Europe

In news that will add urgency to Indian government efforts to establish a domestic storage industry, funding has apparently been secured for 16 GWh-plus production lines in Sweden and Germany. Is India at risk of being left in the starting blocks?

A report on the prospects for a mooted $2.6tn electric vehicle market over the next decade says PHEVs – part electric, part gas-guzzling – are already losing market share rapidly to pure electric rivals, and will be extinct by 2030.

Having acted against Turkey, the Trump administration has removed India too from the list of nations exempt from import tariffs on solar cells and modules.

While the world’s biggest solar manufacturers are confident there are plenty of alternative markets for a rising volume of panel exports, the message spelled out by first-quarter shipment figures is that protectionism works.

With Leclanché due to open a module and battery pack assembly line in Gujarat alongside JV partner Exide Industries by the end of next month, the Swiss storage solutions company has been active nearer its home market.

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is the technology that enables bidirectional charging – where an electric vehicle (EV) can both charge from and discharge into the grid. With V2G, EVs can play the same role as static batteries in managing local loads and participating in energy market value streams. Alexander Lewis-Jones, head of electric vehicles research at Delta-ee looks at the opportunities this technology provides, and remaining challenges to wider adoption.

A unit of Piramal Group will be investment and project manager for the fund, prompting speculation cash will be spent on assets developed by Mytrah Energy.

The Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, and Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova) have created funding mechanisms through which companies may seek support for joint R&D projects. The projects should aim to develop renewable, energy storage and waste management technologies that can be commercialized over two years through joint cooperation between India and Sweden.

Pune-based Electronica Finance Limited (EFL) has raised $10 million from a climate fund managed by Swiss impact investor responsAbility to diversify its SME lending offering and to expand into financing solar PV for the commercial and industrial markets.

The result was certified by the solar cells laboratory at the calibration and test center of Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research. Imec’s measurements showed cell bifaciality surpassed 80%.