Residential PV

Inspectors from solar risk management company PI Berlin visited six projects and exposed cost-cutting in installation, non-existent warranties, serious safety concerns and improbable performance figures.

The remarkable 4 GW of solar capacity added last year has seen the state displace Tamil Nadu as the nation’s renewables top dog. And there is more to come, according to a new report, with PV set to account for a third of rising energy demand over the next decade.

India’s solar rooftop sector continues to disappoint with the first quarter of FY 2018-2019 achieving just 155.77 MW against the 1,000 MW EoY target.

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 Indian solar PV market saw 10.4 GW of new capacity added in the 2017-18 financial year, says Bridge to India, thus bringing cumulative installations to 24.4 GW as of this March. Leading the charge is the state of Karnataka. Concerns over the industry’s development remain, however.

Underlining India’s commitment to becoming the global renewable energy leader, Shri Anand Kumar, secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said the country plans 500 GW of capacity by 2030. He also underlined plans to become a solar and storage manufacturing hub; and said the International Solar Alliance needs to widen its membership.

There was incredulity in some quarters as the federal government raised its renewables ambition another 22%, but the stellar performance of the past four years points to the new target being a realizable one.

Global newly installed capacity for 2018 is forecast to reach 102.6 GW, of which “only” 39 GW are expected to come from China. Fourteen countries are expected to cross the GW threshold this year.

India saw the issuance of 13 new utility-scale solar PV tenders totaling 11,945 MW in the quarter ending March 31, 2018, which is 68% more than in the entire of 2017. However, tender capacity for rooftop solar PV (greater than 1 MW in size) was down 50%, at 102 MW.

Global solar PV demand this year will be less than in 2017, on the back of China’s latest policy decision, says TrendForce. Overall, it sees new installs dropping 40% in China to 31.6 GW. The protectionist measures taken by the U.S. will also be weakened by the resulting falling module prices.