Latest Solar Power News in India July'21

Latest Solar Power News from around India

Tariff

1. The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) has upheld the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) plea regarding the trading margin of power and refused to reduce the margin from ₹0.07 /kWh to ₹0.02 /kWh as approved by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) in their earlier orders.
2. The Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) has approved the procurement of 500 MW solar power by GRIDCO from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and directed the tariff to be capped at ₹2.61 /kWh, including the trading margin of ₹0.07 /kWh as proposed by GRIDCO.
3. NTPC Renewables and Talettutayi Solar Projects Nine (SolarArise) were declared winners in the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited’s (RUMSL) auction for 450 MW of solar projects at the Shajapur Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh at lowest tariff of ₹2.33 /kWh in the auction.
4. The Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam Limited have issued an order, levying electricity duty of ₹0.60/kWh on the consumption of power from captive solar projects, rooftop solar, and grid-connected small solar projects with the net metering facility.
5. According to the Commission, the role of the Commission in case of tariff discovery through a competitive bidding process is confined to tariff adoption, on being satisfied that the bidding process was transparent. Thus, the Commission adopted the 1,070 MW solar project tariff as mentioned in the power sale agreement between SECI and RUVNL. In November 2020, the SECI auction for 1,070 MW of solar projects in Rajasthan set a record-low lowest (L1) tariff of ₹2 /kWh (Tranche-III).

PLI

1. Contingent upon permitting, and pending approval of Indian government incentives that are satisfactory to First Solar, the advanced facility is expected to commence operations in the second half of 2023. First Solar plans to invest $684 million for solar module manufacturing in Tamil Nadu
2. US solar equipment maker CubicPV has earmarked at least $350 million for investment in a manufacturing facility in India, drawn by the government’s incentive schemes for local production
3. Vikram Solar has plans to expand the capacity to 3 GW of integrated module, cell, and wafer in the next five years.
4. Premier Energies plans to invest around Rs 1,200 crore in the next two years to expand its solar module and cell manufacturing capacity to 3,000 MW.

M&A

1. OMERS Infrastructure, an investment unit of Canada’s pension fund OMERS, has agreed to raise a 19.4% stake in Indian developer Azure Power Global Limited for approximately US$ 219 million.
2. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is looking to buy Norwegian solar module maker REC Group as part of the oil refiner’s ₹75,000 crore push into clean energy. Norway’s REC Group has an annual solar panel production capacity of 1.8 gigawatts (GW) and has installed around 10GW capacity globally.
3. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said it will acquire 1.60 crore shares (up to 31.2% stake) in ReNew Sunlight Energy (RSEPL), in one or more tranches, for a cash consideration of Rs 16.07 crore.
4. Thai electricity firm Global Renewable Synergy Company Pcl (GPSC) said it had bought 41.6 per cent of India’s Avaada Energy for 14.8 billion baht ($453.29 million).
5. ACME Solar Holdings on Friday announced raising USD 334 million by issuing offshore green bonds.

Policy/ Outlook

1. Given that 2.2 hectares of land suffices to produce 1 megawatt (MW) of agrivoltaics, the potential of agrivoltaics is 49.50 GW and 56.6 GW from fallow lands and other uncultivated lands, respectively
2. Woodmac says low completion rates in India mean the country will miss its 100 GW solar target for 2022, besides adding just 138 GW to 2030
3. The OSOWOG project will be implemented in three phases. In the first phase, the Indian grid will be connected with grids in West Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia to share solar and other renewable energy resources. In the second phase, the first-phase nations will be connected with the African pool of renewable resources. The third phase will be the final step for global inter- connections.
4. With Seci tenders facing difficulty in getting PSA, the trend is again moving towards individual state tenders, which offer ready PSAs, though they come at great receivables risk of each state discom’s credit rating Power Sale Agreement India: What happens next ?
5. The International Energy Agency in its report published May 2021 flagged global supply of copper for accelerated deployment of solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles.
6. While European countries like Denmark, Ireland, and Germany are leading among the world’s top 15 producers, India is not part of his group.
7. Under the third phase of the renewable energy service company (RESCO) model, off-grid solar power projects of up to 25 kW can be installed in areas where grid power has not reached or is not reliable. The program has now been extended to March 31, 2021.
8. The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) issued an order on 10 March enforcing this approved list of solar photovoltaic (PV) models and manufacturers (ALMM), which features around 23 manufacturers and is a non-tariff barrier, effectively discouraging Chinese imports.
9. Gujarat Ujrja Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GUVNL) has withdrawn subsidies to small-scale distributed solar projects, hitting about 4,000 projects with an aggregate capacity of around 2500 MW contracted capacity
10. State policies and agencies dealing with rooftop solar power have also changed frequently over the last decade–as the timeline below shows–leaving consumers confused and frustrated. Solar installers also complain that discoms are not promoting the alternative energy system enough.
11. Solar module prices have been trending high since mid-2020 and have risen around 17% year-to-date. At the beginning of the year, module prices hovered around Rs 18 per watt peak, and companies that bid aggressively expecting prices to fall are finding it difficult to keep their projects viable.

New Tender/ Installation

1. The Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited’s (RUMSL) tender for 500 MW of solar projects at the Neemuch Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh has been oversubscribed by 7 GW. Earlier in the month, Avaada Energy and O2 Power won the auction for 550 MW solar projects of RUMSL. The auction had received a huge response with a total of 18 bidders shortlisted for the tender, together with adding up to almost 3.5GW of bids for the offered capacity. 
2. NTPC, through its renewable energy arm, will construct what would be India’s largest single local solar power park of 4.75 Gigawatt (Gw) in Kutch
3. The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), in a recent order, ruled in favor of Adani Electricity Mumbai and allowed it to initiate the process to procure power up to 500 MW on a round-the-clock (RTC) basis from grid-connected renewable energy projects, complemented with power from other non-renewable (conventional) energy sources.
4. NHPC has invited bids from engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors for a 600 MW interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected solar photovoltaic project and associated power transmission lines in the Deora village of the Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan.
5. The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has released a tender for developing 1,200 MW of interstate transmission system (ISTS)-connected solar power projects (Tranche X) in Karnataka.
6. Reliance Infrastructure promoted power distribution company in Delhi BSES Limited signed purchase agreement for 510 Mw of solar and bundled hybrid power. Of the total quantum, 300 Mw is solar power and 210 Mw hybrid power.
7. SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) announced the first power supply agreement (PSA) in connection with its manufacturing-linked solar tenders, floated in November 2019. These were won by Adani Green and Azure Power
8. Tata Power and Azure Power were declared winners in the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited’s (MSEDCL) auction to procure power from 500 MW of from grid-connected interstate and intrastate wind-solar hybrid projects on a long-term basis.