India

While the rail sector carries 8% of the world’s passengers and 7% of global freight transport, it represents only 2% of total transport energy demand, thus highlighting its efficiency. By diversifying energy sources and providing more efficient mobility, rail can lower transport energy use, and reduce carbon dioxide and local pollutant emissions, say International Energy Agency (IEA) analysts.

India’s Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has tendered 1.5 GW worth of solar cell and module manufacturing capacity linked to ISTS connected solar PV power plants for an aggregate capacity of 3 GW. The plants are to be developed on ‘build own operate’ basis. The maximum tariff payable to the project developers has been fixed at Rs 2.75/kWh for 25 years.

The President of India has sanctioned implementation of viability gap funding for setting up of 1 GW grid-connected solar PV power projects in North Eastern states including Sikkim. The funding has been approved as a subset of the existing scheme for setting up of 5 GW grid connected solar PV power projects with viability gap funding under Batch IV Phase II of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

A week after rejecting the sole bid received from Azure Power, India has trimmed the size of its first ever manufacturing-linked solar tender by more than two-thirds.

The irrigation department of the state of Uttarakhand has invited bids for setting up of 40.84 MW solar PV project at Haripura (27.34 MW) and Tumariya (13.50 MW) dams in district Udham Singh Nagar. The projects are to be built under build-own-operate-transfer model. The deadline for bid submission is February 15. Technical bids will be opened on February 18, while the date for opening of financial bids will intimated in due course.

State owned Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has asked 1,703 farmers from Faridabad, whose applications for new tubewell connections up to 10 BHP are pending, to give their choice for off-grid solar connections from the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency or grid connections from the DISCOMs, reports The Tribune.

The nation saw 1.3 GW of renewable energy secured for business through private PPAs in 2018, almost twice as much as the volume recorded in Australia, but the picture could change next year if China follows through with its renewable portfolio standard commitment.

Solar-wind and wind-only projects will be set up in centralized renewable energy parks along the lines of successful solar installations to keep power evacuation simple, under the terms of the state’s new land policy.

Setting up of the microgrid with battery energy storage is part of an extended R&D collaboration between ABB and the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee to create platforms for research on smart city technology deployment.

State-owned NLC India Ltd – formerly the Neyveli Lignite Corporation – has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Tamil Nadu to set up a 1 GW solar project in the state.