Climate Change

The Indian Ocean state has received $10m in concessional loan funding from the development agency of Abu Dhabi, in a program co-financed by the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Two of the world’s biggest players in the oil industry have backed the nation’s ambitious solar target – and are putting their money where their mouth is.

The nation installed 4.9 GW of solar, surpassing the USA – which installed 4.7 GW – to become the second largest solar market in the first half of the year, second only to China’s 24.3 GW.

Ratings agency adds to pessimistic predictions about Indian solar with MNRE ambition of 34 GW of solar auctions next year at real risk. The news follows similar warnings about India’s 100 GW solar target.

Sterling and Wilson wants to construct 200 MW of PV in Kazakhstan in the next two years and says it is eager to get a slice of the Uzbek market too.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a new report on different ways global warming can be kept within the 1.5°C limit. The panel seeks to inform policymakers before the upcoming COP24 in Poland this December. Resulting from their analysis, the 91 authors state that drastic action and significant investments are needed. Such climate action across all sectors would have significant positive effects on sustainable development progress, they say.

India’s Prime Minister kick started the first Assembly of the ISA, the second IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting, and the 2nd Global RE-Invest yesterday in Greater Noida. The agenda of the day? Universal access to solar energy at affordable rates; securing 40% of India’s electricity generation from non-fossil fuels by 2030, and allocating up to US$80 billion to boost domestic PV manufacturing.

DNV GL has issued its annual Energy Transition Outlook. It reports that global electricity demand is set to grow by a factor of 2.5. Over half of this demand is expected to be met with renewable energy by 2050, while storage will play a key role. It adds that grid infrastructure expenditures are less related to variable renewable energy assets than to increasing energy demand. In the current scenario, meanwhile, global warming is likely to reach 2.6°C.

On the sidelines of the Renewable Energy Dialogue 2018, organized by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in New Delhi recently, pv magazine spoke to the Counil’s founder and CEO, Arunabha Ghosh, senior programme lead, Kanika Chawla, and Hero Future Energies CEO, Sunil Jain about the performance of India’s renewable sector over the past year, the reasons for the deferral of solar PV project auctions, and the poor uptake of rooftop solar in India.

The threat of India’s government imposing anti-dumping duties (ADD) against solar cells and modules from China, Taiwan and Malaysia is very real, and runs counter to its own ambitions of hitting 100 GW of solar by 2022. Or does it? Could duties help to boost India’s solar industry in other ways? And does the ongoing political uncertainty create opportunity or trepidation for industry?