India

Bidders will be expected to deploy their tech in real field conditions. Shortlisted entries will be given sites to install solar pumps under India’s rural PV scheme.

A study into the potential pitfalls of the shift to clean power in the nation’s coal-dependent energy mix, pointed out almost all of South Africa’s solar farms are far to the south and west of the coal regions likely to bear the brunt of job losses in a country which already has 29% unemployment.

A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says there is plenty of investment capital available for Indian renewables, despite pandemic disruption.

With biodiversity concerns and social impacts such as arguments over the loss of agricultural land delaying projects, non-profit The Nature Conservancy India has published a report to help developers choose their locations more carefully and get India’s energy transition back on track.

The state, which is aiming to hit 2.2 GW of solar within two years, has received a Solar Energy Corporation of India proposal for 500 MW of floating project capacity even as it approves a 40 MW water-borne array put forward by the national solar body. The 500 MW suggested comes on top of a similar scale of floating PV planned across the state by public hydropower company NHPC.

Scientists in India have developed a new molecular precursor for applications in kesterite solar cells. They used the precursor to build a superstrate type solar cell with an efficiency that is purportedly among the highest ever recorded. They relied on a low-temperature process to manufacture the device.

Indian PV manufacturers have highlighted the need to find alternative supply chains and to push automation and Internet of Things applications on the factory floor, in order to keep production running amid raw material and labor shortages.

Researchers in India have developed a 5 kW/25 kWh vanadium redox flow battery with an energy density of 30 watt-hours to 40 watt-hours per liter.

Bridge to India figures show dominance of Chinese inverters, which supplied almost 80% of installs from July last year to the end of June.

Developers now have until September 23 to lodge bids for an earlier, 110 MW procurement round and can also toss their hat into the ring for a new tender in the district of Jamnagar which closes on October 5.