NTPC Green Energy invited bids for the engineering, procurement, and construction package with land development for up to 300 MW of inter-state transmission system-connected solar projects anywhere in India. The scope of work includes the operation and maintenance of complete solar projects, including the switchyard and power evacuation system until the interconnecting grid substation, along with consumables and spare parts for three years from the commissioning date. The contractor must also identify, acquire, and transfer ownership or lease the land in favor of NEEPCO. The last day to submit the bids is November 24, 2023. Bids will be opened on the same day.

The Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission set an additional surcharge of ₹1.29 (~$0.015)/kWh for full open access consumers and partial open access consumers beyond their contract demand within the area of supply of the Punjab State Power Corporation. The Commission has also set an additional surcharge of ₹0.92 (~$0.011)/kWh for partial open access consumers to avail power up to their contract demand maintained with the distribution licensee. The additional surcharge will apply to power purchased from April 1, 2023, to September 30, 2023.

Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers invited bids for supplying, installing, testing, and commissioning 1.1 MW rooftop solar power projects at its mills in Kagithapuram, Karur Unit-I, and Mondipatti, Trichy Unit-II. The last date for the submission of bids is October 27, 2023. Bids will be opened on the next day. Bidders must pay a non-refundable bidding fee of ₹2,950 (~$35.4). They must also furnish ₹1 million (~$12,011) as an earnest money deposit. The successful bidder must submit a performance bank guarantee amounting to 10% of the contract price within 30 days of signing the contract.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy reiterated that action will be taken against entities for violating the domestic content requirement provisions prescribing the use of domestically manufactured solar cells and modules, wherever permitted by the World Trade Organization. The actions include filing criminal cases under IPC 420 and related sections, blacklisting developers for ten years, forfeiting bank guarantees, and disciplinary proceedings against the officers of the central public sector undertakings or state governments.

The government is working on another production-linked incentive for batteries to reduce the cost of storage and boost the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in India, Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy R K Singh said. Launching an EV dashboard developed by OMI Foundation, Singh said, “The future is electric. Nobody can stop this. The price of storage will come down, and once that comes down, diesel and petrol SUVs will be history.” The dashboard projects a 45.5% compounded annual growth rate for EVs from 2022 to 2030, with Maharashtra and Delhi taking the lead in charging station deployment.

Hyderabad-based rooftop solar solutions company Freyr Energy secured an equity investment of $7 million, which it said will be used to increase the adoption of solar energy among retail customers in India. The funding round was led by EDFI ElectriFI, a European Union-funded impact investment facility managed by EDFI Management Company, which contributed $3 million to the investment. Several other investors participated in this round, including Schneider Electric Energy Asia Fund, Lotus Capital, Maybright, and VT Capital.

The world must add or replace 80 million kilometers of electricity grids by 2040, which are equal to all grids globally today to meet national climate targets and support energy security, the International Energy Agency said in a report. The Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions report warned that unless policymakers and companies take swift action to improve and expand the world’s electricity grids,  efforts to tackle climate change and reliable supply of electricity could be put at risk.

Government-owned mining and power generating company NLC India incorporated a new wholly-owned subsidiary, NLC India Green Energy, to take care of its renewables business. Currently, projects to the tune of 2 GW of renewable energy are under implementation and will be taken up by NIGEL, including a 600 MW solar power project in Gujarat and an 810 MW solar power project in Rajasthan. The company has been registered in Chennai and will begin its operations soon.

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a conceptual design to produce totally green, carbon-free hydrogen fuel with a train-like system of reactors that is driven solely by solar energy. In a study published in Solar Energy Journal, the engineers said the new system efficiently harnesses the sun’s heat to split water and generate hydrogen. The MIT system would be paired with an existing source of solar heat, such as a concentrated solar plant — a circular array of hundreds of mirrors that collect and reflect sunlight to a central receiving tower.