Off-grid solar

The solar installation in India is making a slower-than-expected recovery as Covid-related disruption continues to hurt construction progress. Safeguard duty extension and module price increase have added to the pain.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is eager to ramp up deployment of solar-powered dryers, cold storage and charkhas across the nation’s 600,000 villages.

Launched in November 2015, the alliance aims to collectively address key challenges to the scaling up of solar energy in member countries that fall between Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. The Alliance is now supported by 68 member countries, and a further 20 countries are in the process of becoming members.

The government is trying to harness renewables to increase domestic output but will need a more liberal energy market and to consider the structure of procurement auctions, cloying red tape and the financial travails of state utilities if it is to achieve its goals, says Rakshika Kaul of Amp Energy India.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India has issued a call for expressions of interest to supply clean energy to isolated off-grid communities and warned components will probably have to be transported manually.

The system will use an innovative solar film developed by Power Roll that can be manufactured for just $0.03/Watt and deployed on a wide range of non-load bearing buildings, including agricultural and warehouse roofs.

The CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur, which has expertise in the design and development of solar artifacts for multifaceted uses, and the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurugram, will conduct joint field studies for different solar technologies and work towards skill and capacity building.

The Internet of Things (IOT)-enabled solar tree—using 35 solar PV panels with a 330 Wp capacity each—is especially useful for the agricultural community in providing electricity for high-capacity water pumps, e-tractors and e-power tillers. It can also allow precision agriculture through IoT-enabled features such as real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction, and soil health monitoring.

Manufacturers and integrators of solar-based drinking water kiosks, solar trees, solar street lighting systems, and e-rickshaw charging infrastructure can submit their interest by August 29. 

The 1.95 MW solar plant with 2.15 MWh battery storage will power four islands of the union territory—Agatti, Kavaratti, BangaRam and Thinnakara.