First Solar reached 1 GW of sales in India

1 GW of PV capacity shipped to India makes First Solar the first thin film manufacturer to achieve this milestone in the country.

India’s ambitious solar goals have begun to look more achievable as First Solar announces its 1 GW milestone of PV capacity supplied for the country.

In its fourth quarter and full year 2015 results, the U.S.-based solar producer and developer had mentioned 20.03 GW of “booking opportunities”, with a substantial part of them in India, Latin America and the Middle East.

In February 2015, at India's first renewable energy global investment conference and expo RE-INVEST 2015 in New Delhi, First Solar made a “Green Energy Commitment” to develop 5 GW of solar capacity in the country by 2019. Four months later, the company has successfully powered a 20 MW PV plant in the southern Indian state of Telangana.

To date, 200 MW of utility-scale solar projects, wholly owned by First Solar, are under construction in India. This year, India is expected to add a total of 4.8 GW of utility-scale PV plants.

Original Post: PV Magazine  

India’s NTPC tenders for 400MW of solar projects in Telangana

Indian utility National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has issued another tender for 400MW of solar projects to be located in the Indian state of Telangana.

The two requests for selection, which will go through a reverse bidding process, come under India’s National Solar Mission, the country's flagship programme for deploying solar capacity.

The first tender is for 350MW of capacity, made up of ten 35MW projects in the open category. The second is for 50MW made up of ten 5MW projects to come under Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) rules, which require the project developer to use locally produced cells and modules.

It should be noted that in August, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled against India in a long-running dispute instigated by the US over the inclusion of the DCR in its India's national solar programme, however, the ruling has yet to be enforced.

Having procured the power from the private developers, NTPC plans to bundle 2MWh of solar power with 1MWh of thermal power.

In August, NTPC announced plans to build 15GW of solar projects, which will be made more competitive by bundling the electricity produced together with electricity from some of India’s oldest coal-fired power plants.

Jasmeet Khurana, senior consulting manager at analyst firm Bridge to India, told PV Tech: “India now has a healthy pipeline of new allocations and is on its way to become a 5-10GW a year market in the next couple of years. This will provide significant opportunities to new developers as well as help existing developers ramp up their asset portfolios.”

He added that the tally of open tenders in India has now reached 5,120MW.

India targets 100GW of solar capacity by 2022 and recently submitted its INDC aiming to have 40% of its energy mix coming from alternative sources by 2030

Original Post: PV Tech

SunEdison installs 1.9 MW solar system for Delhi Metro

U.S. solar power developer completes construction of eight rooftop arrays at stations along the Indian city's Badarpur-Fariadabad line; two more PV systems on the way for further lines.

The Delhi Metro system is now partly solar-powered, with further arrays planned for more sections of the network.

EveryStockPhoto/dlisbona.

SunEdison – a U.S.-headquartered developer of solar modules and downstream projects – has completed a 1.9 MW PV project for India’s Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the first of its kind for the Indian capital.

SunEdison has installed solar panels at eight stations on the Badarpur-Faridabad line, making it the first metropolitan line in DMRC’s network to be completely solar-powered. SunEdison is also working on solar power stations for the Yamuna Bank station and Yamuna Bank yard. Collectively, these two arrays will have a capacity of 1.9 MW.

The completed arrays will power lighting and other auxiliary requirements at the station and depot buildings where they are sited. Construction took just two months, says SunEdison, and the arrays will deliver clean electricity for the next 25-30 years with little-to-no maintenance required.

In addition to the 2.8 MW of solar PV capacity already commissioned to SunEdison, the DMRC has signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for a further 7 MW of rooftop capacity across its vast network of lines, depots and stations. In total, the corporation hopes to add 50 MW of solar capacity to its stations and other buildings.

"Millions of people rely on the Delhi Metro each day, and by installing SunEdison’s solar system in eight of the metro lines, we are excited that these commuters will be able to benefit from a clean and reliable source of electricity,"said SunEdison’s president of Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa Pashupathy Gopalan.

These efforts by the DMRC to adopt and embrace renewable energy have been recognized by India’s Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has also praised DMRC’s approach, registering its green initiative as the world’s first transport sector project under its Program of Activities.

Original Post: 07. SEPTEMBER 2015 |  BY:  IAN CLOVER

Solar Power Installed Capacity Crosses 4GW-Milestone

Grid-connected solar power installed capacity has crossed the 4 GW-mark, according to data released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.Against a target of 1,400 MW for 2015-16, the achievement in the first four months of the financial year was 358 MW, or 25 per cent. On the basis of projects awarded in the recent months, both under the federal and States’ schemes, solar industry experts are confident that installations in the current year will exceed 2,500 MW. This contrasts favourably with the 1,112 MW installed in 2014-15 and 948 MW in the previous year.Solar capacity reaching the 4-GW milestone is said to be creditable considering that as recently as in 2010, India had only 12 MW of solar capacity.

The MNRE has set a target of 100 GW of solar capacity to be achieved by 2022. An ambitious target, and the big question is whether it would be met.A Citi group report, titled Energy Darwinism II, has projected that India’s solar installations in 2020 would be 26,523 MW— a respectable number, but way below the target. Such installed capacity would make India the fourth largest solar market, after China (148,141 MW), Japan (64,863 MW) and the US (64,133 MW).

Wind industry

Wind installations in the first four months of the current financial year were 412 MW, according to the MNRE data. Wind industry experts feel that, due to a variety of factors, the target of 2,400 MW for the full year is not likely to be met.The Citi report forecastsIndia’s wind capacity at 38,690 MW by 2020. The government’s target for 2022 is 60,000 MW. 

Source: BL