Highlights

The crystalline solar cells and modules manufacturer—which has 200 MW of cell line and 250 MW of module line capacity—has secured orders equal to full production capacity for both cells and modules till March 2020.

As of October 31, a cumulative renewable energy capacity of 83.38 GW was installed in the country, which included 31.69 GW from solar, 37.09 GW from wind, 9.95 GW from biomass and 4.65 GW from small hydro.

December 5 is the last date to submit proposals for the joint research program on advanced materials for next-generation solar energy utilization and energy storage that will sponsor around 10 projects. The maximum funding available for all research projects approved is Rs40 million for the Indian side and 4,000,000 NIS for the Israeli side, for a period of two years.

While it has often been referred to as “the future of PV” in recent years, discussions surrounding bifacial technology are now very much in the present. Modules are beginning to roll off production lines in significant numbers, and industry players are boasting of gigawatts of bifacial projects that are already installed or in the late stages of development. But it’s still early days for the technology, and there are questions to answer for it to achieve its full potential. pv magazine investigates the modeling and optimization of bifacial PV’s performance.

The recently proposed guidelines allow electricity cost reduction of only Rs 3.64/unit for commercial and industrial consumers, which is not even sufficient to recover the capital costs of setting up the solar infrastructure.

The technology brings environmental, economic and social benefits, says the senior VP of Ciel et Terre’s Indian business. However, the nation’s obsession with price dictating business decisions, he adds, ignores the truism that ‘in the long run, cheap products lead to more cost’.

December 3 is the new bidding deadline for the grid-connected solar project that is to be set up on develop-build-demonstrate-transfer basis anywhere in India. Techno-commercial bids will open on December 4.

Bids can be submitted till December 27 for the project which shall come up at the state-run power producer’s Panchet project in Dhanbad district. The project shall be awarded through tariff-based domestic bidding followed by reverse auction.

While 95.67 MW has already been installed on various railways buildings, 248.46 MW capacity—awarded by Railway Energy Management Company Limited—is under different stages of execution.

The order enabling payment of a rupee for every kilowatt-hour generated by off-grid PV systems has been extended until October 2021 because of anticipated delays in the state electricity board hitting its renewable purchase obligation.