Andhra High Court Stays APERC’s Public Hearing to Revise Solar Tariffs
The Andhra Pradesh high court has stayed the notice issued by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) for public hearings to revise solar tariffs. The APERC was expected to ...
Key Policy Updates for Solar and Other Renewables from November 2019
The month of November witnessed some key policy announcements and modifications in the domestic renewable industry, especially solar. During the course of the month, the central and state government agencies ...
Traded Volumes of Solar RECs Witness 45% Decline in November 2019
In the November 2019 renewable energy certificate (REC) trading session, there was a significant decrease in the number of solar and non-solar RECs that were traded when compared with the ...
Solar Tender, Auction & Commissioning Delays Causing Liquidity Issues for Developers
According to several solar developers Mercom interacted with recently, there was unanimous agreement that the cost of participating in large-scale solar tenders has reduced their ability to actively bid for ...
China’s TBEA Set to Launch its 2 GW Inverter Factory in Bengaluru
TBEA Xi’an Electric Technology Co., an affiliate of the TBEA Group, has announced that it will be unveiling its GW solar inverter factory on November 29, 2019, in Bengaluru. The ...
Hanergy Achieves 25.11% Conversion Efficiency for its Silicon Heterojunction Solar Technology
Beijing-based Hanergy Holding Group Ltd, the thin-film solar power company, has announced that its Chengdu Research & Development Center has once again breached the world record for its silicon heterojunction ...
ANERT Tenders a 30 kW Rooftop Solar System with Battery Storage at its Premises
The Agency of Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT) has floated a tender for a 30 kW grid-connected rooftop solar system with battery backup and electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) ...
RBI Relaxes External Commercial Borrowing Norms to Benefit Solar & Wind Companies
In January 2019, National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) wrote to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to carve out a special category to allow External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) ...
CERC Dismisses Azure Solar’s Claim for GST Compensation on O&M Expenses
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has dismissed the petitions filed by Azure Power against the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) requesting ...
New Guidelines Restrict Short-term Equity Investment in Solar Projects
In an amendment to the competitive bidding guidelines for procuring power from grid-connected solar PV projects, issued by the MNRE in July 2019, it was noted that the project developers need to maintain a controlling shareholding of 51% in the SPV or project company executing the PPA. ...
Ecoppia to Provide Cleaning Solutions for Fortum’s Solar Projects at Pavagada and Bhadla
Ecoppia, a company providing automation and robotics for large-scale solar projects, has been chosen by Fortum to deploy its field-proven cleaning solutions across its solar projects in India. Ecoppia develops fully ...
MiaSolé Achieves 18.64% Aperture Area Efficiency on Flexible Solar Modules
MiaSolé, a provider of thin-film solar solutions, has announced that the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, one of the largest solar research institutes in Europe, has confirmed an ...
Tariff Adoption Delays are Hurting Investments and Jobs in the Solar Sector
According to Section 63 of the Electricity Act 2003, authorities such as the state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) are expected to adopt tariffs that have been discovered through a transparent ...
Solar Now Accounts for 9.2% of India’s Total Installed Power Capacity
In the quarter ending September 2019, India’s total renewable energy capacity (including large hydro) stood at 130.68 GW. This translates into approximately 35.7% of the total installed power capacity in ...
Japan’s Univergy to Invest $200 Million in Zambian Solar Projects
Univergy Solar, a renewable energy company, based in Japan, is going to invest more than $200 million in two solar projects in the central African nation of Zambia. This is ...
Solar Inverter Supplier Ginlong Reports 82% Jump in Revenue During Q3 2019
String solar inverter supplier, Ginlong Technologies, has reported revenues of $52 million in the third quarter (Q3) of the calendar year 2019 compared to Q3 2018. This jump in revenue ...
Economic Slowdown Has Taken a Toll on Indian Rooftop Solar Market: Solis Interview
In August 2019, Mercom reported that in the first half of the year, the top five solar inverter manufacturers in China accounted for 36.44% of inverter exports globally from China ...
Gujarat Files Petition to Purchase Surplus Solar Power from MSMEs at ₹1.75/kWh
The Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) recently filed a petition with the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) to get the tariff approved for purchasing surplus solar power generated by ...
Maharashtra Releases Draft Regulation for Tariff Determination of Renewable Projects
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has issued the draft version for its tariff determination regulation order for renewable projects that are commissioned in the state for the generation and ...
Price Competition Translates into Technological Competition: Growatt Interview
For solar project developers in the country, the decision to choose one inverter over the other is becoming increasingly difficult, given the rapid expansion of the segment, and numerous entrants ...
North-East India Continues to Have the Highest Power Supply Deficit in First Half of FY20
India’s power supply deficit stood at 0.5% during the six months between April and September 2019, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). During these six months, 683,389 million units ...
Maharashtra’s Draft Policy Sets Solar RPO Target at 4.5% for 2020-21
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has issued a draft policy announcing its renewable purchase obligation (RPO) from 2020 to 2025. The solar RPO targets mentioned in the policy draft ...
APTEL Orders Karnataka DISCOM to Clear Dues of Azure Power for Solar Supply by November End
In a case between Azure Power and Gulbarga Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (GESCOM), the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) has ordered the distribution company (DISCOM) to pay all of its ...
UAE-Based Masdar Wins Bid to Develop 100 MW Solar Project in Uzbekistan
Masdar (or Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) has announced that it has won the bid to develop Uzbekistan’s first public-private partnership (PPP) solar project under the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) ...
Hyderabad’s Police Academy Floats Tender for 1 MW of Rooftop Solar Projects
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel (SVP) National Police Academy has issued a tender for the development of a rooftop solar project of 1 MW capacity. According to the tender documents, the ...
