India

India’s production-linked incentive scheme for advance-chemistry battery cell production has received bids for 2.6 times more than the 50 GWh of manufacturing capacity it plans to allocate.

A British-Indian research group has developed an active cooling technique that is claimed to improve a PV system’s yield by around 0.5%. The system could be used in residential solar arrays and the water heated by the PV modules may be fed into a solar water heating system.

The Indian government has ruled that only solar products and companies on the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers will be eligible for open-access and net-metering projects, in addition to government-backed installations. This includes arrays set up to sell electricity to the government under Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003. The amendment will apply to projects that request open access or net metering from April 1, 2022.

The Mukesh Ambani-led diversified business conglomerate has agreed to invest INR 5 lakh crore (US$67.6 billion) in building 100 GW of renewable energy capacity and green hydrogen eco-system in the state. It will also invest INR 60,000 crore (US$8.1 billion) in setting up manufacturing facilities for new and renewable energy equipment, including solar modules, electrolyzers, energy-storage batteries, and fuel cells.

The nation reached a cumulative 151GW of renewable energy generation capacity – including large hydro – by December 31, although a large volume of off-grid equipment is not included in that figure.

Wood Mackenzie has predicted solar equipment cost increases will ease back after last year saw the average cost of solar electricity rise for the first time in the Asia-Pacific region.

Indian ratings agency ICRA expects the solar boost based on the backlog of PV projects awarded by central and state electric utilities.

In other news, Oil India is setting up a 100 kW green hydrogen production facility in Assam, while the German government is providing €60 million for a project aimed at preparing electrolyzer technologies for industrial production at gigawatt scale.

The second phase of the Green Energy Corridor (GEC) scheme for the Intra-State Transmission System will facilitate grid integration and power evacuation of approximately 20 GW of renewable energy power projects in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

That meant the nation reached a cumulative 4.8GW of “open-access” solar generation capacity by the end of September. At that point, there were also more than 1.1GW of open access projects in the development pipeline, according to analyst Mercom India Solar.