000 solar rooftop policy: A winning proposition for residential consumers
06 January 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
The Government of Tamil Nadu released a new scheme called the 10,000 solar rooftop scheme for domestic consumers on 2nd December 2013 (click here to access the scheme, and here to access the corrigendum document). The...
