Duration: 50 mins

Mercom India’s leadership team, in an exclusive presentation, provided an overview of the Indian solar market landscape along with the latest developments on-the-ground, key trends shaping the market, policy implications, and short-term and longer-term outlook, laying the ground for the sessions that follow.

Duration: 30 mins

Duration: 40 mins

With the Government’s ‘Make in India’ policy, new module technologies, pricing fluctuations, supply chain issues – how are project developers and manufacturers handling all this under tremendous cost pressures? How are Indian manufacturers gearing up to set up new production units backed by government push led by a production-linked incentive program? What strategies are international suppliers implementing to ensure they are a part of the solar growth story in India.

Duration: 45 mins

Juggling the macroeconomic priorities of protecting distribution companies while expanding renewables in the energy mix has led to many policy inconsistencies and flip-flops, which have proved to be the biggest challenges in the sector, leaving the developers and manufacturers confused, and calculations in flux. Addressing unsigned power sale agreements and renegotiating power purchase agreements, cancellation of auctions, and misinterpretation of clauses, the panel discussed the bottlenecks and possible solutions.

Duration: 45 mins

India is an attractive solar market with tremendous long-term potential. The installation targets are aggressive, but investments in the solar sector have been stymied because of the counterparty credit risk from distribution companies. What will the future of electric utilities look like in an age of widespread distributed generation?

The challenges are well known, and the panel discussed the best path forward for DISCOMs – from privatization, new regulations, RPO enforcement, payment guarantees, to provisions in the Electricity Act – that can boost investor confidence and unlock billions of investment dollars sitting on the sidelines.

Duration: 45 mins

Development timelines and deadlines are crucial for solar projects. But this development path is more often staggered with uncertainty. Land acquisition, transmission availability, approvals, and disputes…the list goes on. This panel, made up of developers and government regulators, discussed the issues and share ideas to resolve them.

It also addressed some of the pervasive issues like the price volatility of components, challenges in design and BoS, the certification process and bottlenecks, and the global pressure on local markets and prices.

Duration: 45 mins

Solar project acquisitions have soared globally, and they can take off in India too. There are more dollars chasing assets than there are good projects to buy. Solar project acquisitions are vital for developers as it allows them to recycle capital and invest back into newer projects providing much needed liquidity. Developers and investors will address how solar projects can be made more attractive and easy to acquire. We also had international investors share what they are looking for.

Duration: 45 mins

This discussion focused on how to accelerate the deployment of rooftop solar PV systems in India and what lessons India can incorporate from successful and high-growth rooftop markets like Australia and Vietnam. Industry stakeholders participated in a dialogue and share ideas on how to facilitate growth in the rooftop market and how to address challenges when dealing with DISCOMs.

Duration: 45 mins

Mercom India projects of the year highlighted the year’s most outstanding solar projects in various categories.

Duration: 30 mins

If there is one thing consistent in the last few years, it is uncertainty. The solar market is witnessing more supply chain and logistics problems now than ever. These challenges are going to play an important role in determining project costs and auction tariffs. The panel sheds light on issues like logistics, procurement, raw materials availability, freight charges, and other frequent surprises in the supply chain and addressed how best to handle them.

Duration: 45 mins

Duration: 45 mins

This panel focused on the robust pipeline of tenders and auctions and what can be expected in the foreseeable future.

We heard how developers are preparing for the future pipeline along with the transmission utilities. The discussion addressed what the implementing agencies are doing to ensure the tenders are structured well, so they receive a good response. Are extremely low bids a positive development? If so, why do auctions get canceled every time there is a record low bid? How do we avoid this cycle that slows auction activity?

Duration: 30 mins

This session brought together investors and developers to discuss the challenges involved in financing solar projects. The panel discussed the barriers and also the incentives to invest in India over other markets. How do projects in India tap into foreign funds looking to invest in an era when money is cheap and abundant? Watch the discussion to hear from investor and developer perspectives.

Duration: 45 mins