India

South Africa’s Phelan Energy Group has reached financial close on its 50 MW solar PV project, located in Rajasthan. It is set to be online by October.

In an interview with pv magazine, vice president of GoodWe, Ron Shen, talks about the company’s plans for Germany, Spain, Africa and India, in addition to its goal to triple production capacity to 15 GW in China. He also discusses the effect of China’s 31/5 policy change, and plans for an initial public offering (IPO).

India’s electricity sector is transforming rapidly. A 50% decline in wind and solar tariffs since 2016 means renewable energy is now the lowest cost source of new generation. This has turned the established order in India on its head.

There is no doubting the tough environmental challenges facing PV modules and systems among the varied climactic conditions of India. These conditions have created earlier failures than seen in mature solar markets, with less diverse temperature fluctuations, such as Europe. DuPont’s Rajaram Pai says awareness of this is growing, however more needs to be done.

The decision to tax the ‘service’ provided to solar developers at the full rate comes days after the Supreme Court upheld the federal government’s imposition of a 25% safeguarding duty on Chinese and Malaysian panels.

Chinese PV manufacturer, Trina Solar today launched its TrinaHome product in New Delhi. It is India’s first solar residential home kit. While it is currently imported from China, the goal is to assemble it locally, in the coming months.

By adopting resource efficiency measures, the Indian PV solar manufacturing sector can reduce its material requirement from an estimated 12 million tons to 8.2 million tons by 2030. The resource-efficient approach will also increase efficiency to more than 30% from 6% in 2018, according to a study conducted under the European Union’s Resource Efficiency Initiative (EU-REI) Project.

German solar monitoring company SDS has announced a strategic partnership with developer iPLON India. The established Solar-Log system will help India’s drive to raise quality standards in PV.

“Profitable yet risky”: This was one of the findings of a recent study, released in July, conducted by PI Berlin on behalf of Germany’s National Metrology Institute (PTB) when examining six Indian PV projects from the viewpoint of project quality. The report’s author Asier Ukar spoke to pv magazine in advance of his presentation on the subject at the Quality Roundtable at the Renewable Energy India conference next week.

After a pre-bid meeting with solar power developers on September 6, India’s Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is looking to amend the tender document, which it hopes to upload to its website in the coming days, following approval from the ministry, according to a SECI spokesperson.