Confirming the Mercom exclusive from last week, the Union Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh, has said that the government has decided to relax the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers for two years. Mentioning his reasons behind the decision, the minister said the fledgling domestic manufacturing capacity is insufficient to cater to the large solar capacity addition pipeline, which could have jeopardized the goal of reaching 280 GW by 2030 from just over 60 GW currently.

Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation has invited bids to procure 420 MW of solar power under Component A of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan program. The last date to submit the bids is March 8, 2023. Bids will be opened the following day. Bidders will have to furnish ₹5,000 (~$60.63)/MW of the quoted capacity as a bid processing fee. They must deposit ₹100,000 (~$1,213)/MW as an earnest money deposit.

Green Hydrogen will play a central role in India’s ambition to reach 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 and in developing energy storage solutions that could potentially replace lithium-ion-based batteries, Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy R.K. Singh has said. Singh said that the country is aiming to add about 8 million tons of green hydrogen capacity by 2030. This would require nearly 200 GW of renewable capacity considering one million tons of green hydrogen need 25 GW of power. It will contribute towards the overall renewable capacity addition target, Singh said in an interview with Business Today.

Bharat Heavy Electricals has invited bids for the operation and maintenance of 12.5 MW of solar projects installed at its facility in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, for one year. The vendor should engage maintenance personnel for the 5 MW and 7.5 MW solar projects to carry out solar panel cleaning, vegetation removal, outer yard HT maintenance, and transformer oil filtration works for one year. The last date to submit the bids is February 21, 2023. Bids will be opened on the same day.

An international team of researchers led by the University of Adelaide, Australia, said they have successfully split seawater through direct electrolysis without pre-treatment and produced green hydrogen, which achieved long-term stability and similar performance to a typical PEM electrolyzer operating in high-purity water. The researchers said they were able to do this with nearly 100% efficiency by using a non-precious and cheap catalyst in a commercial electrolyzer. The team used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes like reverse osmosis desolation, purification, or alkanization.

Rajasthan has set a target to install 11 GW of renewable-based generation projects in the next financial year (FY 2023-34), Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced while presenting the Budget for 2023. Rajasthan would provide concession in stamp duty and land tax duty to renewable energy developers planning to set up projects in the state. Gehlot said that this would result in a reduction in electricity duty on solar energy from ₹0.60 (~$0.007)/kWh to ₹0.40 (~$0.005)/kWh, which is expected to benefit residential net metering consumers.

To support offshore wind projects in France, the European Commission has approved €2.08 billion (~$2.2 million) funding which will help the EU meet the objectives under its Offshore Renewable Energy Storage and the European Green Deal. To date, only small pilot floating offshore wind projects have been developed in France. The funding will support the construction and operation of 230-270 MW floating offshore wind projects off the coast of the South of Brittany, for which France had earlier notified the Commission.