Utility Scale Storage

Falling module prices will help PV post another record year after an estimated 132 GW was installed worldwide in 2020, according to an energy transition investment trends report published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The private-sector arm of the World Bank, which claims to leverage $3 of its own capital and $8 from third parties for every dollar invested in its blended finance funds, has attempted to quantify what devoting Covid recovery funds to green investment would mean for emerging economies.

A report by McKinsey & Company reinforces the widely-held view renewables will supplant fossil fuels in the energy system but also joins the chorus of voices warning the world is on track to fall well short of limiting global temperature rises this century to 1.5C.

The National Solar Energy Federation has asked the State to consider a 15-year electricity duty exemption, transmission charges on the entire capacity instead of per-kWh basis, and delinking of the secondary RE source capacity from the rated power capacity of the primary RE source to promote hybrid project deployment.

With this, green hydrogen (hydrogen produced using renewable energy) would become cost-competitive with hydrogen from fossil fuels in certain industrial applications such as ammonia production for fertilizers.

Gopal Lal Somani, a former director at the Jaipur-based Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Ltd (RRECL), says distributed solar systems with storage are the key to achieving India’s mission of supplying clean energy at an affordable cost to all. In this article, he dwells on the benefits and techno-commercial feasibility of these systems for the nation.

“Efficient and economically viable energy storage, and optimal hybridization, are crucial for ensuring the expansion of renewable power generation both at the grid and micro-grid scale,” says Deepak Thakur, chief executive officer for the hybrid and energy storage business of Sterling and Wilson. He has spoken to pv magazine about the accelerated proliferation of renewables-plus-storage across markets.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India has issued amendments to the procurement and extended the bidding deadline a second time.

The analyst said currently, India and Australia are the only Asia Pacific countries where renewable power already costs lower than new-build coal. It predicted the trend would spread to the entire region by the end of the decade, while India and Australia would see renewables becoming further cheaper than coal.

Low-cost batteries and novel perovskite materials are among the topics selected for joint research and development.