Blogs
Weekly Update: Solar policy space in India becomes active again
26 November 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
In the last two quarters of every financial year (October – March) for the last couple of years, the solar policy space in India has become alive. This year is no exception and in the last couple of weeks we have seen announcements on phase two of the National Solar Mission (NSM), Kerala’s recently finalized solar policy and new project allocations in Haryana. The pre-bid meeting focused...
Distributed power and the grid – what are the technical challenges?
25 November 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
This blog piece is based on a recent workshop that was part of a joint project by Bridge to India, Prayas Energy Group and IIT Mumbai (National Center for PV Research and Education, NCPRE). Our research results will be published in March 2014. At...
Weekly Update: India’s national policy is betting big on centralized solar power
19 November 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
Average project allocation sizes under India’s National Solar Mission (NSM) have been increasing ever since the mission started. The batch one of phase one allowed a single developer to take up a capacity of up to 5 MW. This was increased to 50 MW in the second round. In the first round of phase two, it has been increased to 100 MW. With this, the direction of the national policy is clear. It...
Pre-bid meeting brings a lot more clarity for the upcoming NSM allocations
19 November 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
The pre-bid meeting for allocations under batch one of phase two of the NSM was held today and was chaired by officials from the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) and SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India). The first point that was discussed was about the location of projects, its impact on the open access charges and who would be responsible to bear this cost Another key aspect...
Karnataka announces tariff for grid interactive projects: And why these numbers don’t matter for rooftop PV installations
30 October 2013 | Akhilesh Magal
The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), on 10th October 2013 announced the tariffs for grid-connected projects (click here for the order). The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has announced benchmark tariffs for grid connected solar projects. These...
Weekly Update: Tamil Nadu to announce an initiative for promoting residential rooftop solar installations
29 October 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
Tamil Nadu is expected to issue guidelines for subsidy to be provided to residential rooftop systems in the state (refer). This is expected to be similar to the rooftop solar scheme earlier announced in Kerala (
How to think about your NSM bidding strategy?
29 October 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
The RfS for capacity allocations of 750 MW under batch one of phase two of the NSM has been released (refer) and interested developers are required to submit their proposals by 28th December 2013. There are several...
Renewable power innovations in India – the world’s laboratory
24 October 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
India’s electricity system is a mess. While that is bad for consumers, it is great news for innovators and entrepreneurs who see an opportunity to earn money, to provide a social solution or to do both. Prayas Energy Group, a Pune think tank, now wants to provide more data for such ventures. Its concept is a finalist in the Google Impact Challenge 2013. India has many different needs, markets...
Weekly Update: Pure-play power producers are losing the solar battle, for now
22 October 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
According to a Crisil research note (refer), pure-play power project developers in India are finding it difficult to compete for solar projects against investors that have entered the segment primarily to avail the tax incentives. An investor...
Weekly Update: Global and Indian solar stocks rally as manufacturing finds its feet
15 October 2013 | Jasmeet Khurana
Stock market valuations of major solar global companies have risen significantly in the last two months, beating the respective indices by a significant margin. The share prices of Jinko are up by 61%, Yingli Green Energy by 107%, Sun Power by 40%, Trina Solar by 124%, Renesola by 35% and First Solar by 11%. The share prices for Indian cell manufacturer, IndoSolar, have increased by 73% over the...
Will solar replace coal as the lead power source in India in ten years?
14 October 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
Today, solar adds less than 1% to the Indian power mix. Coal, by contrast, contributes over 60%. Coal is the lead power source and setting the overall power price. However, as coal is getting more expensive with respect to solar, and since the potential for solar is almost without limits, solar can become the lead power source in the next ten years. The cost difference between a kWh of coal...
A need, but not yet a market? What holds the Indian private PPA solar market back?
10 October 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
There has been much talk about the great transition in the Indian solar (power) market moving from a centralized, policy-driven market, to a distributed, private PPA market. In fact, we have ourselves added to the chorus (see our various blogs and
