Markets & Policy

Approximately 4,800 MW of solar capacity has been commissioned in India in the first six months of the year, surpassing last year’s 4,038 MW total, finds new data from Mercom Capital Group. GST uncertainty could slow growth in 2018, however.

The country’s cumulative installed PV capacity has now surpassed 700 MW, while total renewable energy generation has reached 1.46 GW.

The EV, battery and solar company continues to raise record amounts of cash as it ramps Model 3 production. At the same time, Tesla is emphasizing profitability from its solar business, which has undergone a significant transformation since the company bought SolarCity.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has initiated the second phase of its CPSU program to provide installation capacity totaling 7.5 GW of solar projects made using domestically manufactured solar cells and modules.

According to provisional numbers provided by the government, large-scale solar plants have totaled 145 MW at the end of June, while PV distributed generation has reached 92 MW.

The program will be managed by the country’s state-owned utility Latvenergo and will be open to rooftop PV projects not exceeding 10 kW in size.

Chinese PV developer and EPC specialist Xinyi Solar recorded a net profit of HK$1,254.9 million ($160.5 million) in the first half of 2017, up 12.5% from the preceding year, as its downstream unit’s cumulative installed capacity passed the 1 GW mark.

The Swiss power electronics giant has been chosen by Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT to shore-up and stabilize parts of the grid to make them more amenable to intermittent power supply from renewables such as wind and solar.

The German PV equipment supplier expects to post a loss for this year, due to a €11 million compensation paid to Algerian company CEEG.

The $2.5 million initiative will be financed by the World Bank and will enable the installation of around 1 MW of rooftop PV systems.