Policy

Following a petition by domestic manufacturers seeking legal protection under anti-dumping laws, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies has recommended the imposition of duties ranging from $537-1,559/metric ton on solar ethylene vinyl acetate sheets imported from China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

The Gurugram-based independent power producer has secured fresh debt financing of up to US$ 350 million from the US government-owned Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). This follows an earlier round of financing in March 2016 when OPIC had granted a loan of US$ 250 million to ReNew Power.

The state-owned Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam will set up the 100 MW solar project atop branch canals of river Narmada at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore. Four locations in central Gujarat have already been identified for the project.

This is the third round of Greenko investment by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Holdings and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), taking their total in the Indian renewable energy firm to $2 billion.

The government of India has approved central financial support of more than Rs46,000 crore by 2022 to promote solar among farmers and in the residential sector. The KUSUM scheme for farmers has been allocated Rs34,422 crore and the rooftop solar program Rs11,814 crore.

India’s utility-scale solar capacity addition during October-December 2018 went down 46 per cent over the corresponding period of 2017. In contrast, rooftop solar grew strongly at 47 per cent.

Tariffs retracted distinctly from Rs 2.84 per unit seen in the 700 MW Gujarat solar auction recently, inching closer to the Rs 2.71-2.72 level of Maharashtra’s previous tender.

The region’s climate, developing economies and demographic growth are driving increased electricity demand in the Middle East and North Africa. However, as a hub of conventional energy supply, the region has been slow to embrace PV. To capture more of the value chain and deliver the full potential of solar, there are increasing calls for distributed generation deployment to play a bigger role.

India’s renewable power consumption will surge from around 20 million tons of oil equivalent (toe) today to 300 million toe by 2040, predicts oil and gas major BP, mainly in the power sector and driven largely by growth in solar capacity. Yet coal will continue to dominate the country’s power generation mix, accounting for 80% of output, according to BP’s Energy Outlook 2019 report.

Hindustan Powerprojects has executed more than 350 MWp in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea and the U.K. since its establishment in 2008. It claims to have been the largest solar project developer in the UK from 2011-13 and commissioned its first utility-scale project in India in Tamil Nadu in 2010. In an interview with pv magazine, Lalit Jain, CEO for the firm’s international solar business, shared his experience from developed markets, and what it takes to be successful doing business overseas.