India

Biggest shareholder has acquired – and postponed payment of – a chunk of debt due last month and agreed a further debt-to-equity transfer. The Swiss company today stated further measures will be required to shore up its balance sheet.

Dr Rashi Gupta, Director at Vision Mechatronics discusses the EV landscape in India, particularly focusing on the potential for battery manufacturing. While there are currently many challenges, like a lack of raw materials and infrastructure, the opportunities are immense.

India’s solar rooftop sector continues to disappoint, with the first quarter of FY 2018-2019 achieving just 155.77 MW against the 1,000 MW EoY target.

The Indian Government must create a complete ecosystem to ensure the effective on-ground execution of its ambitious solar program, says Chakradhar Byreddy, Director–Renewable Energy, UL, Asia Pacific, during an interview with pv magazine. This includes investing in laboratory infrastructure, and skills for technical due diligence, energy yield assessment and forecasting.

The 750 MW Rewa solar power project, one of the world’s largest single-site solar power plants, has started operations.

More than 80% of India’s solar equipment requirements are met through imports from China. Against this backdrop, industry analysts see the predicted 30% lower module pricing, following China’s revised policy, as a good news for Indian PV projects.

Madhya Pradesh recently floated a tender for the implementation of grid connected rooftop solar PV projects under the RESCO (renewable energy service company) Model. Manu Srivastava, principal secretary and commissioner, New and Renewable Energy Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, and managing director of Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam (MPUVNL), speaks to pv magazine about the tender and initiatives taken by the state government.

ACME Solar has bagged a 600 MW solar PV project in a reverse auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) at a tariff of Rs 2.44 (US$0.036) per unit.

Jayant Parimal is the CEO of Renewable Energy at Adani Enterprises, which has developed more than 1 GW of PV projects in India in partnership with Huawei. Recently, pv magazine caught up with Mr. Parimal in India to discuss the massive opportunities in the country, and Adani’s switch from central to string inverters.

India’s Exide Industries Limited and Switzerland-based Leclanché S.A. have announced a 75%-25% joint venture (JV) under which lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells, modules and battery packs will be manufactured in the state of Gujarat.