India

The municipal council of Karimnagar has mandated rooftop solar on new buildings of a certain size as part of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy’s Smart City Mission, which requires 10% of municipal energy to be generated from solar.

Delhi based Avanze Inventive will set up the Lithium-ion cells manufacturing unit in the state of Andhra Pradesh with the help of the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB). The plant, with total size of 1 GW, will entail a total investment of Rs 1800 crore (US$ 256 million).

India needs a manufacturing policy that is scalable, secure, strategical and supportive and promotes both the growth and spread of solar while protecting the interests of domestic manufacturers.

The President of India has sanctioned financial outlay of Rs 11,814 crore for phase II of grid-connected rooftop solar programme to achieve ‘40 GW by 2022’ target.

Power discom BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) has set up four such microgrids at its offices in East Delhi. These microgrids will combine rooftop solar with lithium-ion-based battery energy storage systems.

While commissioning is expected to slow down in FY 2018-19 due to the impact of the safeguard duty and GST issues, FY 2019-20 is weak due to delay in auction as several tenders got delayed/cancelled. However, FY2019-20 onwards, solar capacity additions are expected to pick up due to several factors including subsiding/removal of the safeguard duty (which would ease cost pressures).

In a move to promote indigenous manufacturing, the government has doubled the basic import duty on lithium ion cells—used in manufacturing of lithium ion accumulator for EVs—to 10 per cent from April 2021. Battery packs used in manufacturing electric vehicles face tripled import duty of 15 per cent as against the current 5 per cent.

A study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water claims the imposition of goods and services tax on PV projects, safeguarding duty on module imports and late payments from hard-up power distribution companies are all hindering Indian solar.

The President of India has approved total central financial support of Rs34,422 crore for the Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahaabhiyan (KUSUM) rural solar scheme. Through the scheme, the government aims to add solar and other renewable capacity of 25.75 GW by 2022.

The independent power producer will use the capital raised through the green bond to refinance outstanding external commercial borrowings and as Capex in eligible green projects.