Dear Readers!
Editor Anjali
Sub Editor Roopal Chaurasia Shipranshu Pandey
Editorial Advisor
Priyanka Roy Chaudhary
Design & Production Pankaj Rawat Mukesh Kumar Sah
National Business Head-India
Subhash Chandra Email: s.chandra@renewablemirror.com
Sr. Manager ( Sales )
Ms. Neha Chauhan Email: neha@renewablemirror.com Pradeep Kumar Email: pradeep.k@renewablemirror.com Sunil R Shirsat Email: sunil@renewablemirror.com
Sales & Marketing Hemant Chauhan Manju K
In 2017 Renewable Mirror was launched with a motive to provide insight of the Renewable Energy Industry. We are proud and excited to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the journal. The aim is to celebrate this important anniversary of the journal through exceptional papers fully dedicated to innovative technologies in Renewable Energy industry. Indian renewable energy sector is the fourth most attractive renewable energy market in the world. India was ranked fifth in wind power, fifth in solar power and fourth in renewable power installed capacity, as of 2019. Installed renewable power generation capacity has gained pace over the past few years, posting a CAGR of 17.33% between FY16-20. With the increased support of Government and improved economics, the sector has become attractive from investors perspective. As India looks to meet its energy demand on its own, which is expected to reach 15,820 TWh by 2040, renewable energy is set to play an important role. The government is aiming to achieve 227 GW of renewable energy capacity (including 114 GW of solar capacity addition and 67 GW of wind power capacity) by 2022, more than its 175 GW target as per the Paris Agreement. The government plans to establish renewable energy capacity of 523 GW (including 73 GW from Hydro) by 2030. As of July 2021, India had 96.96 GW of renewable energy capacity, and represents 25.2% of the overall installed power capacity, providing a great opportunity for the expansion of green data centres. Our editors tried to put their best effort to collect and portray the developments of the renewable industry. At last, a heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to our entire team of Renewable Mirror without which this journey would be a difficult one. Stay Home, Stay Safe... Happy Reading…
Manager-Subscription
Praveen Chauhan Email: subscribe@renewablemirror.com
All rights reserved by all events are made to ensure that the information published is correct; Renewable Mirror holds no responsibility any unlikely errors that might occur. Printed, published and owned by Usha, Published from 13/455, Block No. 13, Trilok Puri, Delhi-110091 and printed at, IG Printers Pvt. Ltd., 104-DSIDC, Complex, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi -110020 Editor : Anjali
Please give us your feedback at editor@renewablemirror.com For more details check out our Website www.renewablemirror. com & you can also visit our facebook page www.facebook.in/ renewablemirror
Editor
INTERVIEW
20
Cover Story Analysis of India’s renewable energy installed capacity growth
30 Mr. Daniel Liu
38
Head of South & Central ASia
INTERVIEW
Jinko Solar
State Overview: Delhi - NCR
Focus: Solar Inverter
34
48
Mr. Honey Raza
India Solar Inverter Market 2020-2026: Market Forecast by Types, System Type, Applications, Power Rating, Regions, and Competitive Landscape
sales head
Interview
Solis India
62
Focus: Solar PV Modules India’s manufacturing sector is set to take a giant leap forward
46 Mr. Sunil Badesra Country Head
Sungrow India Pvt. Ltd.
INTERVIEW
74
56 Mr. Krishna Kadariya Director
Patanjali renewable enerGy Pvt. ltd.
86
Focus: Smart Solar Panels India’s bold plans for ramping up star generation would move ahead
Focus: RoofTop & Off Grid Rooftop solar systems are becoming a popular source of electric power
INTERVIEW
60 Mr. Vikas jain Director
Insolation Energy Pvt. Ltd.
INTERVIEW
92
70
Focus: Thermal Camera Thermal imaging camera systems play a pivotal role
Press Release
10
Press Release
12
Press Release
18
Technical Article
100
Technical Article
102
Guest Article
104
Guest Article
106
Guest Article
109
Guest Article
110
Mr. Bharat Bhut Cofounder & Director
Interview
Goldi Solar
72 Lisa Zhang MarketiNG Director
Interview
Growatt New eNerGy co., ltD.
82 Mr. Hardip Singh COO - Solar Modules & Products
Interview
Jakson Group
84 Mr. Rajneesh KhattaR GRoup DiRectoR, eneRGy poRtfolio
infoRma maRKets, inDia
Advertisement Index
112
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Stall No. 3.24
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|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
9
REI Special Issue
REI Expo 2021: A Powerhouse of Innovations and Solutions for the Renewable Energy Industry
Press Release
The 14th edition to be held from 15-17th September at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida
10
Delhi NCR, 3rd September 2021: The Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo, Asia’s largest and most influential expo in the RE space by Informa Markets in India, is back this year in its 14th epic edition in a physical format. Scheduled for 15th – 17th September 2021 at the India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, REI is supported by Indian Biogas Association (IBA), Cleantech Business Club (CBC), Bridge to India (BTI), National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI), and Indo German Energy Forum-Support Office (IGEF-SO). Over the years, REI has been established as the most comprehensive, reputed and Asia’s largest and most influential expo in this domain where the community congregates to discuss trends, deliberate upon challenges, and showcase the most innovative technological solutions. This year, the three-day event will bring together decision makers and influencers as well as technical experts and professionals from leading companies involved in the renewable energy generation, transmission and distribution. With a Bounce-Back in its physical avatar, REI has been received with great enthusiasm by global stakeholders with the UK joining as ’Partner Country‘ and European Union (EU) as an ‘International Partner’. The expo will feature Industry stalwarts in Adani Solar, LONGI Solar, Goldi Solar, Premier Energies, Vikram Solar, Growatt, Solis, Waaree Energies, Sova Solar, Panasonic Life Sciences, Renesola, Longi Solar, Jakson Engg, Patanjali Renewables, HPL Electric & Power, Bergen Group and Gautam Solar, to name a few. This year too, it will have engaging features comprising power-packed knowledge sessions besides all-CEOs conclave. The event is being honoured with attendance by industry renowned experts, 120+ exhibitors, UK Pavilion by Department for International Trade, European Union (EU) Pavilion, and Bio Energy Pavilion, besides new launches, product demos, free training programs, and more. The EU is spearheading two of the most foremost conference sessions i.e., Rooftop Solar: Unlocking the Potential and “Offshore & Onshore” Wind: Unleashing the Potential. Speaking on the participation at and partnership with REI, Ms. Jennifer Fagan, First Secretary, Trade and Investment – Energy, UK’s Department for International Trade said, “We are glad to be the Partner Country of Renewable Energy India Expo 2021 and get an opportunity via our UK pavilion to highlight UK’s excellent strength in Renewable Energy technologies and at the same time network with like-minded companies. Earlier this year, the UK and Indian Prime Ministers agreed to step up UK-India collaboration on climate change and low carbon transition. This was done through a new partnership on renewables and power, including offshore wind, energy efficiency and storage and electric mobility, and to explore joint work on green hydrogen. We are confident that opportunities like these will further help us explore potential areas of collaboration.” Commenting on EU’s participation at the REI Expo, H.E. Mr. Ugo Astuto, Ambassador of the EU to India said, “The European Union Delegation to India is happy to partner with the Renewable Energy India Expo, which this year focuses on the topical theme ‘From Ambition to Action…Taking Giant Leaps Forward’. Both the EU and India have very ambitious renewable energy targets and
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
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are taking concrete and innovative actions to ensure that these ambitions become reality. The EU-India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership is a key priority for EU-India cooperation, focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy, integration in the grid, finance, and climate action. The international community needs to step up efforts towards energy transition, in the run up to COP26”. Speaking on the re-start of physical expos and REI’s return in its physical version, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, Informa Markets in India said, “The Indian renewable energy industry has significantly matured over the past 4-5 years. The country is targeting about 450 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 from which about 280 GW is expected from solar. According to recent reports, India seems to have achieved a 28% emission reduction over 2005 levels, against the target of 35% for 2030. Favourable policies and regulations to boost the clean energy sector by the Government will also play a crucial part for India to move forward to scale up its targets. The Renewable Energy India Expo over the years has gone from strength to strength, becoming one of the few morale boosting and reliable channels for business, innovations, trendspotting, and networking to move the RE industry forward despite the dynamism in recent times. With a plethora of associations, government bodies, independent leaders, industry experts to discuss market trends, investments, technology innovations, the show will give industry professionals an invaluable insight into the path the sector is carving for itself.” “Since the pandemic, we have delivered 8 live events in 6 different cities, strictly adhering to our Informa AllSecure Standards and commitments. Witnessing such a great response and support from the industry in our Re-Start 2.0, we are looking forward to taking REI to a new level in the coming years,” he further added. The 14th edition of the REI Expo is once again geared to share relevant insights gained in the global renewables market through its 3 days of power packed conference with the theme "From Ambition to Action.....Taking Giant Leaps Forward". The live conference agenda will reflect on a vast array of new Innovations and technologies. The conference will comprise panel discussions and presentations on topics such as Electric Vehicles and Storage, Bioenergy and more. Some of the key sessions include –‘Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage’, ‘Road ahead for Rooftop Solar’, ‘Solar Manufacturing: Making India the Global Hub’, ‘Renewable Energy and Self-Reliant India from the eyes of the CTOs’, ‘Innovations and Technologies’, among others. REI 2021 will feature manufacturers, EPC companies, supplier & distributors from the following product categories such as PV modules, Hybrid systems, Inverters, Charge Controllers, Batteries, Testing and Monitoring systems, Component, Bioenergy Equipment, Backsheet and System Integrators. The expo will cater to the buyer category that comprises Facility Managers, Energy Consultants, Real Estate Developers, Industrial Consumers, Independent Power Producers, EPCs, Distributors/ Dealers, System Installers and integrators, Utilities & Project developers and planners, Project developers and planners, Investors, Fund Managers, Banks, Financial consultants, and Captive Power buyers. RM ||www.renewablemirror.com||
REI Special Issue
Press Release
Solis Seminar Episode 29: Extreme Weather Conditions and O&M of Solar PV Plants Background
As a result of the ongoing global climate crisis, extreme weather events have increased again this year. Heavy rainfall bringing with it more damaging flooding in many regions of the world with extreme flooding seen across Asia and Europe during July. These extreme conditions not only impact on our lives but can also have devastating effects on solar PV systems. For investors, reassurance of ongoing financial security of their solar system is critical to securing initial investment. PV plants are installed outdoors and whilst generating electricity, they also endure the test of nature and all her elements. How can the losses from a solar PV plant be minimized from events such as extreme rainfall? This Solis seminar will share some useful points to bear in mind regarding specifically, heavy rainfall.
reinforced. Always keep a close eye on weather forecasts and before the arrival of heavy rainfall you must take the necessary precautions such as, shutting down the PV plant (cutting off the inverter DC switch and the AC switch of the distribution box). The second most important thing is to check the fixed condition of the PV array and strengthen it if necessary. This could include:
1. Reinforcing the mounting of PV module array and increasing counterweight/ballast
Install ropes or tie rods for fastening to help reduce any damage to the PV module mounting caused by strong winds or floods. In addition to this, for power stations with cement foundations, sandbags can be used to increase the counterweight/ballast.
2. The pressure block and screws of the PV module mounting equipment should be checked and tightened. Action to Take when Heavy Rainfall and/or High Winds are Forecast The system should be powered off, inspected and if necessary, 12
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Before extreme weather occurs, you should conduct a comprehensive and detailed inspection of the whole installation paying particular attention to mounting equipment. Check whether the screws, PV ||www.renewablemirror.com||
panel clamps and fasteners are tightened fully and whether the welding joints are secure.
disassembling the equipment, follow the relevant safe operation guidelines and use protective measures to ensure personnel safety. If complete disassembly is not possible it is recommended to disconnect the DC switch and AC breaker. The go about carefully checking the tightness of the connecting parts of the system to prevent damage and water ingress.
3. Check the drainage system around the solar PV plant
For any ground mounted solar PV plant, you should check whether its drainage system is clear. If it is blocked, clear it to prevent localized flooding around the PV plant. Again, pay attention to the long-range weather forecast, allowing you to prepare any necessary emergency drainage plans in advance, and add temporary drainage facilities before the onset of heavy rain.
4. Deal with foreign objects and roof furniture around the PV array and pay attention to lightning protection
There are sundries and roof furniture around most rooftop solar PV systems, including satellite dishes, solar thermal water heaters etc. These need to be removed or reinforced in good time to prevent them from being blown down by high winds and potentially damaging the PV panels. Lightning strikes will also damage the PV system and other electrical equipment when it strikes so surge protection measures should be taken into consideration.
Check the reliability of the lightning protection and grounding of the system to prevent lightning strikes from affecting the system during storms.
Action to Take After Heavy Rainfall
1. Take appropriate measures to prevent electric shock and ensure safety. When the PV plant is submerged or immersed in water, it is possible to get an electric shock when approaching or touching the connecting parts of the inverter, solar panels, and power supply cable. DO NOT APPROACH OR TOUCH IT. Solar panels damaged by floods may have faults, and any direct contact may cause electric shock. When assessing the site for safe return to operation you must take precautions to prevent electric shocks (using rubber gloves and rubber boots, etc.). Multiple solar panels connected to PV strings, damaged by strong winds or floods, may generate high voltages under sunlight. The site should be fenced off completely to ensure the safety of site personnel and public. If the inverter has been submerged in water, its DC circuit may short-circuit and generate heat. In this situation, contact the construction operator for safe countermeasures. 2. The restoration of the solar power station needs to be entrusted to professionals For maintenance of any solar PV plant, especially following extreme weather events, only qualified electrical professionals should be entrusted to carry out repair work. 3. Check your PV power plant insurance type, and make an application for compensation Any type of solar PV installation should carry insurance and depending on where the system is in the world will depend on the type of insurance offered. If you are installing a system in an area where flooding or other extreme weather conditions are common, ensure the system is insured fully.
Conclusion 5. In extreme situations, it is recommended to temporarily remove the PV panels and inverters before the onset of a forecast storm If the local weather forecast predicts that there will be heavy rainfall and lightning, for any ground mounted PV plant, it is recommended to disconnect the inverter and solar panels. These should be stored in a higher level, indoor location to prevent them from being damaged by strong winds, or flooding. When
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Heavy rains and floods are threatening many parts of the world, where they once did not. Solar PV equipment is expensive, and care should be taken to insure the system against any natural disaster or extreme weather event. When planning and preparing for forecasted storms which could result in flooding, extreme care and attention should be paid to the health and safety of all on site personnel as well as the public. For more details or support on the protection measures available on Solis solar installations contact your local Solis service engineers https://www.solisinverters.com/uk/service.html RM || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
13
REI Special Issue
Press Release
Solis Seminar, Episode 30: The influence of salt spray and high humidity environments on solar PV systems Background
The working environment of a PV plant is relatively complex, and extreme environments such as high/low temperature, humidity, salt spray, heavy sand and other harsh environments, can test the reliability and environmental adaptability of the PV system. More and more PV plants are being built on water, desert, and in coastal areas. 2-3 years after a power station is built and commissioned, extreme environments can have serious consequences on equipment within the system; such as the distribution box, mounting, and inverters. In this issue of Solis Seminar we’ve analyzed the impact of salt spray and high humidity environments on the operation of solar plants and highlight some solutions.
cause an electrochemical reaction with the contact metal causing a product to fail. Solar power stations built along the coast are susceptible to the effects of high salinity and humid air. The external salt spray particles and humid air will affect the components, cables (especially grounding cables), metal brackets, inverters, and distribution boxes. In addition, high temperature and high humidity environments will also affect the PV system, such as: 1. In environments with large temperature differences, such as beaches, mountains and other areas, water vapor evaporates and condenses. 2. In places with high environmental humidity, such as lake areas, coastal areas, etc., the surrounding air is humid, and it is easy to cause condensation inside the equipment. This causes internal moisture and can lead to flashover accidents. 3. Exposed conductors are easily corroded in a high salt spray and high humidity environment, which increases impedance and leads to poor contact.
The impact of salt spray and high humidity environment
Salt spray contains a large amount of chloride ions, which can easily penetrate the protective layer of a metal surface and Figure 1: PV terminals are corroded 14
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have film coating, glue or protective paint to protect the circuit board from moisture, salt spray and mildew;
Figure 2: Corroded PV panel and metal mounting equipment
If salt mist and water vapor are sucked into the distribution box, terminal or inverter, the long-term accumulation will corrode the internal structure of the equipment and cause damage to the equipment.
Figure 3: Corroded PCB boards and components inside the inverter
The inverter needs to pass temperature and humidity tests and corrosion resistance tests. Look out for the relevant certification on this in your area.
We also need to pay attention to products such as cables, metal brackets and combiner boxes. Such as: 1) Choose PV products, and metal mounting equipment which is treated with anti-corrosion products. 2) At the same time, the metal parts of the AC/DC/PE cables must not be exposed to the air. 3) The wiring terminals should be shielded and fitted to avoid contact with the metal surface.
Figure 4: Corroded PE cable and grid box interior
Prevention
1. Equipment selection needs to consider to its protective ability The equipment chosen needs to have strict anti-corrosion and protection levels. Equipment such as inverters and distribution boxes used in areas with high salt spray or high humidity need to have higher protection levels and anti-corrosion designs than in other areas. It is recommended to use products with IP65 protection or higher for the inverter and the distribution box needs to be galvanized and sprayed with anti-corrosion paint, and be 100% air tight. For inverters with IP65 protection, it can effectively prevent external moisture from entering the inside of the machine.
Protective treatment during installation and construction
PV, PE and AC cables need to be placed in PVC pipes or buried in the ground for protection to prevent the effects of abrasion and salt spray;
The metal bracket and grounding grid metal need to be painted with anti-corrosion paint or galvanized and inspected and repaired at regular intervals to prevent later corrosion.
In addition, the inverter PCB and electronic components need to ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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RENEWABLE MIR ROR
15
REI Special Issue
Special attention should be paid to the use of "AI/Zn Bolt" to connect stainless plates when selecting screw materials to prevent electrochemical corrosion caused by contact between different metals.
water vapor from entering.
Plastic gaskets can be added to isolate the two metals and prevent "contact corrosion". Summary
Press Release
For the combiner box or grid box, we need to use fire-resistant mud at its inlet and outlet to improve its protection and prevent
Solis Set To Showcase Solar Inverter Leadership At Renewable Energy India Expo 2021
Like every year, Ginlong Technologies (Solis) ,a global leader in smart photovoltaic string inverters, will be showcasing their world-class solar sector offerings, products and solutions in inverter and energy storage technology at the REI Expo at booth 3.42. Established in 2005, Solis is one of the most experienced and largest manufacturers of solar inverters. Solis solar inverter product line uses innovative string technology to deliver firstclass reliability, validated under the most stringent international certifications. Combining a global supply chain with world-class R&D and manufacturing capabilities, Ginlong optimizes its Solis inverters for each regional market, servicing and supporting its customers with its team of local experts. Company’s shipments to India are now reaching around 1GW+. Solis inverters honored with the Top Brand PV 2021 Award for inverter manufacturers in UK, USA, Netherlands, India, and more. 16
Salt fog and high humidity environments can cause huge issues from corrosion of solar plant facilities and will seriously affect the safety, reliability, and long-term operation of the power station. Therefore, in these environments, particular attention should be paid to; equipment selection, construction and operation and maintenance to improve the operational stability of the PV plant and reduce system errors. RM
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
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Solis will be showcasing following products at the Expo: Solis will be exhibiting its best selling products including inverter range such as the single-phase inverters S6-GR1P (2.5-6)K, three phase inverters S5-GR3P(3-20)K, S5-GC(50-70)K, Solis-(100-125) K-5G, Solis-(215-255)K-EHV-5G, and hybrid inverter S5-EO1P(4-5) K-48 and more. "It will be a great opportunity to interact with the professional team of Solis. Over the last year we have expanded our offerings in India, bringing the best in world-class technology to our Indian clients. We are excited to showcase our latest product innovations and our exciting product line up for the India market. We invite all the visitors to drop by our booth 3.42, Solis team will wait for you at the pavilion", said Idrish khan, Solis India Chief Technical Officer. RM ||www.renewablemirror.com||
REI Special Issue
Press Release
Evonik expands production capacity for SEPURAN® membranes in Austria With the new capacity, the Group aims to meet the strong demand for SEPURAN® membranes in biogas, nitrogen, hydrogen, and natural gas applications. • Construction of a new hollow fibre spinning plant in Schörfling • Strong demand for SEPURAN® membranes in biogas, nitrogen, hydrogen and natural gas applications • Investment strengthens technology leadership in membranebased gas separation Evonik announced that it is building a new hollow fiber spinning plant for the production of gas separation membranes at its Austrian site in Schörfling am Attersee. With the new capacity, the Group aims to meet the strong demand for SEPURAN® membranes in biogas, nitrogen, hydrogen, and natural gas applications. Evonik is investing a low-double-digit million Euro sum in the new plant, which is scheduled to come on stream in the first quarter of 2023. Around 30 new jobs will be created in Schörfling. "The gas separation market is convinced of our innovative membrane technology. Having developed and established the biogas industry in close cooperation with our partners, we are establishing our SEPURAN® membranes as the new standard for efficient gas separation in demanding nitrogen, hydrogen, and natural gas applications. The additional production capacities will secure our growth targets in these important markets for us," says Dr. Goetz Baumgarten, Head of the Membranes Innovation Growth Field at Evonik.
BECOMING THE MARKET LEADER FOR SEPARATION MEMBRANES
The new hollow fibre spinning plant is a construction twin of the production line that Evonik started up in 2017. In it, a high-performance polymer is processed into fine hollow fibres in several process steps. They are at the heart of SEPURAN® membrane technology. Evonik is the world's only backward-integrated manufacturer of highly selective gas separation membranes. The specialty chemicals company draws on its many years of expertise in polymer chemistry and adjusts key membrane properties already at 18
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the development stage of the base material—the high-performance polymer—to produce particularly selective and robust membranes that can withstand extreme pressures and temperatures. "By expanding our capacities in Schörfling, we are sending an important signal to our customers that Evonik believes in the markets in the future and will continue to support customers' growth. The construction of the new hollow fibre spinning plant also testifies to our clear ambition to become the market leader in membrane-based separation technologies in the coming years," says Dr. Iordanis Savvopoulos, Head of the Fibres, Foams and Membranes Product Line at Evonik.
POLYMER-BASED MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY FOR GAS SEPARATION
SEPURAN® membranes make it possible to separate gases such as methane (CH4), nitrogen (N2), or hydrogen (H2) from gas mixtures. The advantages of Evonik's membrane technology are more precise separation of the gases and higher productivity. SEPURAN® N2 membranes for efficient nitrogen generation are used, for example, to inert aircraft tanks. SEPURAN® Noble membranes extract hydrogen transported through natural gas pipelines selectively from the CH4/H2 gas mixture at the delivery points. SEPURAN® NG membranes enable efficient natural gas processing from gas sources with high CO2 concentration. Close to the Schörfling site in Lenzing, Upper Austria, the base material - the high-performance polymer polyimide - is produced and processed into fine hollow fibers in Schörfling. RM
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RENEWABLE MIR ROR
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Renewable Energy
REI Special Issue
20
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ANALYSIS OF INDIA’S
RENEWABLE ENERGY INSTALLED CAPACITY GROWTH
ABSTRACT: Energy is one of the most important & major factors
for determining the economic development of any country. India has a huge potential of renewable resource & is moving at a very high speed toward the development especially sustainable development i.e. development without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. But from last 1-2 year due to outbreak of corona-virus, world goes under the lockdown condition just because of preventing of spread of this disease. Because of this lockdown not only people lost their lives, but also number of industries and governments as a whole succumbed to its impacts. This article gives overview and analysis of growth story of installed capacity of renewable power sector from 1st January to 31st July of 2021 & the same are being compared with installed capacity from 1st January to 31st July of 2020 based on the data available on public domain. Keyword: Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Biomass Energy, Hydro Energy, Waste to Energy. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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RENEWABLE MIR ROR
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REI Special Issue
2)
3)
Renewable Energy
4)
Fig. 1 Type of Renewable Energy Source
1.0 INTRODUCTION Renewable source of energy plays an important role of generation of electricity. India’s population is approximate 1.38 billion & is continuously increasing year by year, so the demand of power (Consumption) is also increasing. In order to make a balance between consumption & generation, renewable sources of energy need more attention and work in that direction must be done.
It is important to mention here that small hydro power contributes approx. 5%, wind power contributes approx. 40%, solar power contributes approx. 44%, Biomass cogeneration power which contributes approx. 10% & Waste to energy contributes approx. 1% respectively in the total renewable power contribution. 2.0 COMPARISON OF RENEWABLE ENERGY INSTALLED CAPACITY The renewable energy installed capacity of India for the month of January 21 is compared with January 20 in table 1 and 2 (Reproduced from cea.nic.in/ Monthly Reports). TABLE 1: ALL INDIA INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER STATION Region
Ownership/
(AS ON 31.01.2020)
(AS ON 31.01.2021)
Renewable Energy Source
Renewable Energy Source
State
701.01
725.51
Private
15672.7
17038.11
Central
379
379
Sub Total
16752.71
18142.62
Sector
Fig. 2 Different Types of Renewable Source of Energy
The total installed capacity (approx 383 GW) is the combination of Thermal, Nuclear, Hydro & Renewable Energy Sources. Further, Thermal Energy is divided into 4 parts: Coal, Lignite, Diesel and Gas. The contribution of Thermal energy is approximate 61%, Nuclear Energy is approx. 2%, Hydro Energy is approximate 12% & Renewable Energy Source (RES) energy is approx.25% respectively. Now we will focus on Renewable Energy Source (RES) which is total 1/4th part of total installed capacity. Renewable energy is useful energy that is collected from renewable resources, referred to as clean energy, comes from natural sources or processes. This type of energy doesn’t harm to the nature. The main components of renewable source of energy (Refer figure 1 &2) are: 1) 2) 3) 4)
Solar Energy Wind Energy Hydro Energy Bio-Power –(a)Biomass Power Cogeneration (b)Waste to Energy 1) Solar Power: Solar energy is the energy which is received to 22
5)
the earth from the sun. This energy is in the form of solar radiation, which makes the production of solar electricity. Small Hydro Power: Small Hydro Power refers to energy, mostly electric, which is derived from water in motion. This power is harnessed and used to drive mechanical device. Wind Power: Wind Power captures the natural wind in our atmosphere and converts it into mechanical energy and then electricity. Basically, wind turbines can convert its kinetic energy into electricity. Biomass Cogeneration Power: Cogeneration is the production of electricity and heat which using a primary fuel. Biomass cogeneration uses waste wood and horticultural materials as fuel. Waste to Energy: Waste to energy technologies convert waste material into various form of fuel that can be used supply energy.
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
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Northern Region
Western Region
Southern Region
Eastern Region
State
548.94
565.53
Private
24310.85
27296.31
Central
666.3
666.3
Sub Total
25526.09
28528.14
State
586.88
586.88
Private
41034.1
42767.01
Central
541.9
541.9
Sub Total
42162.88
43895.79
State
275.11
275.11
Private
1211.86
1294.69
Central
10
10
Sub Total
1496.97
1579.8
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REI Special Issue
North Eastern Region
Islands
Renewable Energy
All INDIA
State
233.25
233.25
Private
100.95
105.92
Southern Region
Small Hydro Powder
586.88
586.88
Private
41207.02
42965.56
Central
541.9
541.9
Sub Total
42335.8
44094.34
State
275.11
275.11
Central
30
30
Sub Total
364.2
369.17
State
5.25
5.25
Private
1211.86
1296.79
Central
10
10
Sub Total
1496.97
1581.9
State
233.25
233.25
Private
100.95
105.92
30
30
Private
7.84
24.87
Central
5.1
5.1
Sub Total
18.19
35.22
State
2350.43
2391.52
Eastern Region
North Eastern Region
Private
82338.3
88526.91
Central
Central
1632.3
1632.3
Sub Total
364.2
369.17
Sub Total
86321.03
92550.73
State
5.25
5.25
Private
7.84
24.87
Central
5.1
5.1
Sub Total
18.19
35.22
Islands
Table 2: RENEWABLE ENERGY (IN MW), JANUARY Year
State
Wind Powder
Bio-Power BM Power/ Waste to Cogen. Energy
Solar Power
Total Capacity All INDIA
State
2357.03
2391.52
82769.86
88946.65
1632.3
1632.3
86759.19
92970.47
2020
4676.56
37607.7
9861.31
139.8
34035.66
86321.03
Private
2021
4758.46
38683.65
10145.92
168.64
38794.07
92550.74
Central
The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of January 2020 & January 2021 can be better understood with the help of chart shown in figure 3 below. By comparing these data, we can see that there was addition of 6229.71MW capacity from January 2020 to January 2021.
Table 4: RENEWABLE ENERGY (IN MW), FEBRUARY Year
Small Hydro Powder
Wind Powder
Bio-Power
2020
4683.16
37669.25
9861.31
2021
4783.06
38789.15
10145.92
Total Capacity
139.8
34405.67
86759.19
168.64
39083.71
92970.48
The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of February 2020 & February 2021 can be better understood with the help of chart shown in figure 4 below. By comparing these data, we can see that there was addition of 6211.29MW capacity from February 2020 to February 2021. Fig. 3 Comparison of Renewable Energy January 2020 & 2021
Next, the renewable energy installed capacity of India for the month of February 21 is compared with February 20 in table 3 and 4 (Reproduced from cea.nic.in/ Monthly Reports). TABLE 3: ALL INDIA INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER STATION Region
Northern Region
Western Region
Ownership/
(AS ON 29.02.2020)
(AS ON 28.02.2021)
Sector
Renewable Energy Source
Renewable Energy Source
State
701.01
725.51
Private
15681.74
17154.72
Central
379
379
Sub Total
16761.75
18259.23
State
555.54
565.53
Private
24560.45
27398.79
Central
666.3
666.3
Sub Total
25782.29
28630.62
Fig. 4 Comparison of Renewable Energy February 2020 & 2021
Further, the renewable energy installed capacity of India for the month of March 21 is compared with March 20 in table 5 and 6 (Reproduced from cea.nic.in/ Monthly Reports). TABLE 5: ALL INDIA INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER STATION Region
Ownership/ Sector
24
Solar Power
BM Power/ Waste to Cogen. Energy
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
(AS ON 31.03.2020)
(AS ON 31.03.2021)
Renewable Energy Source
Renewable Energy Source
||www.renewablemirror.com||
Northern Region
Western Region
Southern Region
Eastern Region
State
701.01
725.51
Private
15788.13
17487.12
Central
379
379
Sub Total
16868.14
18591.63
State
555.54
569.28
Private
24652.05
28016.71
Central
666.3
666.3
Sub Total
25873.89
29252.29
586.88
586.88
41277.52
43471.37
Central
541.9
541.9
Sub Total
42406.3
44600.15
State
275.11
275.11
Private
1211.86
1300.22
Central
10
10
Sub Total
1496.97
1585.33
State
233.25
233.25
Private
100.95
105.92
Central
30
30
Sub Total
364.2
369.17
State
5.25
5.25
Private
7.84
24.87
Central
5.1
5.1
Sub Total
18.19
35.22
State
2357.03
2395.27
Private
83038.35
90406.21
Fig. 5 Comparison of Renewable Energy March 2020 & 2021
Next, the renewable energy installed capacity of India for the month of April 21 is compared with April 20 in table 7 and 8 (Reproduced from cea.nic.in/ Monthly Reports) TABLE 7: ALL INDIA INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER STATION
North Eastern Region
Islands
Region
Central
1632.3
1632.3
Sub Total
87027.68
94433.78
Northern Region
Western Region
Eastern Region
Table 6: RENEWABLE ENERGY (IN MW), MARCH Year
Bio-Power
Small Hydro Powder
Wind Powder
2020
4683.16
37693.75
9875.31
147.64
34627.82
87027.68
2021
4786.81
39247.05
10145.92
168.64
40085.37
94433.79
BM Power/ Waste to Cogen. Energy
Solar Power
Total Capacity
The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of March 2020 & March 2021 can be better understood with the help of chart shown in figure 5 below. By comparing these data, we can see that there was addition of 7406.11MW capacity from March 2020 to March 2021. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
(AS ON 30.04.2020)
(AS ON 30.04.2021)
Renewable Energy Source
Renewable Energy Source
State
701.01
725.51
Private
15790.1
17642.46
Central
379
379
Sub Total
16870.11
18746.97
State
555.54
569.28
Private
24821.29
28388.87
Central
666.3
666.3
Sub Total
26043.13
29624.45
State
586.88
586.88
Private
41344.74
43512.1
Central
541.9
541.9
Sub Total
42473.52
44640.88
Sector
Southern Region All INDIA
Ownership/
North Eastern Region
Islands
State
275.11
275.11
Private
1214.05
1309.63
Central
10
10
Sub Total
1499.16
1594.74
State
233.25
233.25
Private
101.39
107.08
Central
30
30
Sub Total
364.64
370.33
State
5.25
5.25
Private
7.84
24.87
Central
5.1
5.1
Sub Total
18.19
35.22
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
w w w. r e n e w a b l e m i r r o r. c o m
State Private
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
25
REI Special Issue
All INDIA
State
2357.03
2395.27
Private
83279.41
90985.01
Central
1632.3
1632.3
Sub Total
87268.74
95012.58
Eastern Region
North Eastern Region
Table 8: RENEWABLE ENERGY (IN MW), APRIL
Renewable Energy
Year
Small Hydro Powder
Wind Powder
Bio-Power
2020
4683.16
37745.85
9880.31
2021
4786.81
39410.45
10145.92
275.11
275.11
Private
1214.56
1310.19
Central
10
10
Sub Total
1499.67
1595.3
State
233.25
233.25
Private
101.39
122.08
Central
30
30
Sub Total
364.64
385.33
Solar Power
Total Capacity
State
5.25
5.25
147.64
34811.78
87268.74
Private
7.84
24.87
168.64
40500.77
95012.59
Central
5.1
5.1
Sub Total
18.19
35.22
State
2357.03
2395.27
Private
83394.69
91628.67
Central
1632.3
1632.3
Sub Total
87384.02
95656.24
BM Power/ Waste to Cogen. Energy
Islands
The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of April 2020 & April 2021 can be better understood with the help of chart shown in figure 6 below. By comparing these data, we can see that there was addition of 7743.85MW capacity from April 2020 to April 2021.
All INDIA
Table 10: RENEWABLE ENERGY (IN MW), MAY Year
Fig.6 Comparison of Renewable Energy April 2020 & 2021
Small Hydro Powder
Wind Powder
Bio-Power
2020
4683.16
37756.35
9880.31
2021
4786.81
39442.25
10170.92
Solar Power
Total Capacity
148.84
34915.36
87384.02
168.64
41087.63
95656.25
BM Power/ Waste to Cogen. Energy
The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of May 2020 & May 2021 can be better understood with the help of chart shown in figure 7 below. By comparing these data, we can see that there was addition of 8272.23MW capacity from May 2020 to May 2021.
Now, the renewable energy installed capacity of India for the month of May 21 is compared with May 20 in table 9 and 10 (Reproduced from cea.nic.in/ Monthly Reports). The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of May 2020 & May 2021 can be better understood with the help of chart shown in figure 7 below. By comparing these data, we can see that there was addition of 8272.23MW capacity from May 2020 to May 2021. TABLE 9: ALL INDIA INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER STATION Region
Northern Region
Western Region
Southern Region
26
State
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
Ownership/
(AS ON 31.05.2020)
(AS ON 31.05.2021)
Sector
Renewable Energy Source
Renewable Energy Source
State
701.01
725.51
Private
15853.25
17942.46
Central
379
379
Sub Total
16933.26
19046.97
State
555.54
569.28
Private
24858.27
28671.58
Central
666.3
666.3
Sub Total
26080.11
29907.16
State
586.88
Private
41359.38
Central
541.9
541.9
Sub Total
42488.16
44686.27
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
Fig.7 Comparison of Renewable Energy May 2020 & 2021
Next, the renewable energy installed capacity of India for the month of June 21 is compared with June 20 in table 11 and 12 (Reproduced from cea.nic.in/ Monthly Reports). TABLE 11: ALL INDIA INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER STATION Region
Ownership/
(AS ON 30.06.2020)
(AS ON 30.06.2021)
Renewable Energy Source
Renewable Energy Source
State
701.01
725.51
586.88
Private
15969.04
18630.13
43557.49
Central
379
379.00
Sub Total
17049.05
19734.64
Sector Northern Region
||www.renewablemirror.com||
Western Region
Southern Region
Eastern Region
North Eastern Region
Islands
All INDIA
State
555.54
569.28
Private
25010.48
29131.62
Central
666.3
666.30
Sub Total
26232.32
30367.20
TABLE 13: ALL INDIA INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER STATION Region
Ownership/
(AS ON 30.06.2021)
Renewable Energy Source
Renewable Energy Source
State
725.01
725.51
Sector
State
586.88
592.88
Private
41372.38
43702.97
Central
541.9
541.90
Private
16044.35
19415.54
Sub Total
42501.16
44837.75
Central
379.00
379.00
Sub Total
17148.36
20520.05
State
555.54
569.28
Northern Region
State
275.11
275.11
Private
1217.98
1310.19
Central
10
10.00
Private
25189.62
29674.35
Sub Total
1503.09
1595.30
Central
666.30
666.30
State
233.25
233.25
Sub Total
26411.46
30909.93
Private
102.14
122.15
Central
30
30.00
State
586.88
592.88
Sub Total
365.39
385.40
Private
41460.62
44089.86
State
5.25
5.25
Central
541.90
541.90
Private
7.84
24.87
Sub Total
42589.40
45224.64
Central
5.1
5.10
State
275.11
275.11
Sub Total
18.19
35.22
Private
1222.00
1422.41
State
2357.03
2401.27
Central
10.00
10.00
Private
83679.86
92921.93
Sub Total
1507.11
1707.52
Central
1632.3
1632.30
Sub Total
87669.19
96955.50
State
233.25
233.25
Private
104.14
219.32
Central
30.00
30.00
Sub Total
367.39
482.57
State
5.25
5.25
Private
7.84
27.66
Central
5.10
5.10
Sub Total
18.19
38.01
State
2381.03
2401.27
Private
84028.57
94849.14
Central
1632.30
1632.30
Sub Total
88041.90
98882.71
Western Region
Southern Region
Eastern Region
North Eastern Region
Table 12: RENEWABLE ENERGY (IN MW), JUNE Year
(AS ON 30.06.2020)
Small Hydro Powder
Wind Powder
Bio-Power
2020
4688.16
37829.55
9880.31
2021
4793.81
39486.65
10170.92
Solar Power
Total Capacity
148.84
35122.33
87669.19
168.64
42335.49
96955.51
BM Power/ Waste to Cogen. Energy
The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of June 2020 & June 2021 can be better understood with the help of chart shown in figure 8 below. By comparing these data, we can see that there was addition of 9286.32MW capacity from June 2020 to June 2021.
Islands
All INDIA
Table 14: RENEWABLE ENERGY (IN MW), JULY Year
Small Hydro Powder
Wind Powder
Bio-Power
2020
4712.17
37940.95
9936.65
2021
4794.61
39588.85
10170.92
Solar Power
Total Capacity
148.84
35303.3
88041.91
388.22
43940.12
98882.72
BM Power/ Waste to Cogen. Energy
The analysis / comparison of Renewable Energy Source Data of July 2020 & July 2021 can be better understood with the help Fig.8 Comparison of Renewable Energy June 2020 & 2021 of chart shown in figure 9 below. By comparing these data, Next, the renewable energy installed capacity of India for the we can see that there was addition of 10840.81MW capacity month of July 21 is compared with July 20 in table 13 and 14 from July 2020 to July 2021. (Reproduced from cea.nic.in/ Monthly Reports). ||www.renewablemirror.com||
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
27
REI Special Issue
Fig.9 Comparison of Renewable Energy July 2020 & 2021
Renewable Energy
3.0 CONCLUSION: From the above comparison, we may conclude that: 1) January: Total 6229.71MW installed capacity was added between 2020 and 2021. 2) February: Total 6211.29MW installed capacity was added between 2020 and 2021. 3) March: Total 7406.11MW installed capacity was added between 2020 and 2021. 4) April: Total 7743.85MW installed capacity was added between 2020 and 2021. 5) May: Total 8272.23MW installed capacity was added between 2020 and 2021. 6) June: Total 9286.32MW installed capacity was added between 2020 and 2021. 7) July: Total 10840.81MW installed capacity was added between 2020 and 2021.
As we can see from above comparison, India installed capacity
(in MW) of power station has been increasing every month. India's renewable energy capacity crosses 100 GW: India's total installed renewable energy generation capacity crossed 100 GW mark on August 12, 2021 and the country has become fourth in the world in terms of installed renewable energy capacity. The country has set an ambitious target to have 175 GW or 1,75,000 MW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. Acknowledgement: The authors of this article would like to thanks all the members and experts of IGNITING POWER ENGINEERS (IPE) group.The members of the group always remain motivated and try to disseminate knowledge for the noble cause. By the constant support and motivation from the members, the Igniting Power Engineers (IPE) Group regularly conducts webinar to spread the knowledge. The recording of these webinar is uploaded on the YouTube platform also. • YouTube channel, Dr. Rajesh Arora A learner: • https://youtube.com/channel/UCYFAMNSdq7SOoLdpHZL2qyQ • Linkedin page of Igniting Power Engineers group: • h t t p s : / / w w w. l i n k e d i n . c o m / i n / i g n i t i n g - p o w e r engineers-936568200 • Telegram link of Igniting Power Engineers Group. • https://t.me/joinchat/WIgQaViRbZHC6DlN1KANgQ References: [1] Dr. Rajesh Arora, Hitesh Thareja, Impact of Covid-19 on Renewable Power Sector of India – An Overview [2] Central Electricity Authority (CEA) : https://cea.nic.in/installedcapacity-report/?lang=en
A u t h o rs Dr. RAJESH KUMAR ARORA obtained the B. Tech. & Master of Engineering (ME) degrees in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering, University of Delhi, India in 1999 and 2003 respectively. He completed his PhD in grounding system design from UPES, Dehradun. He is also certified Energy Manager and Auditor. He has worked in 400kV and 220kV Substation for more than 14 years in Delhi Transco Limited (DTL). He has also worked as Deputy Director (Transmission and Distribution) in Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) for 03 years and 06 months. He has also given his contribution in the OS department of DTL for more than 2 years and rendered his services in the SLDC of Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) also. Presently he is working in D&E (Design and Engineering) department of DTL. His research interests include high voltage technology, grounding system, protection system, computer application and power distribution automation.
GULAB ALAM B.TECH (EEE) HMR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT, GGSIPU ABHISHEK DHASMANA B.TECH (EEE) HMR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT, GGSIPU 28
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
||www.renewablemirror.com||
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REI Special Issue
Mr. Daniel Liu Head of South & Central Asia
Jinko Solar
We
aim to change the way we generate and use electricity, optimize energy portfolio, take responsibility of enabling a sustainable future by delivering the cleanest, most efficient and economic solar energy solutions. Also, we are committed to promoting the wide application of photovoltaic power generation worldwide, boosting the comprehensive replacement of traditional energy by photovoltaic energy and building a sustainable green globe.
Q. Kindly tell us about Jinko Solar’s journey and its progress till now?
JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS) is one of the largest and most innovative solar module manufacturers in the world. Our vertically integrated manufacturing, financial stability, and operational efficiency have produced results that simply outpace the competition. JinkoSolar was established in 2006 in Shangrao, China. In 2007 and 2008, JinkoSolar launched its own factories for Ingot and Wafer Manufacturing. In 2009, JinkoSolar operated the 1st fully automated PV module NPC production line in China. JinkoSolar did a successful IPO and listed on the NYSE in 2010 to become the only PV manufacturer to go from production to IPO in such a short span. By 2011, JinkoSolar was the only profitable PV Manufacturer worldwide as we had set up our integrated supply chain to ensure healthy business operation. JinkoSolar is also the world’s 1st company to pass PID Free Test Under 85˚C/85% RH in 2012. 2020: #1 in Global Cumulative Module shipment with 70GW+ 2019: #1 in Global Module Shipment Fourth Year in a row 2018: 1st “All Quality Matters” Energy Yield Simulation Winner – Mono Group 2017: Top Solar Brand Used in Debt-Financed Projects and Most Bankable” PV manufacturer by Bloomberg New Energy Finance 2016: Becomes World’s Largest Solar Module Manufacturer 2015: Opens Factory in Malaysia 2014: World’s 1st 1000-hour PID Free Test Under 85˚C/85% RH 2013: 1st PV Company to Restore Profitability in Q2 2012: World’s 1st Company to Pass PID Free Test Under 85˚C/85% RH 2011: The Only Profitable PV Manufacturer Worldwide 2010: Successful IPO and listed on the NYSE, PV manufacturer with shortest time from production to IPO 2009: Operates the 1st fully automated PV module NPC production line in China 2008: Launches Wafer Manufacturing 2007: Launches Ingot Manufacturing 2006: JinkoSolar Co.,Ltd. was Established
Q. How is Jinko Solar currently placed in the global PV scenario? Please talk about your manufacturing capabilities, market presence, technology & patents, and key credentials? JinkoSolar has a vertically integrated production capacity, which is expected to reach approximately - 30GW of monocrystalline wafers, 24GW of cells, and 33GW of modules by the end of 2021. With more than 25,000 employees, 12 global factories, and a marketing network covering 35 countries, JinkoSolar provides solar products, solutions and technical services to Utility, C&I and Residential customers in more than 160 countries. Relying on its global manufacturing capabilities, strong local operations and a sound management team, Jinko has been successful in building an evenly distributed industry map in the international market. JinkoSolar has bagged 16 module power and efficiency records in the last three years and has touched the 25.25% mark in terms of battery efficiency. Quite recently, Jinko added another world record to its kitty as the N-type mono-crystalline module achieved a record conversion efficiency of 23.01%. These latest achievements were delivered in a short span of time from JinkoSolar's intelligent production lines, which make our plants operate at a mass production efficiency of over 24%. Jinko has featured in the Fortune “China Top 500 list” for six consecutive years and in the “China Top 500 Private
||www.renewablemirror.com||
Companies” list for seven consecutive years now. In 2020, Jinko stood at the 144th position in the “China Top 500 Private Companies list”. For six years in a row, Jinko has been winning the title of the “Most Financeable” Top Photovoltaic Brand by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. In 2019, JinkoSolar was also awarded the Frost & Sullivan Global Leadership Award in PV Technology. Since the 2016 B20 Summit in Hangzhou, JinkoSolar has been co-chair and core member of the B20 Energy, Climate and Resource Efficiency Task Force, playing a key role in providing industry insights and global green policy recommendations for six years and counting.
w w w. j i n k o s o l a r. c o m
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Q. What are the top markets for your company in the
past, present and future? For JinkoSolar, China, United States, Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Korea, India, and Netherland are the top 10 biggest markets in the world. JinkoSolar stood No.1 in terms of market share in 7 out of these 10 countries and is confident to maintain its leading position in the future as well.
Q
. How does Jinko Solar compare to its peers on financial strength and bankability? JinkoSolar’s stable long-term profitability reflects the financial strength of the company. Our growth reflects the premium standing of the JinkoSolar brand. According to our responsible || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
31
REI Special Issue
and value-oriented management approach, qualitative growth is a priority strategic goal. We strive to achieve the goal through effective structures, efficient processes, systematic management of investments, and continuous optimization of costs. JinkoSolar, not only is one of the industry’s most profitable manufacturers but also, the only Chinese solar company that is listed in global capital markets (NYSE: JKS). This also demonstrates our decisiveness and focus on international markets.
this market for solar technology transfer and manufacturing growth within India. A clearer view on timelines and specifics around BCD and ALMM would also be helpful as these aspects affect us directly. A focus shift from project development to local manufacturing initiatives is quite evident. While this would encourage investment in the manufacturing sector, it might hamper the achievement of long term RE targets set by the Govt.
Interview
Q. Please let us know about your opinion of the market. Q. Please share details on the business model of the What are the opportunities and challenges for the company
company. As the most innovative and integrated module manufacturer in the world, having started our business from the upstream side of the solar value chain, JinkoSolar has accumulated unparalleled know-how in the development and production of wafer and cells. We understand the underlying “engine” that drives high performing photovoltaic systems. We are committed to expanding the boundaries of our photovoltaic knowledge through R&D and actively catalysing the commercialization of cutting-edge solar technology. Our introduction of various solar technologies in the past financial year is evidence of our dedication to innovation. JinkoSolar has a complete network worldwide, with 12 production plants in 3 countries and over 25 warehouses. In addition, JinkoSolar has over 30 Sales & Service offices and approximately 3,000 customers in more than 160 countries. JinkoSolar also cooperates with all distributors and partners in local markets to support them with their business to create a win-win relationship in the long run. Ever since our establishment, we have continuously worked with the upstream players and other stakeholders including IPPs, Banks/Investors, EPCs, NBFCs, etc. to understand their broad perspectives on the solar market. We have always placed ourselves in the center of the energy value chain to pave a path for clean and green energy for the world and reduce the carbon footprint.
Q. Expectations from Indian government policy makers
and regulators? During recent years, the Indian Govt. has made several favourable policies for Indian solar sector. At present we see a major shift by regulators to attract investment in India by way of adopting long term and clear policy initiatives. However, the solar sector expects regulators to release more sectorfriendly policies supporting Energy Banking, Net Metering, Scheduling and Forecasting, etc. We, as international module suppliers also expect futuristic policies from the Govt. such as special PLI schemes fostering long term foreign investments and business incentives that attract the top global players to
32
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
and industry? Indian solar market is slated to grow at approximately 20-25GW per annum from 2023 onwards. This will ensure room for every kind of player - Be it domestic or foreign. We foresee that all the stakeholders shall expand their capacity and execution speed during 2023 to 2030 to capitalize on the potential that the Indian solar market is offering. We also expect several new start-ups to enjoy their growth alongside the big and established conglomerates. We’re facing some challenges, which are by way of BCD and slow pace of ALMM implementation. However, we are also quite optimistic about the opportunity that this market offers. We are confident of a steady growth in this market for the foreseeable future. This is all due to the aggressive growth projections, RE targets and central and state level tenders and policies.
Q. What are JinkoSolar’s plans and goals?
We aim to change the way we generate and use electricity, optimize energy portfolio, take responsibility of enabling a sustainable future by delivering the cleanest, most efficient and economic solar energy solutions. Also, we are committed to promoting the wide application of photovoltaic power generation worldwide, boosting the comprehensive replacement of traditional energy by photovoltaic energy and building a sustainable green globe. Therefore, JinkoSolar will carry on with creating business value for customers all over the world by continuously providing leading technologies, adding to its list of multiple world records, high-quality products with top bankability and empirical endorsements of the largest cumulative shipments. At the same time, JinkoSolar will also cooperate with ecological partners, including institutes and research organizations, electric power design companies, key product suppliers, system integrators, omni-channel distributors and EPCs to provide carbon neutral consulting, designing and deployment for all industries and corporate clients. We will continue to optimize methods that help reach carbon neutrality and empower other organizations and industries to achieve the same. RM ||www.renewablemirror.com||
||www.renewablemirror.com||
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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REI Special REI Special Issue Issue
Mr. Honey Raza sales head
SoliS india
34
RENEWABLE MIR ROR
|| SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
Ginlong has always spearheaded the innovations. We ready updated monitoring platform-Soliscloud which is more advanced from our previous portal. This solutions comes with latest 4G Dongle stick imparting better local communication and higher bit rate transfer speed. On the product front the retrofit storage solution for the utility scale plant prove to be the need of time. This product shall be ready this year Q2. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q. Please describe in brief about your company, its vision & mission.
Q. What is your footprint in India in terms of shipments,
what is the target and expectation in this year and next year?
Our shipments to India are now reaching around 1GW+. The first quarter of CY 2021 has been good, it has achieved rapid growth compared with the same period last year. According to the research report, India's installed capacity in 2020 is 4.6 GW, the estimated installation capacity in 2021 is 12.5 GW. The industry growth rate of around 50 %. We expect our growth rate is not below the industry average.
Q. How you provide flexible price structures for the customers
globally?
On pricing front we have to take following phenomenon going globally. 1. Shortage of IC chips which is creating major hurdles, this is not just for solar but for every sector 2. Price of IGBT is Increased 3. Major commodities like Copper and Aluminum is also on the rise. 4. Container shortage is also translating into higher freight cost. All this scenarios are taking putting tremendous pressure on the inverter rates. The rates of few suppliers in China are already increased and I won’t be surprised if the same would translate to other parts of the world.
Q. How BIS and other tariffs are affecting the market?
BIS is a good step by MNRE towards Indian standards of inverter segment. We take pride to declare that all the eligible inverter ratings supplied by Solis are BIS certified. This increases the confidence of customers and they can well corelate our quality and our offering. Increase in BCD Tariff barrier is not favorable at this point of time due high targets, PPA Rates and also present situation of developers. Having said that we also have to see that present solar ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q. What are your views on Make in India Inverters?
An industry needs to grow healthfully and rapidly, and it should be open. The environment of open competition is more conducive to technological innovation and industrial chain cluster development. Currently, in the global ranking of inverters, China's intelligently made inverters lead the world in terms of design level, reliability and intelligent manufacturing. Companies are still trying to figure out some conducive business model in the present policy. Manufacturing related single window clearance and policy clarity being the first go ahead for such schemes. Supply chain for the support components need to be developed and attracted parallelly. Import duty on such components should be eased. PBAs for solar inverters should be brought under the same tariffs such as mobile phone.
Q. What is the current market scenario including China and
its impact on pricing and availability of inverters in this year?
If you consider the present situation people are opting for more robust and advance technology products. These products should have minimum interference and with the advent of AI and Machine learning system should adopt the grid as well as common faults. This helps us in better O&M and consecutively result in better LCOE.
Q. What are the current opportunities and challenges for the inverter manufacturers in Indian market?
Industry is having tremendous opportunities as the world is more concerned about the future and climate change which was earlier only talked at International arenas. People are more aware about the disasters and benefits for the green energy. Certainly, this will have a positive impact on the overall industry towards the motivation and sentiments. Challenges are minor like the clarity on the policy and high import tariff. State Governments Agencies should also have better policy replication as per the guide lines of MNRE.
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Established in 2005, Ginlong Technologies (Stock Code: 300763. SZ) is one of most experienced and largest manufacturers of solar inverters. Ginlong's cost-effective solutions for residential, commercial, andutility-scale users deliver value at every level of the solar supply chain, engaging both homeowners and businesses, as well as power producers and renewable energy investors across the globe. Presented under the Solis brand, the company's solar inverter product line uses innovative string technology to deliver first-class reliability, validated under the most stringent international certifications. Combining a global supply chain with world-class R&D and manufacturing capabilities, Ginlong optimizes its Solis inverters for each regional market, servicing and supporting its customers with its team of local experts. Proven bankability has attracted support from world leading financial institutions, ensuring solid long-term returns on investment. Working with stakeholders to accelerate the world journey towards a more sustainable future.
inverter manufacturing is in infant stage notably in India hence in the short term this would have an impact on the deployment of solar projects as well as the PPAs.
Q. What are your expectations from Indian Government, policy Makers and regulators?
GOI has done a good job by their continued support for the industry, regular feedback are taken from us. Certainly some points as I have mentioned earlier regarding the transparency and clarity can boost the sector to new horizons.
Q. How you see aggressive bidding despite of many challenges enlisted above?
Projects are having the life time of 25 years developers are well aware about the long term goals. Pandemic would have certain constraints in short term but would overcome by the time.
Q. What are your view on the viability, costs & timeline pressures, Resource Challenges (Material, manpower, land) etc?
Recent rise in the rates for modules, structural cost due to rise in commodity pricing and price hike of Solar inverters in China market shall be something developers have to take into account. Hedging this uncertainty to the best possible level should be on priority. || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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Q. Please enlighten our readers about the performance Q. What are the top 5 markets for your company? of your Inverters in India & customer feedback.
We are pioneers in introducing the multiple MPPT inverters in early 2016. Through the trust of EPCs and developers now these inverters are giving better returns as compared to normal string inverters. Customers, feedback are very important for our own internal assessment and improvements in the product. As on date all the customers are satisfied and through this satisfaction level we earn the repeat orders from them.
Europe, USA, Southeast Asia, Australia, Latin America and so on.
Q. How Energy Storage is a game changer? Please tell us about its technology, cost trends etc.
We are keen and have strategic view regarding storage. Recently we have introduced two products. First is in the Residential and commercial segment where we have launched lead acid compatible hybrid inverters from 3kW to 5kW and from 5kW to 10kW High Voltage for certain countries. The increasing in the demand shall put some corrections in the rates of Hybrid inverters.
Q. What are some noteworthy projects of solar plants Q. Explain various guarantees, warrantees, insurance, built using your solar inverters?
Interview
We are proud and obliged to serve now all the major players for Indian Solar market. Many well-known companies are using Solis for their prestigious projects. Few projects like DMRC, IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, IGI Airport, TATA Motors, Andaman & Nicobar and many more which are powered using Solis Inverters.
Q
. What is the size of your company in terms of manufacturing capacities, growth chart, future expansion plans? Soon we will be having 20GW of production capacity which is currently10GW. There has been a substantial growth as compared to last year Q1. Revenues have been consistently increasing, last year around 340M USD. This adds up to have our total installation base to 20GW+ globally.
We are currently offering 5 years standard warranty which can be extendable in 5 years slots up to 20 years. More than 20 People in service are supporting our clients for resolving their issues and dedicated service call center is first of its kindly which provide customer telephonic support whenever required. This service activity is having a strong backup with integrated warehouse establishments. Even during COIVD situation our service personals have support all the existing customers for any support. Site visits are done with all the precautionary steps and safety gears prescribed by authorities as well as by our own internal advisories. We are also now BIS certified for all the range from 1kW to 100kW.
Q. Is there any plan to set up manufacturing plant in India? Q. How Solis is transforming itself to cater to the emerging We are positive to have manufacturing in India. The talks are in right direction but very early to comment on details at this point of time. Briefly describe the various technologies and its suitable applications such as Central Inverter, String, Micro Inverter, 1500V, Outdoor, Container solutions etc. Our new 255kW – String inverter is second product in 1500V after 125k which was launched last year. The performance and reliability of both the products in this segment is tremendous. These product are not only advanced in technology but are also giving tough competition to central inverters. Developers are now interested more towards future ready solutions with advance monitoring control. This micro controlling and monitoring are difficult in the central inverter design. At present we have supplied more than 70MW+ from which 50% is already commissioned and rest is in commissioning stage. Generation figures for plants already commissioned has been outstanding.
Q. How much is your R&D budget at present?
Solis has always put innovation and development as its starting point, and continuously improved its ability to respond to domestic and foreign market demands. R&D investment in 2020 increased by more than 100% year on year. 36
certifications, test results, performance report of your inverters
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technological needs of the power solution industry?
Ginlong has always spearheaded the innovations. We ready updated monitoring platform-Soliscloud which is more advanced from our previous portal. This solutions comes with latest 4G Dongle stick imparting better local communication and higher bit rate transfer speed. On the product front the retrofit storage solution for the utility scale plant prove to be the need of time. This product shall be ready this year Q2. SolisCloud is the new generation of intelligent PV system monitoring. This new monitoring platform will empower you like never before. You will have full control of your system whenever and wherever you are. You will benefit from upgraded accurate fault alarm messaging that is adjustable to notify you within hours that fit meet your needs. For simple O&M the new platform features a full size display of all your installations with real-time data. You will have an intelligent alarm system that gives recommendations to quickly repair your field faults. In depth analysis tools allow you to understand the overall health of your system. IV curve scanning can be done easily and quickly on your whole system. A live power flow display gives visibility of both standard solar systems as well as storage systems. Most importantly you will have complete control of your systems and be able to monitor and adapt anything when and how you want. RM ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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REI Special Issue
State Overview: Delhi - NCr
(As on 30.07.2021)
INSTALLED CAPACITY (IN MW) OF POWER UTILITIES IN THE STATES/UTS LOCATED IN NORthern REGION INCLUDING ALLOCATED SHARES IN JOINT & CENTRAL SECTOR UTILITIES
State
Delhi-NCR
38
Ownership/ Sector State Private Central Sub-Total
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Modewise Breakup Thermal Coal Lignite Gas 4320.00 0.00 524.08 4487.67 250.00 503.10 3025.32 1517.30 0.00 11832.99 1767.30 1027.18 || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
Diesel 0.00 211.70 0.00 211.70
Total 4844.08 5452.47 4542.62 14839.17
Nuclear
Hydro
0.00 0.00 1448.00 1448.00
2178.20 0.00 0.00 2178.20
RES (MNRE) 122.70 14974.20 231.90 15328.80
Grand Total 7144.98 20426.67 6222.52 33794.17
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MNRE has taken several steps to fructify Prime Minister’s dream of a clean energy future for the ‘New India’. The most important renewable capability growth programme among the planet is being haunted by land. The govt. is about to increase share of contemporary energy through vast thrust in renewables. Core drivers for development of recent & RE in land area unit Energy
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security, Electricity shortages, Energy Access, world global climate change etc. A capability addition of 27.07 GW of RE has been reportable throughout the last 3 years beneath Grid Connected Renewable Power, that embody 12.87 GW from solar power, 11.70 GW from energy, 0.59 from small Hydro Power 0.79 from Bio-power. Assured by the growth rate in clean energy sector, the Govt. of
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India in its submission to the UNFCC on INDC has declared that India will succeed 400th additive power capability from non-fossil fuel based totally energy resources by 2030 with the help of transfer of technology & low price International Finance at the side of from inexperienced Climate Fund. Solar energy comes with associate combination capability of over 16611.73 MW at the side of 863.92 MW from star Roof high comes has been place in among the country. Govt. is collaborating in a very vigorous role in promoting the adoption of RE resources by providing various incentives, like generation-based incentives (GBIs), capital &interest subsidies, viability gap funding, concessional finance, money incentives etc. The National star Mission aims to plug the event & use of solar energy for power generation uses, with the last word objective of constructing solar energy contend with fossil-based energy decisions. The target of the National star Mission is to cut back the value of solar power generation among the country through long-term policy, large scale activity goals, aggressive R&D the domestic production of necessary raw materials, elements. RE is becoming increasingly cost-competitive as compared to fossil fuel-based generation. Therefore on attain the RE target of 175 GW by the year 2022, the foremost necessary programmes/ schemes on implementation of star Park, star Roof high theme, star Defence theme, star theme for CPUs star PV power plants on Canal Bank & Canal superior, Solar Pump, star high facet etc area unit launched throughout the last two years. Various policy measures area unit initiated & special steps taken to boot to providing resource to various schemes being implemented by the Ministry of recent & RE (MNRE) for achieving the target of RE capability to 175 GW by the year 2022. These embody, inter alia, acceptable amendments to the Electricity Act & Tariff Policy for sturdy group action of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO)&for providing Renewable Generation Obligation (RGO); fixing of exclusive star parks; development of power transmission network through in fully fledged Energy passage means project; pointers for acquisition of solar & wind power though tariff based totally competitive bidding methodology, National Offshore Wind Energy Policy notified, Repowering of different energy comes, Standards for activity of star physical phenomenon systems/ devices, orders for waiving the lay State transmission charges & losses for interstate sale of star for involves be commissioned; identification of giant govt. complexes/ buildings for high facet projects; provision of roof high star & 10% RE as necessary beneath Mission Statement for development of smart cities; amendments in building bye-laws for necessary provision of roof high star for different construction or higher Floor house Ratio; infrastructure standing for star projects; raising tax free star bonds; providing long tenor loans; making roof high star as a locality of housing loan by banks/ NHB; incorporating
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measures in Integrated Power Development theme (IPDS) for encouraging distribution firms net-metering required & raising funds from bilateral & international donors as jointly the inexperienced Climate Fund to realize the target. Delhi govt’s push for renewable power hits a wall When it involves exploitation inexperienced energy, Delhiites area unit insulant means behind in putting in solar energy systems on their rooftops. After the metropolis star Policy was notified, the town govt. had set a target of generating 84MW of solar energy solely through rooftops in residences. A year has passed since then, however households area unit tributary solely around fifteen MW in Delhi’s total solar energy production of fifty six MW. Faced with the powerful target, as well as the cold response of individuals, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies has written to 8,000 cluster housing societies urging Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) to induce top side star panels put in. Dwarka is one in every of the few areas in metropolis that has the most important potential of residential top side star panels. It’s a planned society. Residential complexes in Dwarka have uniform height & its rooftops have the utmost shadow free space. The govt. has set a target of generating a complete of 186 MW (84MW on residential & private buildings & 102 MW on govt. buildings) of solar energy. This is often a revised target because the metropolis star Policy mandated achieving this target. Constant should be inflated to 1,000 MW by 2020 & 2,000 MW by 2025. To unfold awareness concerning the subsidies being offered & the overall reduction in power bills, the metropolis govt. is additionally about to launch an advertisement campaign. Besides, it's additionally about to conduct workshops with RWAs. Under the theme, those that would like to put in star panels of 1-30 kWp can get to invest solely between Rs. 55,000 & Rs. 16.5 lakh. The value would more plummet once they begin generating power, with shoppers obtaining a further generation-based incentive of Rs2 per kW of solar energy for an amount of 3 years. Besides, individuals additionally get a grant of half-hour given by the MNRE throughout installation of star panels. For example, if a giant housing society installs a system of thirty KWp that prices Rs 16.5 lakh, they're going to get a grant of Rs 4.95 lakh. A star plant of this capability would want a shadow free space of 312.5 sq. meters. The policy has been developed underneath the Capex & Resco model. Underneath the Capex model, there'll be no mounted tariff. The bill can depend upon the energy generated by the user, whereas within the Resco model; there'll be a hard and fast tariff. underneath the Resco model, there'll be 2 types; one within which a shopper will got to pay but Rs3.33 per unit for the primary year & in every succeeding year the tariff would increase by five-hitter. Within the second sort, a flat tariff of but Rs5.10 per unit is going to be charged & this rate would be constant for the 25 years. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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rooftop projects are already economical without net metering, for residential rooftop solar to take off, such a policy is critical since home owners don’t use much power during the day, according to BNEF. Even those states that allow net metering have a cap on the amount of power that can be fed back into the state grid.Since discoms were posing the biggest hurdle, the MNRE has proposed a few initiatives to woo them. For one, the govt. plans to compensate them by providing performance-linked incentives for each MW of capacity added in their distribution network, the MNRE said in a note. There’ll be a difference in the next one or two years compared. Several banks, including the State Bank of India&Punjab National Bank, have committed to providing financing support to rooftop solar projects. Initiatives & Achievements of Energy Efficiency & RE Management Centre of Delhi Domestic Efficient Lighting Program (DELP)
Domestic sector accounts for almost 50% of energy consumption in Delhi & lighting is a key component of the same. In order to promote the use of LEDs in household sector&reduce the energy consumption, EE&REM Centre in association with Energy Efficiency Services limited (EESL), BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna&Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) has implemented the DELP (Demand Side Management based Domestic Efficient Lighting Program) in Delhi. DELP promotes the usage of LEDs at a minimal cost&is designed to monetize the energy consumptionreduction for the domestic consumers. The distribution of LEDs through this programme will reduce energy consumption by 88% (as compared to ordinary bulb) & 50% (as compared to CFLs). More than 60 lakh LED bulbs were distributed to citizens of Delhi under this scheme. Street Light National Program (SLNP): Under SLNP, it is proposed to replace conventional street lights using energy efficient LED lights. Around 1 lakh 36 thousand conventional street lights have already been changed to energy efficient LED lights in South Delhi Municipal Corporation area. EE & REM is pursuing with other Municipal bodies & PWD for replacing conventional street lights to energy efficient LED lights in their respective areas. This will lead to saving of electricity along with shaving of peak power demand.
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BSES installs first grid-connected rooftop solar plant Delhi electricity Discom BSES-Rajdhani announced it has installed the first grid-connected 100KW solar rooftop plant in a residential housing society in Dwarka locality of the city as part of its Solar City Initiative to "solarise" the area. Shiv Bhole Cooperative Group Housing Society (CGHS) in Dwarka has become the first such housing society to install a 100KW grid-connected rooftop solar plant, a BSES release said. Each of the 60 flats will save around Rs 4,500 annually in their electricity bills, while the solar plants will be able to offset around 32% of a resident's annual carbon emission," it said. "The plant has been installed by Green Ripples Pvt Ltd following RESCO business model that entails providing electricity at a cost identified through competitive bidding, which in this case is Rs 2.66 per kWh net of generationbased incentive,&is around 2.40/kWh less than the tariff of BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL). Solarise Dwarka initiative, launched in Jan, and is being implemented by BRPL in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ India) under its Indo-German Solar Partnership project, it added. India quietly constricts rooftop solar power target Rooftop solar may have been the fastest-growing segment within India’s RE sector last year, but it is still not growing fast enough. Govt. has quietly down scaled its targets to only 1,000 MW of capacity. While the target was 5,000 MW till as recently as, the capacity progress report made available in Jan shows the scaled-down figure.The original target was 200 MW, followed by 4,800 MW & 5,000 MW. However, India’s cumulative installed capacity of rooftop solar stood at 982 MW as. A mere 271 MW has come up this year, data from the MNRE show. The rooftop solar segment had really hit its stride in the last FY when it became cheaper than grid power for most commercial&industrial users, driving up installations. Driven largely by govt. incentives & subsidies, around 715 MW of capacity was added across the country last fiscal, according to a report by BNEF. The reason for the reduction is (that) the policy currently is purely for industrial rooftop projects. They don’t have too many benefits for a residential rooftop. MNRE is still working on residential rooftop to see how to make it attractive. The biggest problem the sector faces is that state electricity utilities & discoms across India aren’t supportive as it could hurt their finances. As more commercial & industrial users, who bring the maximum revenues to state discoms, take to solar power, the revenues of electricity generators & distributors would fall. Indian discoms were suffering losses of around $67 billion, BNEF said in the report.Further, India hasn’t come out with uniform policies around net metering that allows users to sell surplus power to electricity utilities. Net metering policies are required to enable widespread adoption of rooftop solar power, so that users can maximize benefits. While commercial & industrial
Dedicated Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) Plant to make Delhi Secretariat a Green Building: In order to make Delhi Secretariat the
first Green, energy efficient secretariat in country operating completely on Solar Energy, EE & REM Centre, Department of Power, GNCTD has initiated the process of installing a 3MWp surface mounted SPV plant in association with MNRE & SECI on the vacant land of erstwhile Indraprastha Thermal Power Station (ITPS). Power generated from this 3MWp SPV plant will be dedicated to Delhi Secretariat for meeting out the total electricity requirement of the building. Out of total capacity of 3MWp SPV plant, 1 MWp capacity has already been commissioned & is operational since 24.10.2015. As a || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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matter of fact, due to installation of this 1 MW plant, saving of Rs. 17.83 lakh has accrued to Delhi Govt. Energy Efficiency Measures: Energy Efficiency &RE Management Centre (EE & REM), Department of Power, GNCTD & United States Embassy, New Delhi agreed to have a common programme to promote the deployment of clean energy technologies (RE&energy efficient technologies) to enhance energy security, improve access to energy, conserve energy & promote clean energy development. The Delhi Secretariat building has been identified as a scalable model for technical assistance under the bilateral initiative between US Embassy, the North India Office, Resource Conservation Unit&USAID, through its partnership to Advance Clean Energy Deployment (PACE-D) technical assistance programme (the PACE-D TA programme) & the EE & REM Centre, Department of Power, GNCTD. Perform, Achieve & Trade Cycle (PAT): is a market based mechanism to enhance cost effectiveness of improvements in energy efficiency in energy intensive large industries & facilities, through certification on energy savings that could be traded. Overall PAT Cycle- I covers 478 Designated Consumers (DC) of eight energy intensive sectors: Aluminum, Cement, Chloralkali, Fertilizer, Iron&Steel, Pulp & Paper, Textile&Thermal power plant. Designated Consumers are obligated to improve energy efficiency & under this scheme a target is given to every DC. Target under PAT scheme is defined as the % reduction of ‘Specific Energy Consumption (SEC)’ from Baseline value. When a designated consumer achieve & surpass the target, the Energy Saving certificates (ESCerts) are to be issued by Central Govt. & the same can be sold to the designated consumer who fails to achieve their targets & could not comply the energy consumption norms & standards. Under PAT-I there are four Designated Consumers in Delhi namely Badarpur Thermal Power Station (BTPS), Rajghat Thermal Power Station (RTPS), Gas Turbine Power Station (GTPS) & Pragati Power Station. Delhi Solar Policy plans to solve energy crisis; here’s how solar panels will power your homes Delhi govt. brought a policy related to solar energy which has set a target of generating 2,000MW on solar power by 2025. Here are the ways in which the Delhi govt. & you, together can set up solar power systems on your rooftop & help the world combat climate change too. Delhi has reportedly been finding it difficult to meet the power demand in the city. This has been a bone of contention between the Delhi govt. & the centre as well. Delhi has reportedly been finding it difficult to meet the power demand in the city. This has been a bone of contention between the Delhi govt. & the centre as well. While the settlement of the dispute is a distant dream, it is the people who have been suffering. Meanwhile, the citizens still have a hope in sight. Delhi govt. brought a policy related to solar energy which has
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set a target of generating 2,000MW on solar power by 2025. This essentially means that around 7% of the total energy consumption in Delhi can be met with. Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi govt. had announced the implementation of its solar policy in a bid to make the national capital a solar city. The aim of the policy is to installation 1 GW solar power capacity by the year 2020. The Delhi Solar Policy is now expected to roll out this month. Delhi govt. has been working towards this for a long time & the results may be an indication of the times to come. Delhi Secretariat is once of a kind in the country which runs on solar energy & has reportedly saved more than Rs 1 Cr. in a year. The Delhi Solar policy contains within itself, a combination of regulations, incentives, mandates & tax breaks regarding the growth of rooftop solar power in Delhi. In the policy that was outlaid, there is a promotion of net-metering for all solar plants above 1 kW based on the net-metering regulations already issued by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission. The policy also has mandates regarding the deployment of solar plants on all govt. -owned rooftops in the next 5 years. It also says that the Discoms should meet 75% minimum, of their solar renewable purchase obligation (RPO) in Delhi. Kejriwal had said that it is his govt.’s one of the most progressive ideas. Rooftop solar power systems offer us several environmental gains; provide us with sustainable energy with a low gestation period & minimum transmission & distribution losses. Solar Power can potentially lower the govt.’s expenditure on energy through peak shaving, strengthening the energy security, as well as minimizing the use of unsustainable fossil fuels. It even reduces the maintenance expenditure by lessening the burden on the existing transmission & distribution system. Key highlights of Solar Policy Mandatory deployment of solar on Govt. /Public institution. Generation Based Incentive for 3 years. Tax breaks, benefits & subsidies. Building by laws amendment for rooftop solar installations. Solar system up to 200 KWp is exempted from certification by the Electrical inspector. Concept of Virtual Net Metering. Group Net Metering. The policy promotes net metering for all solar plants above 1 kW based on the net metering regulations already issued by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.Here are the ways in which the Delhi govt. & you, together can set up solar power systems on your rooftop & help the world combat climate change, air pollution as well has to improve energy security. Group Net Metering: To encourage solar plants on rooftops of buildings that cannot consume all of the energy generated locally, DISCOMS shall facilitate Group Net Metering, whereby surplus energy exported to the grid from a solar plant at the location of the solar plant can be adjusted in any other (one or more) electricity service connection(s) of the consumer within the NCT of Delhi, provided these connections are in the same DISCOM territory. The purpose of this provision is ||www.renewablemirror.com||
to help maximize the utilisation of rooftop space for solar energy generation for consumers with multiple buildings & service connections. Virtual Net Metering: To give access to the Solar Net Metering facility for consumers who do not have a suitable roof for installing a solar system (e.g. residential consumers who live in apartments, consumers with shaded rooftops) there will be the facility of Virtual Net Metering. In Virtual Net Metering, consumers can be beneficial owners of a part of a collectively owned solar system. All energy produced by a collectively owned solar system will be fed into the grid through an energy meter&the exported energy as recorded by that meter will be pro-rata credited in the electricity bill of each participating consumer on the basis of beneficial ownership. Registration process for installation of rooftop solar in the city Delhi govt. has recently opened registration process for installation of rooftop solar power plants in the city in a bid to tap 1GW of green energy by the year 2020. The registration process has been opened for residents of Delhi in the residential, institutional & social sector categories under the city govt.’s solar policy of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (Net Metering for RE) Regulations. MNRE will provide 30% central finance assistance on the cost of rooftop solar plant under the scheme. GBI of Rs. 2 per unit is also there for residential category reports PTI. IPGCL has enlisted vendors for installation of rooftop solar in the city. Early this month Lt. Governor Anil Baijal directed the power department to prepare a SOP as well as a roadmap to promote installation of solar power panels in the city. A target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022 has been set The Government has set a target of installing 40 GW of grid connected rooftop solar capacity in the country including Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) by year 2022. As per the Delhi Solar Policy, notified by Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, target has been set for installation of 1 GW of solar power by year 2020 and 2 GW of solar power by year 2025 in Delhi. The Government has set a target of installing 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022 in the country. A target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022 has been set, which includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro-power. The Ministry of Urban Development had requested all States & UTs, in 2014 to issue necessary directives to all State Government Departments for using rooftop of buildings under their control for solar power generation on mandatory basis and also to local bodies under their jurisdiction to ||www.renewablemirror.com||
incorporate the similar provision in their building bye-laws so that installation of Roof Top Systems (RTS) on rooftops of all types of buildings in their jurisdiction may become mandatory. Further, the Ministry of Urban Development also issued Model Building Bye-Laws, in which suitable provisions for installation of RTS on buildings have been incorporated. Four States/UTs viz. Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have already issued mandatory notifications for installation of RTS in different categories of buildings. The Capacity Utilization Factor (CUF) of solar power projects is less than thermal, hydro, nuclear, wind and bio-mass power projects. The Government has launched several schemes for promotion and development of renewable energy including solar energy in the country from time to time. The Government is promoting development of solar energy in the country by providing various fiscal and promotional incentives such as accelerated depreciation, waiver of Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) charges and losses, financing solar rooftop systems as part of home loan, and permitting Foreign Direct Investment up to 100 per cent under the automatic route. This information was provided by Shri R.K. Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. New infrastructure projects to be inaugurated in Delhi in October, hopes for decongestion In some good news for Delhiites, four major infrastructure projects, some of them pending for more than a decade, are scheduled to be inaugurated in October. Construction and civic agencies involved in these projects — the Signature Bridge in Wazirabad (Tourism dept), Rani Jhansi Flyover (North civic body and the Central Road Research Institute), the ITO Skywalk (PWD) and the Union urban development ministry), and a flyover adjacent to the Noida Link Road (PWD) — are hopeful of their inauguration this month. These projects will not only reduce commuting time in the National Capital Region (NCR), but also help in reducing traffic congestion on Delhi’s roads. Signature Bridge Of these four projects, the Signature Bridge — touted to be India’s first asymmetrical bridge — is the oldest. The 657m-long bridge was planned to reduce the load on the Wazirabad bridge on the Yamuna. Once completed, the bridge will reduce travel time between north and northeast Delhi by improving traffic movement on the Ring Road. From the initial budget of `400 crore, multiple deadline misses have escalated the cost more than three times to Rs 1,518 crore. In September, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia visited the construction site to check progress of work. ITO Skywalk The network of elevated bridges, spanning more than 500 || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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m, will facilitate pedestrian movement on Mathura Road, Tilak Marg, Sikandra Road, and Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, converging at central Delhi’s ITO junction. This junction is probably the capital’s busiest and the most congested. According to estimates of the Public Works Department (PWD), more than 30,000 people will benefit everyday from this skywalk fitted with CCTV cameras for security of pedestrians who can use it to reach Pragati Maidan and ITO Metro stations. Rani Jhansi flyover a lack of coordination among agencies has led to this grade separator earns the dubious moniker of ‘flyover of deadlines’. Construction work began. The six-lane, 1.8 km grade separator has missed six deadlines. Matters related to land acquisition and litigation have only led to its delay further. In the last two years, Lt Governor Anil Baijal visited the flyover five times to take stock of the progress of the work. The North civic body is hopeful of completing the work in October. The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) was involved in carrying out a stability test. The project was conceptualised 18 years ago for the purpose of decongesting the densely populated area between Pusha Road and ISBT Kashmiri Gate. Mayur Vihar flyover This flyover project, which was conceptualised in 2010 to ease the traffic burden of six-lane UP Link road, will soon be ready. The project is supposed to bring in better connectivity between NCR satellite town Noida and Laxmi Nagar in Delhi. The 700m-long carriageway is being executed by the Public Works Department. Once complete, the flyover will ensure smooth traffic at Mayur Vihar Phase-I intersection, which has become a traffic bottleneck on UP Link Road, resulting in heavy traffic snarls. Harnessing the sun: startups who are lighting the way ahead for India’s renewable energy sector The discourse over climate change is finally getting its much-deserved time under the limelight and as the media focuses on the ills of using fossil fuels, renewable energy is finding a stronger foothold. And it’s not just a fad some developed countries are implementing, but developing nations like India have been pursuing renewable energy especially solar energy with serious intent. Among the various mediums of renewable energy sources, solar is the widely and easily available power source. In fact, for most of the country, the sun shines for a large part of the year thanks to its place on the globe. According to the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the country’s renewable capacity including solar, wind, biomass, and small hydro grew by 11.2 GW in. India also increased its new solar capacity by 83%, up to 5,526 MW. It is not surprising - given the change makers
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of Indian business ecosystem in the last few years - that a large part of this change is being led by startups and entrepreneurs. Given the market opportunity and environment need, it is only natural that renewable energy is consistently at the forefront of funding wars clocking in mega-deals worth $100M+ according to market reports. Given the scope the field of solar energy has, we focus on startups – based on their unique ideas, potential social and/or economic impact, funding and more – that have a promising future in this space. 8Minutes Founded in 2015 by Dev Arora, Anuj Gupta, and Arjun Srihari, 8Minutes’core mission was to accelerate India’s transition to clean energy. A significant component of this was to make solar energy more accessible – both in terms of pricing and awareness – to the average Indian consumer. They also cater to the commercial sector including educations institutions, industries, and corporates. The Delhi-based company analyses the feasibility for a user to go solar. If the results are positive then the team designs and builds the solar panel, even completes the required documentation work to install the panel. In less than three years, the company already has 26 MW of solar assets in deployment, 39 Million kWh of energy produced annually, and over 29,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions offset. Orb Energy Bengaluru-based Orb Energy provides solar energy systems with over 1,50,000 systems sold in India in nearly a decade. The company manufactures its own solar photovoltaic modules and solar water heating systems. With financing options for SMEs already in place, the company is now growing its unique in-house platform for financing and solar rooftop ownership. Earlier in January, Orb raised over $15 million in debt and equity funding, a part of which it will use to expand into Kenya. ReNew Power Ventures Founded just about six years ago by Sumant Sinha and backed by marquee investors like Goldman Sachs, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Asian Development Bank, and Global Environment Fund, ReNew Power Ventures is a rare unicorn in the cleantech space in India. The company entered the solar space with a 57.6 MW project. With strong EPC capabilities in place, ReNew Power Ventures has adopted and adapted to the developments in the solar space including thin film to multi crystalline technologies, fixed tilt structures, single axis trackers, and more. The company is capable of executing end-to-end Engineering-ProcurementConstruction life cycle of solar projects. Ostro Energy One of the bigger names in the solar energy sphere, Delhibased Ostroplans to build 1,000 MW of renewable energy ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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solar marketplace and offers information and advisory on solar product technology, market suppliers, price comparison, benefits, products, delivery as well as installations. The core mission of IndiaGo Solar is to consumerize solar adoption and to make adoption convenient and transparent. Reasonably ahead of its times in a market like India where solar conversations have only just started, IndiaGo Solar was bootstrapped with a seed capital of Rs 6 lakh. But thanks to its focus on enrolling only quality suppliers – EPC and O&M players that follow service standards and are prescribed by the MNRE. In just over three years, the company has been able to rope in clients like Sukam, Schneider, Optimal Power Solution, Power One, and Southern Batteries among others. Claro Energy Founded in 2011, Delhi-based Claro Energy manufactures and distributes solar-powered water pumping solutions to meet agricultural needs like irrigation, aeration, fisheries, as well as drinking water requirements in off-grid areas. Founded by Kellogs graduates Kartik Wahi and Soumitra Mishra, Claro is eliminating the prohibitive cost of operating and unreliability of diesel pump sets. In just 5 years, the company has expanded to 14 Indian states with over 2,200 pump sets installed. Mera Gao Power Mera Gao Power, a microgrid startup, was co-founded by Sandeep Pandey, Brian Shaad, and Nikhil Jaisinghani. It operates primarily in UP and has already served more than 1,50,000 individuals in 1,600 off-grid villages in the state. The company provides these villages with high-quality, reliable lighting and mobile charging solutions in less than $1000 per village. The result is not only noble but also laudable – Mera Gao Power is the first commercially viable microgrid for rural India and the underprivileged. Fewer power cuts, more electrified villages, and better climate – the benefits of a solar-led future are immense. These and other startups and social enterprises including Boond Engineering, Cygni Energy, EAI among others are leading the way. Hopefully, many others will come forward to bolster the space and ensure a brighter and renewed future. RM
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projects. Backed by Actis with an investment of US$280 million, the company has over 460 MW of wind and solar projects under construction in Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Telangana. With a large pipeline and strong intent exclusively in the solar space. Oorjan IIT Bombay alumni Roli Gupta and Gautam Das, founded Oorjan – as part of the Top-10 Technology Startups led by women in India by the Anita Borg Foundation and Government of India. It is a rooftop solar platform system that brings clean energy to homes and businesses. Oorjan also provides lifetime performance monitoring and data using an IoT platform. With flexible design options as well as financing, Oorjan is on a mission to make solar energy more accessible to households and small businesses. Nuevosol Energy Founded by Himamsu Popuri, Nuevosol Energy is a major B2B player in the solar energy space. It builds solar mounting systems and structures for energy companies. But other than systems, the company also provides consulting to encourage mounting over laying panels on the field. The company takes on turnkey contracts from infrastructure companies – projects that last anywhere between 3 to 5 months. Thanks to Himansu’s foresight on solar energy and its capabilities, Neuvosol crossed Rs 180 crore in annual revenue in its first five years of business. Sun Mobility Founded by Chetan Maini, the inventor of Reva (now Mahindra Reva), Sun Mobility is solving the very reason Reva (or any other electric vehicle) couldn’t take off without the backing of an empire like Mahindra – the lack of battery management systems, prohibitive pricing for the average consumer, and the absence of a customer support ecosystem. Sun Mobility is reinventing the way batteries are distributed and energy is stored. And solar energy is at the core of this revolution. The company plans to buy solar power from plants, store it in batteries, and distribute it through a battery network (similar to petrol pumps). The company is in talks with with OEMs to integrate its solutions to a wide range of electric vehicles including cars, buses, rickshaws, scooters etc. Sun Mobility is currently operating on a joint venture between Virya Mobility and Sun New Energy Systems, the investment arm of the Sun Group. It has the financial and policy backing and could be a bold idea whose time has come. Though, the way ahead is till is fraught with risk the reward it promises are great too. Sun Mobility could be at the forefront of a turnaround in environmental issues as well as electric vehicle pricing and adoption. IndiaGoSolar Delhi-based IndiaGoSolar is bringing the wonders of e-commerce to the nascent solar market. It is an online
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REI Special Issue
Mr. Sunil Badesra Country Head
Sungrow India Pvt. Ltd.
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Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd (“Sungrow”) is the world’s most bankable inverter brand with over 182 GW installed worldwide as of June 2021. Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q.
Kindly tell our audience about the journey of SUNGROW and its progress?
Q.
What’s your commitment towards the solar sector in India?
Our commitment to the solar industry is to provide a good quality product, good quality service. In the end, we want to contribute as much as we can. At least we are targeting to achieve 40 per cent of solar inverter market share from what the government is targeting for solar development.
Q. Expectations from Indian government policy makers
and regulators?
As a manufacturer, we want the kind of PLI scheme, which has been given to the module manufacturer and missing for the inverter manufacturer. In my opinion, if such motivations also continue for inverter manufacturers, then it will help the solar and renewable market in India. Aside from this, the policies/ guidelines that hamper the project timeline and other things should be avoided. As a supplier, we understand if delay happens because of the pandemic, but like in the case of tariff revision, they are expecting revision in products and pricing as well, which negatively impact the market. These kinds of things should not happen as it demotivates manufacturers and developers.
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Tell us about your opinion of the market? What are the opportunities and challenges for the company and industry?
A lot of big projects are coming in all segments like Utility, C&I, the MSME sector and other sectors like residential are also booming. C&I segment is playing a vital role in achieving solar target. There is no limitation in residential. We have such a big population and potential in India for the residential segment. Currently, I think it is not going up to the mark, but I would say that it will grow a lot in the coming years. In India, we are full of potential which can be utilized in the solar segment. From challenges perspective, especially, in the residential segment, the policies keep on changing. There are some challenges related to government policies, which is a major parameter not only for the investors and manufacturers but for overall solar development growth like Net metering policy. Such problems come up regularly until the policies are not aligned as per the market requirement.
Q.
What message would you like to convey to our audience?
Q.
What are the plans and goals of SUNGROW?
In my opinion, India can achieve the target of 175 GW. The next target of 450 GW by the year 2030 is also achievable. The coming policies are supporting the mission, but the challenge is that the policies need to be planned in advance. Stable policies are required to take care of inverter, modules or other suppliers whose components are used in the solar projects. We want the government to address those challenges. With a unique perspective, our focus is on the manufacturing setup in India and therefore, we are expanding it from 3 GW to 10 GW annual production including PCB manufacturing line and Testing facilities. Further, Sungrow is committed to improve the capacity required as per the market demand.
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Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd ("Sungrow") is the world's most bankable inverter brand with over 182 GW installed worldwide as of June, 2021. Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the power conversion technologies of clean energy with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utilityscale, commercial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions. With a strong 24-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow having Global production capacity of 90 GW per year and products installations in over 150 countries with a Global market share of solar inverter over 27% in 2020.
Q.
Sungrow has established a manufacturing unit of 3GW capacity in India in 2018 which will soon be 10 GW in coming months. It has been supplying “Make In India” inverters from India factory to various markets including India, USA, Middle East to cater the demands. Sungrow has also been contributing its technical expertise and suggestions for standardization and testing protocols on various forums for Indian market. RM
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REI Special Issue
Solar Inverter
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India Solar Inverter Market 2020-2026: Market Forecast by Types, System Type, Applications, Power Rating, Regions, and Competitive Landscape The India Solar Inverter Market size is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14.4% during 2020-2026F. The Indian solar inverter market grew at a considerable rate during the period 2016-2019 as a result of several government efforts to improve the share of solar power in the country's energy generation mix such as the National Solar Mission by the Government of India targeting 100 GW solar energy by the year 2022. Rising consumer awareness, the growing participation of residential and commercial segments towards solar system installations, supportive government policies & solar schemes, and increasing private sector involvement are the other major factors contributing to the growth of the solar inverter market in India. However, the ongoing pandemic COVID-19 slowed down the growth rate of market revenues during the year 2020 as a result of a decline in market demand in the lockdown phase across the country. Moreover, with the gradual opening of the economy and removal of lockdown measures, the market began to show signs of improvement during the second half
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of the year and is anticipated to return to a normal growth trajectory in the upcoming years. Increasing environmental awareness, financial support from the government in the form of subsidies, new initiatives and targets for renewable energy launched by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) would further drive the solar inverter market revenues in India over the coming years. The market is dominated by the utility sector owing to its large-scale solar projects deploying a large number of solar inverters. Further, the commercial segment is estimated to exhibit the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The high growth is attributed to growing solar installations across educational institutes, offices, factories, hospitals, and warehouses. In addition, the residential segment is also exhibiting significant growth with a focus on sustainable development and overlaying the rising power cost in the country. Government initiatives such as the Smart City project, the development of solar parks, and the solar energy subsidy scheme would further accelerate
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the adoption of solar installations across residential and commercial segments. Moreover, among system types, on-grid systems dominated the market in 2019 owing to huge adoption across different applications, whereas, off-grid systems are majorly limited to rural electrification applications only however, growth is expected in coming years. The India solar inverter market report comprehensively covers the market by type, system type, power rating, application and region. The India solar inverter market outlook report provides an unbiased and detailed analysis of the India solar inverter market trends, opportunities, high growth areas and market drivers which would help the stakeholders to devise and align their market strategies according to the current and future market dynamics. The choice of the right type of power converters to meet the different requirements for any application has a great influence on the optimum performance, especially in Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems. In the last two decades, enormous developments have been taking place in PV systems in power electronics domain to meet the utility/load requirements from the low voltage, non-linear, and highly sensitive (to environmental conditions) power source (solar PV module/ array). In particular, many inverter topologies have been introduced to incorporate the several unique features to fulfil PV system requirements, such as (a) intrinsic boost capabilities, (b) isolation, (c) high efficiency, (d) good power decoupling, (e) dual grounding function, (f) single stage solar power conversion capabilities, (g) compact design and (h) good power quality, for both stand-alone and grid-connected applications. Since, inverter is an essential part in PV systems, a large number of research publications have been published with new topologies/modifications, which leads to this persuasion of a critical review. In this manuscript, a detailed analysis and classification about all the inverter attributes are presented for the 45 reviewed topologies, intended to serve as an expedient reference for selecting best power converter for a specific requirement in PV systems. Inverters play a crucial role in any solar energy system and are often considered to be the brains of a project, whether it’s a 2-kW residential system or a 5-MW utility power plant. An inverter’s basic function is to “invert” the direct current (DC) output into alternating current (AC). AC is the standard used by all commercial appliances, which is why many view inverters as the “gateway” between the photovoltaic (PV) system and the energy off-taker. Inverter technologies have advanced significantly, such that in addition to converting DC to AC, they provide a number of other capabilities and services to ensure that the inverter can operate at an optimal performance level, such as data monitoring, advanced utility controls, applications and system design engineering. Inverter manufacturers also provide
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post-installation services that are integral to maintaining energy production and a high level of performance for the project, including preventative maintenance, O&M services and a quick mean time to repair (MTTR). As the price of modules fall, inverters and additional system components have become a focus in price reduction for EPCs looking for a new competitive edge. As a result, inverter manufacturers are continually trying to drive down the cost curve of products. Some companies have been able to do that successfully with modifications to manufacturing strategies and building additional manufacturing facilities within emerging solar markets. Additionally, companies have taken the core concept of “design for manufacturability”—meaning they design a product with ease of manufacturing in mind—to design inverter products that are quicker and cheaper to produce, without sacrificing performance. Inverter manufacturers have also been able to achieve lower-cost success through well-maintained partnerships with vendors. The continued challenge of providing higher and higher value at lower cost is something the industry must work to overcome. Grid integration and inverters High PV penetration and the impact it will have on our aging electric grid is another challenge the entire solar industry faces. The challenge itself isn’t specific to inverters, but the solution may be entirely inverter-driven. Because inverters serve as a gateway to the system, advanced utility controls, such as low-voltage ride through, can help mitigate the issues that stem from higher PV penetration on the grid, such as predictability of output and distributed generation. These functions help ease the transition as more solar is built, without the need for major and expensive infrastructure upgrades. Utilities are keen to support the development and use of inverters with the most proven functionalities when it comes to grid interconnection. Design flexibility Given the growth in distributed generation projects along with continued development of utility-scale projects, solar project
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developers are seeking inverter manufacturers that can provide a robust suite of commercial products and technology topologies. A flexible inverter manufacturer can offer a centralized and decentralized inverter design, referring to an architecture that uses multiple inverters throughout a project to achieve the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) possible. Although there’s still growing demand for a common system architecture using a centralized inverter, designing in three-phase string inverters for a decentralized PV system design is gaining in popularity. This is particularly true in commercial applications where space is at a premium or in an odd form. Inverters have evolved from much more than simply inverting the electrical currents of a solar energy system. Inverters must continue to innovate and bring down cost, while maintaining key attributes for a solar energy system (reliability, efficiency and features such as data monitoring), in order to drive more PV penetration. The government’s promise to deliver ‘24x 7 powers for all’ would reap edges for the ability back-up trade. The inverterbattery phase expects additive growth of near to ten per cent annually within the returning years as additional households, urban and rural, get electricity connections. The trade estimates the market size at 5 million inverters and twelve mn batteries annually. “The market grows between 5 and ten per cent each year,” aforementioned Associate in Nursing govt. Others say as grid electricity reaches tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural households, it spurs demand for back-up.
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“We mostly expect growth to still be in line with the past 5 years in inverters and batteries and of over twenty five per cent (annually) in star,” aforementioned Vipul Sabharwal, administrator (MD), aglow Power Technologies. Aforementioned tier-3 and tier-4 cities and interior markets would grow quicker than the larger cities and top-tier cities. Aglow has full-grown by fifteen per cent annually in recent years. “Power generation isn't a problem within the country; accessibility is. There square measure infrastructural problems in reliable power offer. Power storage would emerge as a significant business and also the demand for inverters-batteries goes to simply grow. With renewable energy returning, storage is required quite ever, whether or not domestic or business,” aforementioned Kunwer Sachdev, MD at Su-Kam. One major addition within the back-up phase is solar-based solutions. Sabharwal aforementioned within the past 3 years, the expansion of such systems had hyperbolic by thirty per cent annually. Sachdev says star storage would see the best growth among all segments. For Su-Kam over the past 3 years, it's been a one hundred per cent combined annual growth. With increasing whole consciousness, the unregulated market of native batteries has fallen considerably. The share of the unregulated phase is near to forty per cent of the market, largely in tier-3 cities and rural areas. At a similar, it's phased out diesel gensets, that accustomed be major ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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competition until fairly recently. Experts say that with the exception of business units like medium towers and little manufactory units, the inverter-battery has tired the diesel genset market from the domestic phase. A start of Solar Inverter in India: A star electrical converter or PV electrical converter could be a kind of convertor that converts the variable DC (DC) output of an electrical phenomenon (PV) solar battery into utility frequency electricity (AC) which will be fed into an advertisement electrical grid or employed by an area, off-grid electrical network. It’s an essential balance of system & 40; BOS & 41:- component in an exceedingly electrical phenomenon system, permitting the employment of normal AC-powered instrumentality. Solar energy inverters have special functions tailored to be used with electrical phenomenon arrays, together with most wall plug trailing and anti-islanding protection. Classification Solar inverters are also classified into 3 broad types: Stand-alone inverters, employed in isolated systems wherever the electrical converter attracts its DC energy from batteries charged by electrical phenomenon arrays. Several complete inverters conjointly incorporate integral battery chargers to make full the battery from AN AC supply, once accessible. Commonly these don't interface in any means with the utility grid, and in and of it, aren't needed to possess anti-islanding protection. Grid-tie inverters, that match section with a utility-supplied wave. Grid-tie inverters are designed to close up mechanically
upon loss of utility offer, for safety reasons. They are doing not offer backup power throughout utility outages. Battery backup inverters, are special inverters that are designed to draw energy from A battery, manage the battery charge via AN aboard charger, and export excess energy to the utility grid. These inverters are capable of supply AC energy to choose masses throughout a utility outage, and are needed to possess anti-islanding protection. Maximum wall plug trailing Solar inverters use most wall plug trailing (MPPT) to urge the most attainable power from the PV array. Star cells have a fancy relationship between star irradiation, temperature and total resistance that produces a non-linear output potency called the I-V curve. It’s the aim of the MPPT system to sample the output of the cells and verify a resistance (load) to get most power for any given environmental conditions. The fill issue, additional normally identified by its abbreviation FF, could be a parameter that, in conjunction with the circuit voltage (Voc) and short current (Isc) of the panel, determines the most power from a electric cell. Fill issue is outlined because the magnitude relation of the most power from the electric cell to the merchandise of Voc and Isc. There are 3 main sorts of MPPT algorithms: perturb-andobserve, progressive electrical phenomenon and constant voltage. The primary 2 ways are usually noted as hill rise methods; they consider the curve of power planned against voltage rising to the left of the most wall plug, and falling on the correct. Solar micro-inverters Solar micro-inverter is an electrical converter designed to control with one PV module. The micro-inverter converts the DC output from every panel into electricity. Its style permits parallel association of multiple, freelance units in an exceedingly standard means. Micro-inverter blessings embrace single panel power optimization, freelance operation of every panel, plug-and play installation, improved installation and fireplace safety, decreased prices with system style and stock reduction. A 2011 study at geographic area State University reports that individual integrated electrical converter setup yielded concerning two hundredth additional power in unshaped conditions and twenty seventh additional power in shaded conditions compared to string connected setup mistreatment one electrical converter. Each setup used identical star panels. Grid tied star inverters Solar grid-tie inverters square measure designed to quickly disconnect from the grid if the utility grid goes down. this is often associate degree NEC demand that ensures that within the event of a blackout, the grid tie electrical converter can clean up to stop the energy it produces from harming any line employees World Health Organization square measure
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sent to repair the ability grid. Grid-tie inverters that square measure offered on the market nowadays use variety of various technologies. The inverters might use the newer high-frequency transformers, standard low-frequency transformers, or no electrical device. Rather than changing DC on to one hundred twenty or 240 volts AC, high-frequency transformers use a processed multi-step method that involves changing the ability to high-frequency AC then back to DC then to the ultimate AC output voltage. Historically, there are issues concerning having transformerless electrical systems feed into the general public utility grid. The issues stem from the very fact that there's a scarcity of galvanic isolation between the DC and AC circuits that may permit the passage of dangerous DC faults to the AC aspect. Since 2005, the NFPA's NEC permits transformer-less (or non-galvanically) inverters. The VDE 0126-1-1 and IEC 6210 even have been amended to permit and outline the security mechanisms required for such systems. Primarily, residual or ground current sightion is employed to detect potential fault conditions. conjointly isolation tests square measure performed to make sure DC to AC separation. Many star inverters square measure designed to be connected to a utility grid, and can not operate once they don't sight the presence of the grid. They contain special electronic equipment to exactly match the voltage, frequency and part of the grid. Solar pumping inverters Advanced star pumping inverters convert DC voltage from the solar panel into AC voltage to drive submersible pumps directly while not the necessity for batteries or alternative energy storage devices. By utilizing MPPT (maximum outlet tracking), star pumping inverters regulate output frequency to manage the speed of the pumps so as to avoid wasting the pump motor from harm. Solar pumping inverters sometimes have multiple ports to permit the input of DC current generated by PV arrays, one port to permit the output of AC voltage, and an additional port for input from a water-level detector. Market As of 2014, conversion potency for progressive star converters reached over ninety eight p.c. whereas string inverters square measure utilized in residential to medium-sized industrial PV systems, central inverters cowl the massive industrial and utility-scale market. Market-share for central and string inverters square measure concerning 50 p.c and 48 p.c, severally, effort but two p.c to micro-inverters. Top 10 Solar Inverter Manufacturers 2019 in India Currently, client needs to search with an area dealer or they connect with company, however most of the time they don’t get their item as AN item is out of stock or company don’t provide one amount product to a client (maybe system Integrator/end users).
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Getting to install and obtain a star electrical converter for utilityscale, industrial and residential comes, however obtaining confused among prime ten star electrical converter brands (manufacturers) in India 2019? We’ve got researched concerning the star electrical converter market from completely different sources, like system integrators, electrical device installers, distributors and dealers. We have a tendency to found the subsequent star electrical converter brands that employment in utility-scale, industrial and residential comes. Top 10 Solar Inverter Manufacturers in India – Grid Tied (On Grid) 1. Delta: Delta India is the first to cross the milestone of 1 GW+ rooftop installations. The global leader in solar inverters brings you the inverter range: Delta RPI-Home & Commercial Series, Utility Series, and Hybrid Series. Experience the power of industries leading efficiency levels, delivering Delta’s promise of greener energy and durable quality. 2. SMA: SMA India is a subsidiary of global solar leader SMA Solar Technology AG located in Kassel, Germany. Being a global market leader for PV inverters, SMA showcases itself as an energy management group offering innovative key technologies for all plant sizes, both grid-tied and off-grid. SMA India provides solar PV solutions for residential, commercial and utility sectors in the Indian & Southeast Asian markets. With its sales & service headquarters in Mumbai- India, SMA’s presence strategically spans across India according to its established installation base. 3. GoodWe: GoodWe is a leading, strategically-thinking enterprise which focuses on research and manufacturing of PV inverters and energy storage solutions. GoodWe is a leading, strategically-thinking enterprise which focuses on research and manufacturing of PV inverters and energy storage solutions. With an average monthly sales volume of 30,000 pieces in 2017 and 20 GW installed in more than 100 countries, GoodWe solar inverters have been largely used in residential rooftops, commercial systems, and energy storage systems, ranging from 1.0 to 80kW. They offer reliable operation and excellent performance and are highly spoken of by its customers worldwide. GoodWe benchmarks its success on the success achieved by its customers by identifying and integrating the most advanced components and techniques available while offering an unparalleled after-sales service. 4. ABB: ABB is a large scale producer of solar inverters in the industry, manufacturing micro, three-phase string and central inverters. It serves all residential, commercial and industrial segments. The string inverters are most suited for residential purposes and ABB offers both single phase and three phase solar inverters in this regard. The company also has a manufacturing base in India. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
5. TMEIC: TMEIC or Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation was formed as a result of the integration of Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation’s industrial systems divisions in 2003. The company supplies Solar Ware inverters in 1000V and 1500V capacities for a wide range of industrial applications in India. 6. Fronious: A passion for new technologies, intensive research and revolutionary solutions has been shaping the Fronius brand since 1945. As the technology leader, we find, develop and implement innovative methods to monitor and control energy for welding technology, photovoltaic’s and battery charging. We forge new paths, try something difficult and succeed where others have failed in achieving what seems to be impossible. But these are not the only reasons why Fronius is the global leader in innovation and technology. 7. Sofar: SOFARSOLAR (EST 2012) is one of the subsidiaries of SOFAR Group in China and specializes in R&D, production, sales and service of grid-tied inverters ranging from 1kW to 7.5kW (residential), 10kW to 70kW (commercial) and other related renewable products. 8. Sungrow: Sungrow manufactures both central and string solar inverters rated at 1500 Vdc and has a presence across utility-scale, commercial, and residential sectors. The company has a more than 15% global market share and is known for its 99% efficient solar inverters. Sungrow has deployed more than 60 GW worth of solar inverters worldwide. Founded in 1997, today the company has become a global R&D leader in solar inverters with a hug patent portfolio. 9. Huawei: Huawei shipped over 2GW of inverters in 2017. The company is known for its string inverters with smart management technology. It manufactures smart PV string inverters in 1000V, 1100V and 1500V capacities for commercial and utility-scale solar. The inverters come with a minimum efficiency of 98.5%. 10. Solis: Solis is a Spanish name derived from the Latin sol solis, literally meaning “SUN”. Solis Australasia is very proud to be delivering the very latest in solar inverter technology from Solis Technologies in the form of the new Solis range of inverters. The Solis inverter product range has the benefit of more than 20 years of technical development and improvement resulting from the experience and determination of the Solis engineers to produce the very best product available. They have strived to combine the very best in efficiency with the robust and reliable attributes that are demanded in the Australian market. Reliability is foremost in the design and production of the Solis inverter.
In off-grid Luminous, Su-Kam, Microtek and Tata Power Solar are some of the top solar inverter companies in India. 1. Luminous: Luminous sells both grid-tied inverters as well as inverters for off-grid solar applications. Luminous is a Gurgaon based maker of inverters and industrial batteries with seven manufacturing units, more than 28 sales offices in India and presence in over 36 countries. It manufactures a wide range of home inverter UPS systems and batteries conveniently divided into smart range, essential range, and power range. 2. Sukam: SuKam remains the largest domestic manufacturer of solar inverters in India. It manufactures PV grid-connected inverters and solar Sine wave inverters. It has now become one of India's largest power solutions company and has an international presence in over 90 countries worldwide. The company has an impressive product portfolio consisting of more than 200 products including various solar products, UPS, batteries and customized solar solutions. Su-Kam’s Brainy Eco Inverter is a hybrid solar inverter that is perfect for every home, as it can charge both through grid and solar. 3. Microtek: Microtek is another manufacturer of power products and solutions in India. Some of the company’s best selling products are line interactive UPS, online UPS, digital & intelli pure sinewave UPS and hybrid UPS. Conclusion Loom Solar is planning to an onboard top manufacturer for on grid inverter on its platform. This platform will help to provide all technical and warranty details of top selling on grid inverter. Loom Solar has understood this problem and now we will offer on grid inverter from all leading brands globally and will provide at your doorstep at a very competitive price. If any buyer has an inquiry about on grid solar inverter from 3KW to 50KW and 50KW to 500KW, they can easily find it on this platform. RM
Top Solar Inverter Manufacturers in India – For 3KW to 50KW Projects ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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Mr. Krishna Kadariya Director
Patanjali renewable enerGy Pvt. ltd.
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Patanjali is one of the largest and most trusted, privately-owned renewable energy service providers in India. We harness the sun’s energy to provide affordable, clean, and green renewable energy sources. By integrating environment-friendly business practices and diversifying our product range with efficient renewable energy solutions, we aim to bring the “Green Revolution” to India. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q. What are the current opportunities and challenges for
the solar PV & inverter manufacturers in Indian market?
Q. What are your views on inverters – Make in India?
Today, most of the inverters sold in India are fully or partly made outside India and re-branded before being marketed in India. As mentioned earlier our aim is to get the best global technology and then manufacture in India. We are working with other partners in Germany and Sweden on the same lines with what we achieved with NISE in India. This will help us provide better quality products at affordable rates in India.
Q. How you provide flexible maintenance services and the
Q. What are the products and services you offer for the
price structures for the customers?
Today, our product basket consists of all the major components required in setting up a solar power plant. Apart from this we also have a long list of products that are solar energy-based. We are constantly improving our existing product range as well as launching new products. We are commencing production of solar panels based on cut cell technology. A new range of inverters are also being launched. Apart from this our basket of solar energybased products will also see quiet a few new launches. We sincerely are of the belief that if we want to shift to green energy faster its important that the use of solar energy-based products has to go up in our day-to-day life.
providing direct access to the least accessible population both in terms of sales & service. The dependency on going to the large towns or metros has to come down. This will also help the rural population in generating employment locally.
In the near future you will see more and more URJA KENDRAS
renewable industry? Is there any plan to launch any new opening in small villages & towns. This is our outreach to the least accessible Indian population. The URJA KENDRAS will help us in product?
Q
. What are your views of proposed BCD on import of modules and cells in India?
BCD is a small step in achieving India’s aim of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. But we cannot fully be dependent on it. At the end we have to achieve global standards and volumes on our own so that we can compete globally and not only in India. We intend to push hard for indigenous manufacturing of not only the final product but also the raw materials required, this will help us on being dependent on a 3rd country for everything.
Q. How do you distinguish yourself from others as far as
your offered power solutions are concerned?
At Patanjali, we do not believe in competing with our competition, our focus is on making sure that our customer is happy. At the same time, we want to help generate employment locally in rural areas. If you study our product basket you will clearly realize our focus. This is what makes us different from others in terms of what we offer.
Q. Are you participating in the Renewable Energy Expo?
If yes, what are your expectations from the expo?
Patanjali is constantly innovating and growing. We look forward to Renewable Energy Expo to show the world the pace at which Patanjali is moving both in terms of innovation and reach. This is the first major exhibition we are participating post the pandemic, the organizers & the exhibitors will have a lot of challenges, but we have to collectively move ON.
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Our honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has drawn an ambitious path for India not only in the renewable energy sector but also in the make in Bharat movement. India has already embraced solar energy in a big way. In the renewable energy segment, solar power today is the cheapest option. The only problem is the generation can happen for a few hours a day. The next focus segment would be in energy storage area by which this energy can be utilized day & night. At the same time, India is looking forward to achieve an ambitious target of 450 GW by 2030, this will require a lot of localization of components as well as scaling up the existing capacities for component manufacturing. As Patanjali, our core focus is on helping large parts of the Indian population in getting energy at affordable prices. You will surely hear a few announcements in the near future covering these areas.
the whole world more or less is dependent on a single country for all its needs in the solar field. As I mentioned earlier, India requires to build technology and volumes to fight at a global level. We at Patanjali are truly moving in these directions. One of the initiatives taken by us recently was to sign an MOU with NISE (National Institute of Solar Energy) for technology transfer in this arena. This will help us get the latest technology and implement it in India.
Q. How the second wave of Covid-19 is affecting the market Q. What are the future plans of Patanjali Renewable
and the company?
No family or business has remained unaffected by this pandemic. I want to take this opportunity to thank our employees, customers and vendors whose relentless efforts helped us overcome these challenges. The government too is doing a thankless job to help all of all of us during this unprecedented situation. The challenges will continue, but so will our efforts in overcoming the same.
Energy? What will be the outlook of Indian Renewable industry in coming quarters?
Q
We will be launching quite a few products immediately, including larger capacity solar panels. As mentioned earlier, our MOU with NISE and other initiatives in Germany & Sweden will see technology transfer and joint venture manufacturing in India in both solar components as well as raw material required to manufacture these components . This will be our key contribution to India’s NDC’s (Nationally Determined Contributions) .
The need of the hour is to be self-dependent or atmanirbhar. Today
renewable energy market.
. How Patanjali Renewable is transforming itself to cater to the emerging needs of the power solution industry? On the sales front the Patanjali URJA KENDRA’s will help us Please tell us about the key smart features of your products. get the rural reach which is our main aim of getting into the ||www.renewablemirror.com||
RM
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Mr. Vikas jain Director
Insolation Energy Pvt. Ltd.
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Insolation Energy, a state of the art solar manufacturing company specializing in high efficiency PV Module, located in Jaipur, Rajasthan. We develop India’s best utility scale solar PV Module. We strive to provide the best solutions for sustainable solar products in India. Our aim is to provide clean and green electricity at an affordable price to one and all. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q. Does it foray in driving sustainable energy business
be huge inflow of investments coming in and market will grow exponentially. The biggest challenge I see is over dependency on imports for the components we need a strong end to end manufacturing base to achieve target of "ATMANIRBHAR” bharat mission”.
in India? with big players foray into green energy business India’s renewable energy ambitions will get a boost. Our market is still dominated by import in this sector and there is lot of scope for new big players who will drive the pace and India . How has this year been for INSOLATION ENERGY? will be a exporter rather an importer of solar components. What are the differences that you see in the market in At INA we are committed to provide maximum to renewable pre & post lockdown period? energy sector. This year has been exceptionally good for us we have done
Q
Q. What are the top 3 markets for your company in the
past, present and future?
Q. What’s your commitment towards the solar sector in
India?
INA is committed to provide green and clean energy to society. Already millions of lamps are energized with INA solar panels. We are providing skill training to hundreds of rural boys so that they can have career in solar sector its our duty to provide top notch quality products to our customers.
Q. Expectations from Indian government policy makers and regulators?
There is lot of expectations from policy makers foremost is immediate implementation of proposed BCD on solar panels. Almost all of our raw materials are taxed but the finished good i.e panel is duty free!. Which eventually makes domestic panel expensive. There is sort of policy paralysis for this sector, we need strong long term policy so that sector can flourish.
Q. Tell us about your opinion of the market? What are the
opportunities and challenges for the company and industry?
With immense potential in the solar energy sector there will
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Q. Kindly tell Renewable Mirror readers about Insolation
Energy’s manufacturing facility and its current production capacity? Our current installed capacity is 200 MW. Ours is a fully automatic line with least manual intervention. We will have 300 MW capacity by the end of this fiscal. By 2024 our aim is to have 500 MW. We are also upgrading and incorporating new equipments for technology up gradation to expand the market presence. We have one of the best testing equipments for quality assurance and product up-gradation. In the last Financial Year (2020-21) we have supplied approx 100+ MW of modules. This year our target is to supply 150 MW and further 250 MW in the next year.
Q. In your view, up to what extent Government’s production-
linked incentive scheme is helpful for solar manufacturers in India?
TheProduction Linked Incentive announced by the Govt is a welcome step in the right direction. However the minimum eligibility criteria is 1000MW of manufacturing capacity. This means that only the big corporate can take advantage of it. We request Govt of India to reduce this cap so that MSME sector can also participate in this scheme and become a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat. RM
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As of now we are catering largely to domestic market PAN India comprising of SGPS, rooftop sector and EPC Projects. Very soon we are going for exports to Asia/Africa and Europe through our overseas arm.
almost double the sales of preceeding year and we see similar growth in future also .We would like to convey to our EPC friends to have faith and confidence in Indian Manufacturers so that our industry can flourish and we can save our valued foreign currency
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India’s manufacturing sector is set to take a giant leap forward India is considering a new tender to develop solar power equipment manufacturing that doesn’t include a requirement to also generate electricity, a move aimed at sparking investor interest, according to people with knowledge of the plan.9 In addition to separating manufacturing of solar cells and modules from generation, the government may also offer some form of financial aid, said the people, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. There has been little interest from solar equipment makers in the previous manufacturing tenders, a hurdle to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plans of building 100 gigawatts of solar power capacity by 2022. India has been struggling to spur its nascent domestic manufacturing industry, which the government estimates can currently only meet just 15 per cent of the country’s annual needs. The South Asian nation has been seeking to boost its capabilities through both manufacturing tenders as well as a safeguard duty on cheaper Chinese imports. A tender issued in May 2018 was downsized and delayed multiple times, before being scrapped due to poor investor interest. It was replaced
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by a smaller version in January, for which the bidding deadline has been extended three times. The latest deadline, May 14, is expected to be extended again, the people said. Anand Kumar, secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, declined to comment on either the extension of the deadline or the possible new tender. India’s efforts to develop its own solar equipment industry will be challenged by both domestic policies and overseas competition, according to Bloomberg NEF analyst Rohit Gadre. “A delinked manufacturing tender will not work unless it provides an assured long-term demand for domestic modules,” Gadre said. As well, “Indian photovoltaic module production will not be able to compete globally on its own as China has already built economies of scale and a strong supply chain.” Solar PV Modules: Challenges and Market Scenario Solar Energy is an important source of energy Currently Solar Energy fulfills about 0.5% of earth’s energy needs, however, as per several reports; Solar Energy is on the way to become one of the largest sources of energy. It is expected to supply 16% of energy requirements by 2050. India alone has set up a target of 100 GW solar by 2022. Out of which, 40 GW is to
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come from rooftop solar. Nonetheless, this journey doesn’t seem easy. There are obstacles at every step. One of the biggest markets for solar energy is the distributed rooftop segment. This is a game-changer segment. Advantages of rooftop solar PV plant are multifold. It aids DISCOMs by reducing the peak demand during daytime and leads to decreased transmission and distribution losses as the power is consumed at the point of generation, it reduces land and interconnection costs, it has minimum government intervention as there is less involvement of government infrastructure, it can also be set up in remote places, and it also produces considerable savings for the consumer over its lifetime because of the increasing costs of grid electricity. All the other energy solutions, wind energy, thermal energy, utility scale solar, nuclear and hydro and many others, require huge setups and investments. Then, these also require deeper and troubling government intervention. Hence, solar rooftop segment presents a huge opportunity for countries like India. Despite the obvious advantages, rooftop Solar has not really taken off. In India, Rooftop solar has maintained a 10-12% share of overall solar capacity1. This is much lower than other key markets such as US, Germany, China, Spain and Australia. Please refer figure 1 for a better understanding. Currently, India’s focus is to build more capacity and raise awareness about the technology in the market. At this stage, few topics RENEWABLE MIR ROR
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which require attention are mentioned below. In our country the prime factor for the slowdown of Solar Photovoltaics (PV) sector in last year was the implementation of safeguard duty on imported panels. While imposition of this duty was aimed at incentivizing domestic manufacturing, it led to an increase in tariffs, resulting in the cancellation of many solar auctions and their retendering. This slowdown might be temporary, since long-term trends like falling cost of photovoltaic (PV) modules do remain in place. The growth in India’s solar capacity has been driven mainly by imported PV modules that enjoy nearly 90% share, as their costs are up to 30% lower. The safeguard duty was pegged by the government at 70% on foreign modules, but was introduced at 25% owing to pressure from energy companies. The industry is facing many other challenges which are creating a hindrance in industry’s growth. Challenges for the PV industry in India Cost and T&D Losses: Solar PV is some years away from true cost competitiveness and from being able to compete on the same scale as other energy generation technologies. Adding to the cost are T&D losses that at approximately 40 percent make generation through solar energy sources highly unfeasible. However, the government is supporting R&D activities by establishing research centers and funding such initiatives. The government has tied up with world-renowned universities to ||www.renewablemirror.com||
India’s PV module manufacturing sector needs serious attention:
India’s manufacturing sector is set to take a giant leap forward, with the govt. announcing a slew of measures to boost ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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bring down the installation cost of solar power sources and is focusing on upgradation of substations and T&D lines to reduce T&D losses. Regulatory And Policy Aspects: The major concern of any project developer or EPC player is usually from regulatory and policy aspects. For example, net metering policy in India is more than 2 years old now. However, implementation on the ground is still not smooth. At state level, the electricity distribution companies are not willing to sacrifice their premium high tariff paying customers. Such policy level inconsistencies are a big deterrent to the ambitious plans of the govt. to meet their solar targets. Fluctuation in PV material price: There is fluctuation of PV material price in the market. A movement in price of Solar PV modules, which forms a major component of the installation cost, has the major impact. At Insolergy, we have seen residential solar market in India responding very fast to such fluctuations. These aspects are likely to impact many solar projects in the country. But we believe that customization and offering value-added services with innovative solutions is the only way to succeed.
domestic manufacturing in recent past. As a result, various CoS are gearing up to expand their production facilities in India. However, Indian manufacturers continue to face a stiff competition with Chinese & other global manufacturers leading them to operate insufficiently. There could be various reasons ranging from the govt.’s existing domestic insufficient content policy to fewer types of subsidies or the interest rates on raw material thus making them to be inadequate in promoting the domestic PV module manufacturing industry. However, the challenges in the current policy regime & steps India might take to better position itself to become a global leader in the PV module manufacturing needs a strong overhaul. Solar power is the strategic need for the country as it can potentially save USD 20 bn in fossil fuel imports annually by 2030 & domestic manufacturing can save USD 42 bn in equipment imports by 2030. “In the absence of manufacturing, India will need to import $42 bn of solar equipment by 2030, corresponding to 100 GW of installed capacity,” warns a report by KPMG, an advisory firm. The report further highlighted that solar manufacturing can also create direct employment for more than 50,000 people in the next five years assuming local manufacturing captures 50% domestic market share & 10% global market share. Inventory Management & Capacity Utilization: Indian module manufacturers are operating at very low capacity utilization; however the capacity is currently sufficient to cater to the demand. The major reason for this is lack of demand for domestic PV modules & unavailability & limited access to raw material. Therefore, to at least keep their plants running, raw materials are stored in the warehouse. Also, the finished modules need to be kept in the warehouse because of intermittent demand in the market. Therefore, higher inventory levels for raw materials & finished modules increase the operating cost & puts upward pressure on manufacturing costs. More long term contracts with manufacturers could assist in this regard, allowing firms to procure raw material just in time to meet demand. Access to working capital is important for Indian CoS to compete against the firms from China/ South East Asia, who offer better terms. Inferior Technology and Quality: The efficiency and quality of solar panels produced by the Indian players is not able to compete with its global counterparts. This is because of the lack of technical expertise and intellectual property with Indian players. An earlier ban of silicon wafer fabrication, which was removed in 2013, is one of the examples of setback which the Indian panel manufacturers have had to face in the past. This ban has considerably set back the developments in the Indian semi-conductor industry. Another major issue is of dust in our environment. India being a highly populous developing country literally lives in a dust storm. And, as a matter of fact, even a single grain of sand
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can affect the performance of a solar PV cell/module. These challenges have had an overtly deep impact on the abilities of Indian Solar Panel Manufacturers. Market Scenario of Solar PV and Future of Industry The global Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels Market was valued at $118,704 million in 2016, which is expected to reach $307,204 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 15.0% from 2017 to 2023. The key components of PV power system are various types of photovoltaic cells (also known as solar cells). These components are interconnected and encapsulated to form a photovoltaic module, the mounting structure of modules which is manufactured for the grid connected and off-grid systems. Moreover, solar energy is renewable and helps countries to meet their policy goals for secure, reliable, and affordable energy and provides electricity access with reduced price volatility and the promotion of social and economic development. Therefore, decrease in price of solar energy has further led to the demand for production of solar power which in turn proves to be a cost-effective solution. The solar photovoltaic (PV) panels market is segmented based on technology, grid-type, end use, and geography. Based on technology, it is classified into thin-film, crystalline, and others (organic and concentrator photovoltaics). Crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) is further segmented into mono and multi crystalline. Based on grid type, it is bifurcated into grid connected and off-grid. Grid connected is further segmented into centralized and decentralized. By end use, it is categorized into residential, commercial, and utility scale. Based on geography, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. Recently, India achieved the third rank globally for solar installation capacity. Mercom India, a clean energy research organsation, has reported that the installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity has reached over 28 GW as of December 2018. However, this accounts for only about 5.5 per cent of the total global cumulative installations. India may have emerged as the third largest market for solar, but a comparison at the global front suggests that India has a long way to go in order to become a solar super power. India added 8.3 GW of solar capacity. It has observed a 13 per cent dip from the previous year, when the solar PV installation addition was 9.6 GW. The total installations globally accounted 104 GW for FY 2018, during which China and the US added 44.3 GW and 10.6 GW respectively. Surveys suggest that global PV solar installations will see nearly 18% rise in 2019, finally reaching and may be surpassing 100 GW capacity addition. Although, at the end of 2019, we would still be far from ‘0’ emission future, rising PV installation growth and emergence of new markets within developing countries will get us closer to that goal. China is predicted to lead the installation growth in the
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present year, but its market share will fall from 55% to 19% by 2023. Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa will scale rapidly and several new markets like Egypt, Span, Argentina, Vietnam will also see boost and may account for nearly 7% of global PV installation growth in 2019. The government has also introduced a number of incentives and specific policies to make solar more attractive to overseas investors, including national and state solar auctions, increased investment in the grid and various favourable tax adjustments. As a result, the country has made global headlines for the record low prices being realised in its latest solar auctions. India revises solar manufacturing tender specs to attract investors More than a year and 10 extensions later, the Union government has revised the tender specifications for the first solar manufacturing-linked power plant project in the country. Hoping to attract more investor interest, the tariff cap has been set at Rs 2.75/unit. Solar Energy Corporation India (SECI) on Tuesday issued a request for a selection (RfS) notice for selecting solar power developers. This will be for setting up 6 GW (per annum) of solar power plants linked to 2 GW of solar manufacturing plant. A bidder can quote any capacity up to 1.5 GW of solar power projects linked to 0.5 GW of solar manufacturing capacity, corresponding to one project. A total of four such projects have been put up for bidding. A company can bid for one or all four. In an interesting amendment introduced in the new RfS, SECI has allowed using imported solar modules at the power plant and not necessarily the ones manufactured at the linked unit set up by the company. Earlier, this was mandatory. “The solar power developers or SPDs would be allowed to set up a solar power plant parallelly with a manufacturing facility, that is, the mandatory requirement of using self-produced modules in the plants under this scheme will not be there. This can be set up either through imported modules or through modules made by the manufacturing unit being set up by the bidder or through any other domestic module,” said the RfS document reviewed by Business Standard. Another addition in the tender is regarding manufacturing, wherein the companies can submit a bid for setting up manufacturing units for ingots and wafers as well as solar cells and modules. Ingots and wafers are key components in the making of solar cells. The module is a collection of solar cells and panels are the single power producing unit. The tender, however, has not included the long-awaited demand of the industry to include the existing solar manufacturing units. “As this scheme calls for setting up solar manufacturing ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Solar PV Modules
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plants in India, commissioned manufacturing plants cannot be considered under this RfS. However, expansion of the existing manufacturing facilities can be done anywhere in India,” said the RfS. After several extensions, the Central government, in January, decided to cancel the lone bid that came for setting up solar panel manufacturing along with a solar power plant. The single bid came from Azure Power in tie-up with Waaree Energies. The government re-issued the tender in March and it was also extended again. The latest global tender closes in August 2019. Indian solar cells and modules manufacture 'obsolete', says MNRE At a time when the government of India is trying to decide on whether or not the Indian solar cells and modules manufacturers deserve protection by way of anti-dumping duty, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has said that the cell/module manufacturing capacity in the country is “obsolete”. In a ‘concept note’ for supporting solar manufacture in India, the Ministry speaks of a “direct financial support” of Rs 11,000 crore and a ‘technology upgradation fund’, for solar manufacture. The Ministry notes that the country has installed capacity for producing 3.1 GW of cells and 8.8 GW of modules (cells are used to make modules). However, “even this capacity is not being fully exploited because of obsolete technology,” the concept note says. Only 1.5 GW of cell manufacture and 3 GW of module manufacture are used. It adds that the existing capacity is mainly of the conventional technology of multi-crystalline Al-BSF (Aluminium-Back Surface Field) solar cells, which have efficiency limitations and that very few players have ventured into the superior PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) technology. PER cells, which have a light reflecting layer on the rear, are more efficient and cost-effective. The Ministry has said it would bring in a ‘Technology Upgradation Fund’, borrowing the concept from a scheme of the same name for textile industry. The TUF could be an interest subvention scheme (as it is for the textile industry) or capital subsidy for technology up gradation projects. Apart from providing financial incentives for solar manufacture, the Ministry also proposes to “revive” the ‘domestic content requirement (DCR)’ scheme, which reserved a slice of the market for locally made cells and modules. The scheme was adjudged violative of global trade rules by the World Trade Organisation. Today, 1,436 MW of solar projects have been commissioned under the DCR and another 1,000 MW are under construction, but there won’t be any more. However, the government proposes to get central government-owned companies to set up 12,000 MW of projects using local-made products. The concept note also speaks of capital subsidies to those who
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set up solar manufacturing capacities, with subsidies indexed to the levels of value addition. Conversely, they could also set up solar power plants to supply the electricity needed for the manufacture, with facilities to bank the power with the grid for later withdrawal. Manufacture of solar panels (also called modules) start with polysilicon, which is made from silicon. Polysilicon is made into ingots, which are cut into wafers. Cells are made with wafers and a string of cells is a module. Today, only modules and cells are made in India, with imported material. At present, the only incentives available for manufacturing these is the Modified-Special Incentive Package Scheme, which is available to all electronic goods manufacturers and implemented by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, but there have been few takers for the scheme. However, a few companies have expressed desire to set up manufacturing facilities in India—notably, Trina Solar and Longi, both of China. “If these incentives are seriously implemented and there is clear market visibility of the next five years, then more manufacturers may decide to establish manufacturing units in India,” says Mercom, a renewable energy consultancy. India needs a solar manufacturing strategy India has made significant progress in creating capacity for solar energy generation in the last few years. The Prime Minister’s emphasis since 2014 has given a new fillip to solar power installation. The unit costs of solar power have fallen, and solar energy has become increasingly competitive with alternative sources of energy. India expanded its solar generation capacity eight times from 2,650 MW on May 26, 2014 to over 20 GW on January 31, 2018, and 28.18 GW on March 31, 2019. The government had an initial target of 20 GW of solar capacity by 2022, which was achieved four years ahead of schedule. In 2015, the target was raised to 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. Relying on imports This rapid progress should have been made earlier, however. India is energy deficient, yet blessed with plenty of sunlight for most of the year. It should have taken a lead in solar panel manufacture to generate solar energy long ago. Despite the new policy focus on solar plant installation, India is still not a solar panel manufacturer. Just as India has had no overall industrial policy since economic reforms began, there is no real plan in place to ensure solar panel manufacture. The share of all manufacturing in GDP was 16% in 1991; it remained the same in 2017. The solar power potential offers a manufacturing opportunity. The government is a near monopsonistic buyer. India is regarded by the global solar industry as one of the most promising markets, but low-cost Chinese imports have undercut its ambitions to develop its own solar technology suppliers. Imports, mostly from China, accounted for 90% of 2017 sales, up from 86% in 2014. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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None of this is matched by the Indian government. Perhaps even more important is commitment by the government to procure over the long run — without that the investment in building up the design and manufacturing for each of the four stages of production of solar power equipment would come to nought. The third is the cost of capital. The cost of debt in India (11%) is highest in the Asia-Pacific region, while in China it is about 5%. Fifteen years ago, the Chinese could also have remained dependent upon imports from Korea or Germany; they did not. Remaining dependent on imports only leads to short-term benefits for India. A continuation of the current approach means India’s energy sector will be in the same condition as its defence industry, where enormous amounts of money have been spent procuring weaponry — so much so that India has been the world’s second largest importer of defence equipment for years. In the solar panel manufacturing sector, the Indian government allows 100% foreign investment as equity and it qualifies for automatic approval. The government is also encouraging foreign investors to set up renewable energy-based power generation projects on build-own-operate basis. But the Chinese government is clearly adopting an aggressive stance while the demand for solar power in India continues to grow, as does the government’s commitment to renewables. In 2018, China cut financial support to developers and halted approval for new solar projects. As a result, Chinese producers will cut prices to sustain their manufacturing plant capacity utilisation by sustaining exports to India. In other words, the Chinese strategy is to undercut any planned effort by India to develop the entire supply chain capacity within India so that dependence on imports from China continues. As a counter, India needs a solar manufacturing strategy, perhaps like the Automotive Mission Plan (2006-2016), which is credited with making India one of the largest manufacturers of two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheelers and lorries in the world. This would also be a jobs-generating strategy for an increasingly better educated youth, both rural and urban. RM
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Substituting for imports requires human capabilities, technological capabilities and capital in the form of finance. On the first two capabilities, the supply chain of solar photovoltaic panel manufacturing is as follows: silicon production from silicates (sand); production of solar grade silicon ingots; solar wafer manufacturing; and PV module assembly. The capital expenditure and technical know-how needed for these processes decreases from the first item to the last, i.e. silicon production is more capital-intensive than module assembly. Most Indian companies are engaged in only module assembly or wafer manufacturing and module assembly. No Indian company is involved in silicon production, although a few are making strides towards it. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (2018), India has an annual solar cell manufacturing capacity of about 3 GW while the average annual demand is 20 GW. The shortfall is met by imports of solar panels. So we may not see domestic players, in the short term at least, replacing imported ones. While the safeguard duty now puts locally made panels on par with imported ones in terms of cost, the domestic sector needs to do a lot more to be effective. For instance, it will have to go down the supply chain and make the input components locally instead of importing them and putting the modules together here. Public procurement is the way forward. The government is still free to call out bids for solar power plants with the requirement that these be made fully in India. This will not violate any World Trade Organization commitment. However, no bids will be received as manufacturing facilities for these do not exist in the country. But as Ajay Shankar, former Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, argues, if the bids were large enough with supplies spread over years, which gives enough time for a green field investment to be made for manufacturing in India, then bidders will emerge and local manufacturing can begin. Lessons from China China’s cost advantage derives from capabilities on three fronts. The first is core competence. The six largest Chinese manufacturers had core technical competence in semiconductors before they turned to manufacturing solar cells at the turn of the century. It takes time for companies to learn and put in action new technologies. When the solar industry in China began to grow, Chinese companies already possessed the know-how. Experts suggest that the human and technical learning curve could be five to 10 years. Indian companies had no learning background in semiconductors when the solar industry in India began to grow from 2011. State governments need to support semiconductor production as part of a determined industrial policy to develop this capacity for the future. The second source of cost advantage for China comes from government policy. The Chinese government has subsidised land acquisition, raw material, labour and export, among others.
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Mr. Bharat Bhut Cofounder & Director
Goldi Solar
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Goldi Solar Private Limited manufactures solar panels. The Company exports solar photovoltaics modules and provides engineering, procurement, and construction services. Goldi Solar serves customers worldwide.
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Q
. Kindly tell our audience about the journey of Goldi solar and its promoters?
Quality Product meets Quality People at Goldi Solar, making it one of the most quality-conscious brands in the solar module manufacturing industry since our inception. We ensure optimal output backed by a series of quality check measures. Every panel manufactured in our premises undergoes a series of tests to check its efficiency and output capacity in different geographical areas, and most importantly under different climatic conditions. Goldi Solar has a history of exceptional power generation and strong performance of modules of various locations. Performance is usually higher than promised and all modules come with a positive tolerance.
Q. What are Goldi solar’s plans and goals?
Goldi Solar is one of the oldest players in the country with more than 10 years of experience in the manufacturing. Right from its inception, Goldi’s growth has never stopped. We started with 10 MW and we now have a 500 MW manufacturing capacity. We are installing another 2 GW line soon. We are the one of the few players in India who can manage and run gigawatt-scale manufacturing successfully. Goldi Solar has the vision, strength and expertise, backed by a legacy of decades of manufacturing not just in solar, but other industries as a group company. We have a strong team of professionals and have set up an excellent sales and business network globally. The company is growing at an annual growth rate of 80% CAGR. We plan to foray into solar cell manufacturing as well. Within a year, we will have a 600 MW cell manufacturing line. We are also tying up with raw material manufacturers and developing a whole ecosystem in South Gujarat.
Q. What are the top 5 markets for your company in Q. Explain various guarantees, warrantees, insurance,
the past, present and future?
Our top 5 markets globally are India, Europe, USA, Latin America & Canada. In India, we are focused on various regions like North, West and South.
Q. What are the new technology innovations in Solar
Modules, logistical aspects usage of larger format modules?
Solar companies have been racing towards building high-efficiency modules. Manufacturers have been increasing cell sizes, reducing the gaps between cells, and increasing the module sizes to achieve better outputs. The industry is now seeing higher range of modules, as high as 600Wp. This innovation has led to doubling of power generation in the same or slightly larger space. Logistical aspects are taken care of while designing these modules. Designs such as 800 Wp of 2.5-meter length are unviable and cannot be transported. 182 cell modules are a more ideal choice when it comes to transportation.
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Goldi Solar is one of the leading Indian solar panel manufacturers, EPC services provider and independent power producer (IPP). Founded in 2011, it is headquartered in Surat, Gujarat. The company was born with the vision of harnessing an abundant power source to produce sustainable energy. This was also expected to further develop skills, as well as meet the energy requirements of a burgeoning Indian population. A leading OEM supplier catering to several international brands in 20+ countries like USA, UAE, Turkey, Myanmar, Italy, Greece, Germany, France, Denmark and Croatia we deliver high-end quality at a competitive price. Today, as we continue to explore global export opportunities, strengthen our production, technological and marketing capabilities, we intend to further consolidate our leadership position in the Indian solar industry. Our vision is to Transform Tomorrow’s Energy and bring about wide acceptance of green energy in India. Our mission is to provide clean energy solutions to the world. Ishver Dholakiya is the Managing Director and Founder of Goldi Solar. A successful entrepreneur, Ishver was always passionate about the environment and was looking to make a lasting, positive impact on future generations. He brought to solar precision, quality and perseverance from his 14 years of exposure in the diamond industry. Bharat Bhut is the Director & Founder of Goldi Solar. He provides the strategic direction for growth and is responsible for all operations. He spearheads all the expansion and technology tie-ups efforts. Bhut has helped increase revenue, margin and customer satisfaction levels, owing to his razor-sharp focus on team building, strategy execution and client relationships.
Q
. Kindly enlighten our readers on the performance of your modules in India in various geographic locations, customer feedback
certifications, test results, performance report of your modules
Our modules have undergone all stringent quality tests and checks at each stage of the manufacturing process factory and reputed third-party laboratories, along with being certified for PID resistance. Our modules are also marked for “CE” certification and also tested at certified laboratories as per STQC/MNRE standards for projects initiated under the policy of Government of India. We are certified with Integrated Management System, which includes ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018. We cater to international business requirements, and have met all the standard quality criteria in all major countries. Our modules are tested and listed for UL Certification and CEC. Our panels have successfully passed all the stringent quality tests at internationally recognized laboratories. We are certified for IEC61215, IEC61730, IEC 61701 (Salt Mist Test), IEC 62716 (Ammonia Test), IEC600682-68 (Sand & Dust). We have a skilled workforce and internal lab facility for reliability test of PV modules. Our new facility has state-of the-art modern machinery with 100% automation. RM || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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REI Special Issue
Lisa Zhang MarketiNG Director
Growatt New eNerGy co., ltD.
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Growatt is dedicated to innovation, product reliability and customer satisfaction. Our products are used across the globe for distributed solar PV applications. Advanced and Reliable. Smart and Powerful. Competitive PV Solutions. Great Customer Service. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q. Please enlighten us about the journey of Growatt
New Energy in India. Growatt entered the Indian market in 2012 and established a service center in India to provide Indian customers with efficient technical support and after-sales service. Growatt’s high-quality products and services have been well received by Indian customers, and Growatt has become the No.1 rooftop inverter brand in India.
Q. What are the products and services you offer for
the renewable industry? Is there any plan to launch any new product? Growatt, a global leader of smart energy solutions, provides residential, commercial and utility-scale PV inverters, energy storage systems, microgrid systems and smart energy management solutions. market and the company? For markets severely hit by the pandemic, demand for photovoltaics has been suppressed. Growatt covers more than 100 countries around the world. Therefore, the epidemic has no impact on our overall shipments. In the Latin American market, our shipments have exceeded those of 2020.
Growatt is committed to high product quality and has introduced a comprehensive quality control system, the Five Quality Engineering System, which includes Design Engineering, Component Engineering, Test Engineering, Reliability Engineering,and Manufacturing Engineering.
Q. How you provide flexible maintenance services and
the price structures for the customers? Growatt is the only inverter manufacturer in India having two service centres for after sales support. Main service centre is located in Hyderabad and in 2020 we started second service centre in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Cumulatively we carry a spare stock of 1MW which consist of spare parts and inverters for replacement purpose. We have a team of more than 15 dedicated engineers located in cities like New Delhi, AHmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kochi. WE are offering a standard warranty of 7 years for all grid tied inverters ranging from 1KW to 253KW for Indian Market. During warranty period we provide completely free service support through telephonic conversation or site visit.
Q. How do you distinguish yourself from others as far
as your offered power solutions are concerned? Our products cover more application scenarios, residential, emerging needs of the power solution industry? Please commercial and utility-scale energy storage, microgrid and tell us about the key smart features of your products. smart energy management. We will also launch our own Growatt this year is celebrating 10 years of Trust, partnership battery and Commited towards Greener world with one of the . What are the future plans of Growatt? What will be the biggest String Inverters manufacturing facility of 20GW outlook of Indian Renewable industry in coming quarters? yearly production plant Set-up in year 2021.This plant will Growatt is dedicated to becoming the world’s largest smart help to cater the ever increasing demand of solar inverters. energy solution provider. To provide clear access to clean Huizhou Smart Factory covers an area of 200,000 square and smart energy for households and businesses around meters, including material warehouses, production workshops the world, we focus on technology innovation and product and finished products warehouses. It creatively proposed upgrade, and we build an extensive global network to and applied platform-based factory design concepts, and provide high quality products and services for customers. established a smart factory system with automated production, India has a large population and a fast growing economy, intelligent logistics and information management. which results in the country’s great potential of renewable As per the IHS market report for 2021, Growatt leads the energy to fill in the gap of electricity supply. RM global market for residential single phase inverter with
Q. How Growatt is transforming itself to cater to the
Q
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Q. How the second wave of Covid-19 is affecting the
share of morethan 16%.
Renewable Mirror ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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REI Special Issue
Smart Solar Panels
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India’s bold plans for ramping up star generation would move ahead Government of India embrace of star has helped the country begin to decrease its reliance on coal. That, in turn, has helped international efforts to confront temperature change maintain their momentum; while the North American country has abandoned the Paris Agreement. The actual fact that comparatively poor, inhabited & coal-reliant countries like India & China square measure more and more turning to renewables despite the US’s refusal to work square measure encouraging successes within the face of a significant reversal. As originally planned by Singh’s & Modi’s governments, India’s star effort would involve mandates that a share of the star panels come back from makers primarily based in India; these mandates were the “domestic content requirements” (DCRs) that the global organization found to be excessively proponent. The plan, below the star Mission, was that India’s star business would grow to satisfy the demand created by the DCRs, & would eventually be ready to create panels that would contend with a budget one factory-made in China, or the technologically advanced ones factory-made within the North American country. India’s growing star business would then produce jobs for
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Indian staff, export for the country. however in saying its intention to create a strong star business, India became a target for China & the North American country, the world’s 2 dominant producers of star panels WHO had for years been lobbing complaints back & forth at each other through the global organization, every attempting to slap down the other’s policies geared toward protective their domestic star makers from international competition. In 2019, the North American country govt., stressed from its own domestic star maker’s school investors, filed a grievance against India’s DCRs with the global organization. In 2019, the global organization dominated against India. At the time, India’s joint secretary of latest & RE told the trade publication PV school that the ruling would “not have an effect on the long run course of action”; India’s bold plans for ramping up star generation would move ahead, with or while not the DCRs. But when, in Gregorian calendar month, the DCRs disappear, the country’s domestic star makers can get to operate for the primary time while not govt. protection reassuring a definite quantity of demand for Indianproduced panels, & some square measure troubled that this might spell
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Smart SOlar Panels
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the tip of the Indian star business. a great deal of native CoS, native solar battery makers square measure aiming to die out. MNRE continues to be consideration alternative policies that would facilitate defend the domestic star business however that will not be smitten down by the global organization, however they haven’t nonetheless arrived. These Chinese panels square measure therefore low cost that they create star a cheaper possibility than coal; Indians accuse China of marketing star panels at unnaturally low costs; prices that square measure even less than the price of manufacturing the panels; so as to keep up its close to monopoly on India’s star market, a follow referred to as selling. Ultimately, the tip of India’s star economic policy might prove another little success for China because it seeks to become a dominant player in providing solutions to climate change; & claims the profits & influence that come back in conjunction with that dominance. China’s cornering of the star market is each sensible news as countries round the world work to satisfy their commitments below the Paris Agreement. The nice news is that China’s star panel’s square measure low cost contends with coal in several developing countries. Quite the other country, China has been ready to flip the fight to avert world catastrophe into an economic chance. More and more, China is enjoying a virtual monopoly on star in developing countries, with the power to manage the value of panels, the provision of panels, the kind of panels factory-made at that the technologies in those panels improve. India, a massive market, might become the newest e.g.. How progressive it is going to be for solar in 2019 Indian solar industry witnessed huge capacity additions & expansions globally. Not only China which led the growth in solar with 52 GW, but US, India, Japan & Germany showed incredible growth trajectory. New solar markets like South Korea, Chile & Turkey came forward & became GW markets in 2019. Growing awareness & interest in solar within developing countries as well as dominant countries are est. to show even a better result in 2019. In 2019, China is est. to continue to lead the growth; however, US’s present stance (dubious because of US president Mr. Donald Trump) may reduce America’s growth milestones in the New Year. Developing countries investing (more than developing countries-$131bn in 2018) in RE will surely aid RE (mainly solar) to account for more than 30% of total global energy generation by 2022. Although, coal will still be the primary energy source in 2018, RE continuously growing is a strong sign that illustrates future energy scenario. India has already claimed the mantle of third top solar market by overtaking Japan & the country is poised to overtake solar growth in EU by 2022. To reach that milestone, India is focusing on solar parks (more than 50 solar parks are going to be developed), which will add to Indian solar capacity immensely. Policies & initiatives have made India an attractive business platform for the future (India
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reached 100th place in the list of Business ready countries). With focus on green energy & solar market, business in solar will increase in the country, leading to solar growth. GoI has also announced plans to beef up solar capacity through introducing 20 GW solar capacity projects. Even the tender process is also planned involving 3-6 GW capacity project introduction in Jan-March. New plans from MNRE to award 77 GW solar contract in the year 2018 a rest to give Indian solar industry an incredible boost. Indian solar industry desperately needs focus on project introduction & reducing the time lag between auctioning & awarding the projects. In such a scenario, GoI focusing on projects will bring positive impact for the industry. Not just utility scale solar development, Indian solar industry is est. to witness improvement in the rooftop solar sector as well. New investment coming in & Govt. seeking to boost residential rooftop solar growth in 2019, will raise awareness in favor of solar. Estimations of anti-dumping duty imposition on imported solar modules (results are due in 2018) will certainly offer domestic manufacturers in India a level playing field & allow India to control its own solar energy future, thus show incredible growth trajectory in 2019. With the US hesitant to go all in solar (due to US president Mr. Donald Trump’s convictions), India can make a decisive move to claim a larger portion of the solar export market in 2019. With anti-dumping duty imposition in effect (hopefully in 2019) & US slowing down, It is truly a great opportunity for India to focus on domestic manufacturing capacity enhancement, which will establish India as a leader in solar export market again (in FY13-14 solar export stood at $282.58 mn & in FY16-17- $69.10 mn).As the data & initiatives point, 2018 is going to be a great year for solar. However, there are still challenges to be tackled to unleash & utilize Indian solar potential. Improving the policy landscape & adding new bits to favour domestic solar capacity enhancement, clearing out confusion regarding DCR projects, clarifying GST, stopping PPA re-negotiation, mandating RPO fulfillment & stabilizing solar
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tariff will surely help India to harvest on the opportunities that 2018 is here with. Global solar growth clearly explains the future of energy. Moreover, it is the right moment for India to make bold decisions to adopt solar, securing the future of the country. Indian solar cells & modules manufacture 'obsolete', says MNRE At a time when the GoI is trying to decide on whether or not the Indian solar cells & modules manufacturers deserve protection by way of anti-dumping duty, the MNRE has said that the cell/module manufacturing capacity in the country is “obsolete”. In a ‘concept note’ for supporting solar manufacture in India, the Ministry speaks of a “direct financial support” of Rs 11,000 Cr & a ‘technology upgradation fund’, for solar manufacture. The Ministry notes that the country has installed capacity for producing 3.1 GW of cells & 8.8 GW of modules (cells are used to make modules). However, “even this capacity is not being fully exploited because of obsolete technology,” the concept note says. Only 1.5 GW of cell manufacture & 3 GW of module manufacture are used. It adds that the existing capacity is mainly of the conventional technology of multi-crystalline Al-BSF (Aluminium-Back Surface Field)
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solar cells, which have efficiency limitations & that very few players have ventured into the superior PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) technology. PER cells, which have a light reflecting layer on the rear, are more efficient & cost-effective. The Ministry has said it would bring in a ‘Technology Upgradation Fund’, borrowing the concept from a scheme of the same name for textile industry. The TUF could be an interest subvention scheme (as it is for the textile industry) or capital subsidy for technology upgradation projects. Apart from providing financial incentives for solar manufacture, the Ministry also proposes to “revive” the ‘domestic content requirement (DCR)’ scheme, which reserved a slice of the market for locally made cells & modules. The scheme was adjudged violative of global trade rules by the World Trade Organization. Today, 1,436 MW of solar projects have been commissioned under the DCR & another 1,000 MW are under construction, but there won’t be any more. However, the govt. proposes to get central govt.-owned CoS to set up 12,000 MW of projects using local-made products. The concept note also speaks of capital subsidies to those who set up solar manufacturing capacities, with subsidies indexed to the levels of value addition. Conversely, they could also set up solar power plants to supply the electricity needed for the manufacture, with ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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facilities to bank the power with the grid for later withdrawal. Manufacture of solar panels (also called modules) start with polysilicon, which is made from silicon. Polysilicon is made into ingots, which are cut into wafers. Cells are made with wafers & a string of cells is a module. Today, only modules & cells are made in India, with imported material. At present, the only incentives available for manufacturing these is the Modified-Special Incentive Package Scheme, which is available to all electronic goods manufacturers & implemented by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, but there have been few takers for the scheme. However, a few CoS have expressed desire to set up manufacturing facilities in India—notably, Trina Solar & Longi, both of China. “If these incentives are seriously implemented & there is clear market visibility of the next five years, then more manufacturers may decide to establish manufacturing units in India,” says Mercom, a RE consultancy. India Transforms Market for Rooftop Solar India has a massive need for energy. Its per capita consumption of electricity is less than one third the world average. To meet its target of generating 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, India has installed solar parks on large tracts of unused land across the country. Now, thanks to a new partnership
between the World Bank & the State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest bank, the market for rooftop solar has also begun to take off. Sometimes change comes so quickly it takes time to get to grips with it. One such change is now beginning to take hold in India. Endowed with more than 300 days of sunshine a year, India is making strides towards becoming a global solar superpower. Since 2009, when the country first launched the National Solar Mission, it has installed solar parks on large tracts of unused land across the country. But solar parks need land & land is scarce in a densely-populated country. Rooftops, on the other hand, hold huge potential. Today, thanks to a new partnership between the World Bank & the SBI, India’s largest bank, the market for rooftop solar has also begun to take off. Tapping the rooftop solar market will be essential for India to meet its massive energy needs. The country has a lot of catching up to do - its per capita consumption of electricity is less than one third the world averages. To meet these energy needs, India has set itself the ambitious target of generating 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, forty percent of which is to come from rooftop solar. Getting the Financing Until now, however, it was difficult to breakthrough into the rooftop solar market. Although the business case was strong & the costs of solar panels were falling dramatically, financing was difficult to come by. In solar plants, the largest capital investment goes toward the installation of solar panels & must be made upfront. At today’s prices, this amounts to an investment of about Rs. 5 Cr (approx. $ 760,000) to produce one megawatt of power. But banks had no models for such new forms of lending. And even where financing was available, the costs were just too high. Things have now begun to turn around very quickly. Since Jun’17, when the World Bank announced a $625 mn loan to SBI to provide discounted finance for rooftop solar installations on factories & institutions, market response has been overwhelming. In the past six months alone, SBI has approved 575 MW of rooftop solar installations, giving a huge boost to India’s nascent solar rooftop program.SBI has developed financing models that will provide loans at a very competitive pricing with long tenor. Several capacity building measures & awareness programs are also being undertaken to sensitize operating functionaries. One of SBI’s first borrowers was Amplus Energy Solutions, a private RE developer & an early mover in the field. World Bank-SBI financing has enabled us to borrow at 8.25 percent – down from 12 percent before. This has helped us lower the cost of solar energy we provide our customers. Today, Amplus has around 250 MW of solar plants – either installed or under construction - serving more than 70 customers across 20 states of India. One of Amplus’s first customers was the India Yamaha Motor plant in the Noida industrial belt, across the river from Delhi. The motorcycle
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manufacturer first began installing solar panels on its Noida rooftops in 2016 to comply with the company’s global energy policy. Today, Yamaha’s Noida facility is one of the largest manufacturing plants in India with a ‘captive’ solar rooftop facility of more than 20,000 solar panels which generate 6.3 MW of power. The change is now beginning to catch on. While large multinational CoShave begun to blaze the trail, others are lining up to follow. Until now, it’s been a hard sell, because changing mindsets takes time. But now I think the market is ready to take off. There may be blips in between, but I expect that in 3-5 years’ time the cost of rooftop solar power will fall to Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 per unit. After all, this is the first time in history that every person can generate her own clean renewable electricity – be it the smallest tea shop or the largest factory or institution. With strong sunshine beating down on rooftops across most of this tropical country, the future of solar power in India is bright indeed. Rooftop solar market on fire The country added more rooftop solar power capacity in the last financial year than in the previous four years combined, making it the fastest-growing segment in the country’s clean energy space. During the financial year 2017, some 715 MW of systems were added, up from 227 MW in the previous year, taking the country’s total installed capacity to 1.3 GW (GW, 1 GW = 1,000 MW) according to a report by BNEF. By 2022, the report estimates that the country will have around 9.5 GW of rooftop solar capacity- but that is still substantially short of the Narendra Modi govt.’s target of 40 GW. This has happened largely because rooftop solar power is now cheaper than commercial & industrial power in all major Indian states, according to BNEF. Besides, costs have halved over the last five years. Overall, because of increased competition & low solar panel prices, setting up rooftop systems have become cheaper than the global average by between 39%&50% in India. If a mall is purchasing power from (a) grid at Rs8-9 (per unit), going by (the) rooftop model, the power cost will be half of that. So it is a viable proposition. Govt. incentives & policies to push rooftop solar installations have also contributed to the growth over the last year. For instance, the govt. has held auctions to have CoS set up over 1 GW of rooftop projects in the first nine months of 2017.Meanwhile, the size of installations is getting bigger as well. The average size of a rooftop system has increased from 250 kilowatts (kW) in 2015 to 855 kW in 2018, according to BNEF. This is due to better utilisation of rooftop space & consumers’ willingness to use power generated from their own buildings rather than purchase the power from elsewhere, the report said. Lagging behind So far, only 3% of the govt.’s 40 GW target has been achieved & more than half the market is concentrated in just six states, BNEF pointed out in its report. Among the reasons for this is a lack of clarity on the “net metering” programme, which
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allows users to sell surplus power generated from their rooftop systems back to the electricity utility. Today, most of the growth in the rooftop segment is driven by commercial & industrial users. The economics work for them even without net metering, given the fall in costs of installation & reduction in energy prices. On the other hand, the residential segment hasn’t taken off. “The high upfront capital expenditure compared to commercial & industrial (C&I) consumers, a lack of financing options & cheaper grid electricity for residential consumers with low consumption currently make rooftop PV (photo voltaic) less attractive for residential consumers than their C&I counterparts,” BNEF said. Net metering is important for residential consumers as their panels create a lot of surplus power during the day when the households themselves draw less power. While net metering is mandatory in many states, it is unregulated in states like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu & West Bengal, where they only have legally non-binding guidelines. Though the govt. has come out with net metering policy at lots of states, at the same time, practically, there are challenges in implementing. India’s power distribution CoS, or discoms, aren’t keen on promoting rooftop solar power as that would hurt their finances. Most Indian discoms are owned by the govt. & suffered cumulative losses of $67 bn at the end of financial year 2015, as per BNEF. There are technological challenges, too. Not many discoms have the systems to allow feeding the power grid with electricity generated on rooftops. During the day, there’ll be sudden spikes of generation; in the evenings, there’ll be a reverse flow. So till (power) storage comes in a much larger way, utilities might find it difficult to manage this. Solar Manufacturing Scenario India’s energy imports have risen sharply from USD 43 bn. in 2005-06 to USD 167 bn. in 2013-14. In comparison India’s trade deficit in 2013-14 was USD 139 bn. Solar power is a
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strategic need for the country as solar power can potentially save USD 20 bn in fossil fuel imports annually by 2030&domestic manufacturing can save USD 42 bn in equipment imports by 2030. In the absence of manufacturing, India will need to import USD 42 bn. of solar equipment by 2030 corresponding to 100 GW of installed capacity. Solar manufacturing can also create direct employment of more than 50,000 in the next 5 years assuming local manufacturing captures 50% domestic market share & 10% global market share. Another at least 125,000 indirect jobs will be created in the supply chain India may not be able to utilize its large solar energy resources, if imports of solar panels get impacted due to. Major exporters using their production for their domestic use. Sudden jump in prices in the future due to supply shortages. Dispute with major suppliers (as evidenced in case of China’s rare earth supply to Japan or supply of gas by Russia to European nations) Economies of scale results in lower cost & brand building. Skilled manpower gets developed with passage of time. Overall strategy for innovation & exports are developed at an early stage. Appreciation of industry & competitive dynamics. Large domestic market helps in expanding capacity. Capabilities are built to compete effectively in competitive global markets. Strong ancillary industry is created. Clusters for knowledge & infrastructure sharing are developed. Research institutions develop industry linkages & support innovation. Globally, there are examples of countries providing strategic support to solar energy also supporting solar manufacturing. China has developed ‘solar champions’ in a systematic manner through massive subsidies, low interest loans, grants & easy access to land & utilities. Globally, manufacturing bases are being planned as integrated solar industrial clusters with strong Govt. support. India’s Manufacturing Policy recognizes solar manufacturing as an industry with ‘strategic importance’. However, the policy is yet to have the intended effect:.40%
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of the Indian solar cell manufacturers have shut down with industry utilization at only 21%. The industry has suffered due to sudden & sharp price declines due to global over-supply & lack of a level playing field Indian manufacturing costs are higher due to three major reasons:. Lack of scale -Indian factory sizes are only one-fifth the size of a typical Asian factory. Insufficient govt. support -Other countries have provided massive loans, tax holidays, subsidized utility services, easy access to land & technology support. Underdeveloped supply chain –Indian manufacturers have no access to domestic upstream raw material supplies of polysilicon & wafers The Indian govt. would be a net beneficiary by encouraging solar manufacturing as jobs would be created & taxes will increase. The Potential Impact by 2024 on NPV basis will be:. Potential loss due to higher prices = USD 851mn. Direct taxes on manufacturing: Domestic capacity of about 10GW by 2024 = USD 870mn. Direct taxes on Salaries: Employment generation of about 75,000 by 2024 = USD 90mn. Impact on taxes owing to GDP increase & factoring tax/ GDP ratio = USD 980 mn The Indian govt. would be a net beneficiary by encouraging solar manufacturing as jobs would be created & taxes will increase. Top Ten Solar Panel Brands in India With rising costs of electricity, reduction in prices of Solar PV Panels & lots of govt. policy support, buying a Solar PV system has become very lucrative in many parts of India. The interest in buying Solar PV is increasing; however, there is still some lack of awareness about technology, brands & prices amongst the consumers in the country. Below is the list of top ten solar panel brands available in India. Please note that there are both Indian as well as International brands of Solar Panels available in India. If you are looking for subsidy on your Solar project then you have to go for a brand that is Made in India. Some international brands are selling really high-quality Solar Panels in India, but if you consider some of the top brands in India, then they are quite comparable in quality to the international brands. The list does not include any subjectivity (our personal preferences) but is purely based on data. The data that is from MNRE website which lists the Installed capacity (or in other terms the size of solar panels installed in the country) of various manufacturers. The assumption here is that a brand that has done more work has a better experience & makes better quality panels. Some of our Indian manufacturers also list in top global manufacturers. The list of top global manufacturers is available via Bloomberg. Vikram solar & Waaree that are on top of Indian list will also figure in the top global list (as per Wikipedia data). However, it is only the beginning for Solar PV sector in India & in coming years, we will surely see some more shuffles. RM || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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Mr. Hardip Singh COO - Solar Modules & Products
Jakson Group
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Jakson Group offers solar products, namely Solar Modules, Solar Power Packs (On-Grid/Off-Grid/ Hybrid systems), Structure, and Solar Inverters supplied through Channel Partners & Key Customers. We offer turnkey solutions for Solar Rooftop Projects/ Land based Projects from 50KW to 200+MW capacity. In services, we also have a portfolio of over 700 MW for O&M. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q. Please tell us about Jakson Group’s footprint in solar industry.
Jakson Group started their solar Journey in 2011-12 with 20 MW IPP Project at BAP Rajasthan, followed by Solar EPC in 2012 & solar manufacturing in 2016. In the last 1 decade, with over 1 GW of EPC Execution, 200 MW of IPP, Reliable Solar Products backed up by O&M capabilities, Jakson Group is among India's top 10 solar companies.
Q. What are the products and services you offer for the renewable industry? Is there any plan to launch any new product?
Q. What are the current opportunities and challenges for the
Solar PV & inverter manufacturers in Indian market?
India is the third-largest country in solar installation, recently achieved 100 GW milestone on renewable energy generation capacity. With the aim of 450 GW of Renewable by 2030, we believe that there will be huge opportunities and increasing demand for Solar Equipment. Though Module Manufacturing has been ramped up/under expansion by different manufacturers across the country, shortage of Upstream Capacities (Polysilicon-Wafers-Cells) & Inverter Manufacturing continues to have our dependence on Imports.
Q. Battery storage has become of much greater interest in
recent years? Why is that, what are the benefits of energy storage technology?
Following factors are increasing in demand & potential for storage solutions: - Renewable Power Generation is variable (based on sun/wind) & at most times, either generation would be more than demand (day time) or less than demand (evening hours). Battery Storage Solutions address this variation. - Constant PLF for large thermal power plants helps get the best efficiency from these plants; peak loads are addressed through Battery Storage. - The customer gets power backup in case of Power Failure/Load shedding through storage solutions. - Cost of Lithium Batteries has reduced over past few years & expected to go down further with an increase in demand. This will result in the cost of power from storage near to Grid Power Cost & even lower during peak tariff period.
Q. How do you distinguish yourself from others as far as your
offered power solutions are concerned?
We offer Renewable Power Solutions for customers as under: Residential Customers – from 2 KW to 20 KW by providing Solar Kits designed as per rating with all protections (Available in ON Grid/Off-Grid/
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Q. How you provide flexible maintenance services and the price
structures for the customers?
We organize knowledge sharing sessions on the Do’s & Don’t for the products & systems supplied by Jakson. For a hassle-free experience, we provide O&M /service support to our customers through our nearest partners/trained teams and by training Customers at the site. We are not just competitive & affordable, but our strength lies in providing seamless operations to our customers.
Q
. What are some of the leading projects executed by Jakson’s Solar vertical in India? Over last 1 decade Jakson has executed many special projects, some of them are as under:
a. Rooftop solution for 1st solar powered Railway Coaches b. 100 MW of Solar EPC for NLC at Tamil Nadu c. 500 KW at Rashtrapati Bhawan & other Offices of Central Ministry in Delhi d. Projects at Airports/Highways/Refineries/Metro Stations and canals e. Recently we completed our largest International Solar EPC Project -50 MW at Togo (West Africa)
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Jakson Group offers solar products, namely Solar Modules, Solar Power Packs (On-Grid/Off-Grid/Hybrid systems), Structure, and Solar Inverters supplied through Channel Partners & Key Customers. We offer turnkey solutions for Solar Rooftop Projects/Land based Projects from 50KW to 200+MW capacity. In services, we also have a portfolio of over 700 MW for O&M. Recently we have launched our New Gen – HELIA series of Solar Modules, which offer best in class efficiency of over 21.5% with the highest rating up to 600 Wp. Our continuous focus is on sustainable & Clean Energy solutions for low Carbon Emissions. We will very shortly introduce The Smart BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) with Lithium Ion Batteries & Smart Controllers.
Hybrid System as per Customer requirements) through a network of Channel Partners. C&I – from 10 KW to MW Capacity with customized Design/site analysis/ Generation Reports with in-house Design Team through Channel Partners as well as directly from Jakson as per Customer Requirements & Preferences. Land Based Projects – From 5 MW to 200 MW capacities with in-house design and execution. Jakson offers a one-stop solution for all its customers. Unique Products & Solutions – Solar Generator (2KW) for remote applications & recently introduced BESS (commencing from 5 KW and can be scaled over a 1000KW & more) which can operate in synchronization with Grid/ Solar/DG/Battery ensuring 24X7 power for our customers. With 75 Years of trust & excellence Jakson Group has created a niche for itself with over 50000 satisfied customers. We stand committed to our Core Purpose & Values.
Q
. What are the future plans of Jakson? What will be the outlook of Indian Renewable industry in coming quarters?
Our Revenue share has been increasing from the Renewable business steadily over the last few years & we plan to invest more in renewable energy & energy storage solutions. We are currently expanding our Solar Module Manufacturing Line (fully Automated process) & Module Mounting Structure Plant in Greater Noida to 600 MW, further to be scaled up to 1GW. We have also set up a manufacturing plant for our Battery Energy Storage systems, have forayed into hybrid energy solutions and set up an R&D center focusing on new energies. We are fully committed to contribute in a big way to India’s mission of Renewable Energy 2030.
Q. Are you participating in the Renewable Energy Expo? If yes,
what are your expectations from the expo?
Yes, we are very happy to be part of this event, which is being held after 2 years & expect to meet our customers and other industry leaders. Through exhibitions like REI we stand to gain new learnings, especially new technologies & an opportunity to share Jakson Groups expertise and vision. RM || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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Mr. Rajneesh KhattaR GRoup DiRectoR, eneRGy poRtfolio
infoRma maRKets, inDia
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REI 2021 being held on 15th –17th September at India Expo Centre, Greater Noida is destined to showcase India Inc.’s ambitious vision, relentless persistence.
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Q. What are the highlights of REI 2021 when it is back
scanning, Sanitiser installations at multiple check points, App based food ordering systems, thereby, encouraging in its’ physical avataar this year ? digital payments practice, keeping provision of isolation The most promising highlight of this edition is our room for those who report unwell at the time of entry “Return to where we belong to” i.e. Physical Version after etc to name a few. witnessing the most challenging year humanity has ever faced so far. This has been a phenomenal whirlwind of a All attendees and Exhibitors are any which way advised year throwing off plans of all stakeholders and causing to maintain social distancing within the booth & switch unimaginable disruption by further weakening the supply to other contactless mode of greetings. Meeting tables to have sneeze guards and Informa COVID Ambassadors will chains’ ecosystem. REI 2021 being held on 15 – 17 September at India be present on the floor to ensure compliance in totality.
Q. Which other sectors will get a limelight in this year’s
show? For sure Solar and Bio energy will continue to be the show stoppers. However, very soon Electric Vehicle ( EV ) sector will also embark upon its’ presence @ REI besides wind regaining its’ focus. It’d be pleasure to witness a healthy intra-sector competition with each domain trying to grab a share for itself whilst India stands geared up for next leap of 450 GW by the Yr 2030.
Q
. What precautions have been planned for organising the event amidst Covid-19 scenario? Very pleased to confirm that being an Exhibition and Conferences organizer of global repute, we have already formalized our in-house H&S document called “Informa AllSecure”. This is far more stringent in compliance than the H&S guidelines issued by Federal Govt of India and provides multiple additional rings of safety to all the participants alike. To begin with, REI 2021 will observe QR Code based Contactless Registration, ensuring there are no long serpentine-like queues as in past and no crowding. Besides we have also adopted staggered registrations in order to check visitors density inside each hall strictly in line with Govt guidelines. We are permitting by all means prefabricated booth structures only for raw scheme stalls. Each exhibitor will be provided Disinfectant kit in addition to Thermal ||www.renewablemirror.com||
Q
. What will be your renewable energy industry outlook for the year 2022? My outlook for the Yr 2022 is extremely optimistic as India is fairly galloping towards its’ ambitious goals of 450 GW by 2030. We have recently celebrated our Century of Pride on the achievement of 100 GW of installed Renewable Energy capacity ranking India # 4th largest installed RE capacity worldwide. This is in addition to another 50 GW under implementation and yet another 27 GW under tendering. I take this opportunity to Congratulate people of India on this amazing achievement that once again reposes our faith in Federal policies, its’ larger-than-life vision and above all gaining the feeling of Self-Belief. There’s pent-up demand that’s going to take India’s RE sector forward as there’s 17 times increase in installed Solar capacity in last 7 years even Open Access solar installations stand increased by 56% in Yr 2020 despite challenges. The booster dose of “Self-Reliant Bharat” is destined to give push to indigenous enterprises by working tirelessly on the demand side of the sector. The robust pipeline of tenders is good enough to determine the intentions set forth by the Centre and demonstrates a silver lining at the end of dark COVID 19 - induced tunnel. The Indian electricity sector is on the cusp of a solar-powered revolution. Solar power is set for explosive growth in India, matching coal’s share in the Indian power generation mix within two decades or even sooner. This dramatic turnaround is driven by India’s policy ambitions, notably the ambitious target to reach 450 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, and the extraordinary cost-competitiveness of solar, which’d out-compete existing coal-fired power by 2030 even when paired with battery storage. So is the focus on Off-Shore wind sector and Compressed Bio Gas ( CBG ) that are bound to carve out a newer identity for India’s RE sector in times to come. RM
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Expo Centre, Greater Noida is destined to showcase India Inc.’s ambitious vision, relentless persistence, deep urge to contribute to set the economy back on track and a great intent aiming to boost India’s RE portfolio to stratospheric levels in years to come. This is in addition to 125 + exhibitors on the floor, galaxy of highly acclaimed industry stalwarts speakers and VIPs and large gathering of business visitors…this being consistent hallmark of REI over the years anyway !
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Rooftop solar systems are becoming a popular source of electric power Introduction Solar photovoltaic rooftop has emerged as a potential green technology to address climate change issues by reducing reliance on conventional fossil fuel based energy. With a strong commitment to increase the renewable sources based energy capacity to 175 GW by 2022, India has a target to install 100 GW of solar energy capacity. Of this 40 GW would be the share of grid connected solar PV rooftop. This paper examines global growth in solar energy, world’s major rooftop installed capacity countries’ policies and solar rooftop policy instruments in India. The current Indian goals, issues & challenges in achieving them and trends in further development are discussed. The above statement is indicative of India's strengths in renewable energy. The climate change threats are driving our dependence on pollution free sources of energy to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. No doubt solar PV energy is one of the cleanest sources of electricity and is being considered as next to fossil fuel based conventional electricity systems. World cumulative installed solar energy capacity of 3.7 GW in 2004 has reached 177 GW in 2014 i.e., increasing almost 50 times in ten years. Global investment in Renewable Energy (RE) has been growing steadily and increased five times since 2004, from $62 bn to $316 bn in 2014 in ten years. The share of investment in the solar rooftop and other solar PV projects is increasing more rapidly and was 12% higher than
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in the previous year and became 67.4 bn in 2015, thus making it one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. International Energy Agency (IEA) Technology Roadmap: Solar PV Energy envisions total production of SPV electricity to increase to 16% in 2050 (in place of 11% projected earlier) with China and India having major shares. Looking inwards, India is having fourth largest electricity generation capacity in the world after US, China and Russia. Its Renewable Energy (RE) share increased to 13.16% in 2015 with solar energy having a share of 11.62% in it. Between 2005 and 2015 the renewable grid connectivity has increased from 6.2 GW to around 36 GW for both solar and wind. As on June 2016 renewable based capacity became 43,727 MW in the total installed capacity of 303,100 MW. Historical developments in solar PV in India Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) Program of India was conceived in 1970s in response to the world oil crisis, as one of the largest national programs in the world. The SPV research & development in the country began in late 1970s and a programme for energy development was launched in early 1980s with three main objectives; • Research on solar cell materials, • Development of production and manufacturing capabilities of SPV module, and • Promotional measures and incentives for installation of SPV electricity. The manufacturing base was
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strengthened and over 300,000 smaller systems aggregated to 22 MW have been installed until 1995 making India third largest Solar PV user. Export had a share of almost 46% in 2002. Remaining catered to telecommunication towers, street lighting, agricultural water pumping and others. Solar Home Systems (SHS) were encouraged. First major PV plant connected to the grid was set up in Jamuria, Asansol district; West Bengal of 1 MW capacity. Though distributed SPV in rural & remote areas and for strategic applications remained one of the key programmes. Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) was introduced as part of National Action Plan on Climate Change 2008 giving a target to install 20 GW solar capacities by 2022. The mission is to be implemented in three phases namely; Phase I (2010–12), II (2013–17) and III (2017–22). Under phase I of JNNSM one of the component related to solar rooftop is ‘Rooftop PV and Small Scale Generation Programme’ (RPSSGP) aimed to encourage development of rooftop or ground-mounted solar systems with maximum capacity size of 2 MW. A total of 100 MW is targeted under this scheme. Projects under the RPSSGP scheme -remain mostly ground-mounted with negligible share of solar rooftop. Grid connected solar power plants capacity was assessed at 45.5 MW in July 2011. Being a tropical country, India is solar rich country having on average 300 sunny days in a year. India has higher solar irradiance compared to many other countries and solar electricity potential is between 4 and 7 kWh per sq. m per day in its most parts. Government of India has revised Solar Mission in 2014 with a target of 100 GW installed capacity of solar electricity by 2022. Out of which 40 GW is now projected to come through grid connected rooftop solar systems. Centralized grid connected and standalone solar energy strategy development is aiming towards energy security of nation for achieving ‘24 × 7 power to all’. States and Union Territories in the country have identified their solar energy potential. Rooftops ideal for harnessing solar energy In urban and rural India, millions of homes and commercial buildings have rooftops that receive ample sunlight during the day. These are ideal for harnessing the sun’s energy by converting it into electric power. This can be done by adding an interface known as an inverter to convert the DC power generated by the solar panels on the rooftop to AC power as most appliances/devices run on AC. Although rooftops can be used for creating rooftop energy sources, there are various factors to be considered before deciding to install solar panels on a rooftop. Types of solar systems There are three types of solar systems that can be considered. 1. On-grid systems One of them is the on-grid system in which the rooftop solar system is integrated with the main grid supply. This system allows power to be used from the grid supply only when the rooftop solar system is unable to supply the required power. Thus, a well-planned rooftop system can efficiently supply power without using grid supply saving expenses otherwise incurred on using power from the grid. In fact, this system can earn revenues as any excess power generated can be fed to the grid for which DISCOMs pay compensation using ‘net metering’. 2. Off-grid systems
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The second one is the off-grid system in which the rooftop solar system is not linked to the main grid. This system can run on its own with its own battery. The solar power generated from the rooftop solar system charges the battery which is then used to power various applications. This system is very useful when there is no grid supply or when the supply is very erratic with frequent breakdowns. 3. Hybrid systems The third one is the hybrid system in which both on-grid and off-grid systems work in tandem. In this type of system, though a battery is used, the advantage here is that after the battery is fully charged the excess power generated is fed to the grid which generates additional revenues for the consumer. Feasibility of rooftops for generating power For home solar rooftop systems, the nature of the roof is very important to determine its feasibility. The factors that need to be considered are as follows: • The availability of sunlight throughout the year and the area available on the rooftop is important to calculate the power that can be generated. A typical home solar panel can produce about 290 watts by harnessing one hour of direct sunlight. If sunlight falls for 8 hours then the solar panel can produce 2320 watts electric power. • The orientation of the rooftop towards the sun is important. Exposure towards the south is the ideal orientation for the panel. If the roof is naturally sloping and facing south then it is very ideal for installing rooftop solar panels. This is because India is situated in the northern hemisphere and south facing rooftops receive the maximum amount of sunlight as the earth rotates on its own axis at an inclination. However, if the roof is flat solar panels will need to be placed at an angle facing south to receive the maximum possible sunlight. Further, high rise buildings should not hinder the exposure of the solar panels to sunlight. • The decision on choosing a suitable type of rooftop solar system impacts the cost of the system. Each type involves different components and the costs could vary depending on them. How much rooftop to use Based on the availability of sunlight and the space available on the rooftop the maximum power that can be generated can be determined. Further, based on the type of system – on-grid, off-grid or hybrid – the homeowner can decide on the space to be allocated on the rooftop for producing electric power. Cost-benefit The homeowner can make a cost analysis and decide on the quantum of electricity to be produced so as to be profitable. This could include meeting the home owner’s power needs and the amount of power that can be transferred to the grid to generate additional revenues. Rooftop solar systems are becoming a popular source of electric power because it is a renewable energy source and it is abundantly available during the day. With careful planning, implementing an appropriate rooftop solar system can translate into never-ending electric power supply at minimal recurring expenses. India’s solar sector is growing at a hectic pace but the rooftop segment has been slow off the blocks. Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by
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that a better way to encourage individuals is to provide tax breaks. Implementing that will be far more straightforward and cost-effective,” Marda argues. Incentives and subsidies are plagued by several delays and confusion around whether the customer gets the subsidy or the company installing the solar system. And then there are challenges on the ground when it comes to net meters and completion of site inspection. This adds to delays in subsidy disbursal. Over and above all these, a key challenge is the cost associated with investing in a solar system. Implementable, scalable financing options are needed. And over-reliance on subsidies creates long-term growth challenges. Also, while some States mandate that buildings must have roof space to install a solar system, it is hardly enforced. Policy matters Vivek Subramanian, Founder Partner, Executive Director, Fourth Partner Energy, a distributed solar energy solutions provider, says that safeguard duty of 25 per cent on import of modules has slowed demand as this is a mixed signal to the market, especially when the government has set an ambitious target of 40 GW by 2022 for rooftop solar. The recent GST uncertainty and revised rate of around 9 per cent on solar have also affected the profitability of the sector. “While policies such as net metering have been successfully implemented across the country, given that electricity is a State subject, policies have differed from State to State, making it difficult for developers, financiers and consumers to adopt solar,” points out Subramanian. Most States impose a cap on installable capacity under net-metering of 1 MW. Further, some restrict the installable capacity to a certain percentage of the total contract demand. “We have many clients who have large demand for power, space and intent to adopt solar, but the policy is restrictive,” he rues. Some spurs to growth Industry stakeholders have many suggestions to promote the growth of rooftop solar. For instance, they say, the metering for rooftop solar could be combined with the regular discom billing such that any default would lead to disconnection of power. Warehouses, sheds, etc., have space but inadequate consumption. So installation and injection into the grid from these locations should be allowed and consumers should be permitted to draw at another location. Community solar is where the hyper local energy markets are. In
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Prime Minister NarendraModi approved Phase II of grid-connected rooftop solar systems to achieve a cumulative capacity of 40,000 MW from rooftop solar projects by 2022. The programme will be implemented with total Central support of `11,814 crore, with the government extending financial assistance of 40 per cent for 3 kW capacity and 20 per cent beyond 3kW up to 10 kW. Will this trigger the next wave of rooftop solar adoption? Here is what sector experts say. Subsidies and more Ashish Khanna, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Power Solar and President of Tata Power (Renewables), believes that “We are at an interesting cusp where we could potentially see accelerated growth of rooftop solar systems in the country. But the real growth will come once we have quality battery back-up systems, say, within the next 2-3 years. This will provide real, round-the-clock reliable power.” Already, solar power supply has achieved grid parity and its prices compare well with other fossil fuel options. Significantly, it is much lower than, say, a diesel generating set which works out to about `15 a unit in many parts of the country, says Khanna. Referring to the recent government moves to boost rooftop solar systems, Khanna says subsidies may not be the best way to encourage their adoption, but provide early initiation into the system. “The best long-term solution is a self sustaining one,” he stresses. Nearly 200 million people in the country either do not have power or have erratic power and solar rooftop solutions have the potential to address this problem even in the remotest parts of the country. Over the years, the cost of setting up of one kW rooftop solar, which was about `90,000 has now come down to about `50,000. And with the inherent advantage of using this power for 25-35 years, it is a compelling proposition, he says. Needed: viable financing Saurabh Marda, Co-Founder and MD of Freyr Energy, a company engaged in providing solar installations, points out that while the Government plans to develop about 40 giga watt by 2022, the current installed capacity is about 4 GW. Several reports estimate that about 8 GW will be generated by 2023. “To achieve the target, the rooftop segment has to double every year in terms of installations. There is potential to accelerate this, provided the issues faced by the sector are addressed,” says Marda. “While there are plenty of financial instruments to support development of utility-scale solar plants, no such instrument is available for rooftop solar customers. Most residential and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) have to rely on their own funds to own a solar system. Constantly evolving Central and State policies related to taxes, net metering, subsidy, etc, create uncertainty, both for customers and financial institutions. This delays the decision making process and results in a long sales cycle,” Marda adds. Tax incentives are available for only commercial and industrial customers. They can avail accelerated depreciation of 40 per cent every year on their solar investment until the asset is fully depreciated. This is one of the drivers to invest in solar, apart from helping the customer reduce their electricity bill. However, residential customers, NGOs and not for profit organisations such as educational institutions are eligible for capital subsidy of 30-70 depending upon their location. The implementation of the subsidy scheme has not been very effective anywhere. “We believe
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Rooftop & Off Grid
REI Special Issue
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such places a real-time exchange for power is created and settlement between buyers and sellers (prosumers) happens instantly. This has already been indicated in the latest UP State Policy. Penetration into off-grid and rural through distributed solar — using storage solutions, payment solutions and policy for creating an energy efficient ecosystem — is necessary. The discoms could be incentivised to support rooftop solar and net metering by allowing them to charge a fee and making them a stakeholder. In this context, AshishKhanna of Tata Power Solar says his company plays a role across the entire power spectrum, including discoms. There is a need to strike the right balance to promote solar rooftop installations. Sector experts also stress that there is a need for improved regulations for dispute resolution giving more comfort to developers, financiers and consumers of solar given the long duration of contracts under theoperating expenses (OPEX) model, which varies from 10 to 25 years. If these suggestions are acted upon, the real numbers could be a pleasant surprise in 2022. Everything you need to know before installing a solar rooftop system Rooftops ideal for harnessing solar energy in urban and rural India, millions of homes and commercial buildings have rooftops that receive ample sunlight during the day. These are ideal for harnessing the sun’s energy by converting it into electric power. This can be done by adding an interface known as an inverter to convert the DC power generated by the solar panels on the rooftop to AC power as most appliances/devices run on AC. Although rooftops can be used for creating rooftop energy sources, there are various factors to be considered before deciding to install solar panels on a rooftop. Types of solar systems There are three types of solar systems that can be considered. • On-grid systems One of them is the on-grid system in which the rooftop solar system is integrated with the main grid supply. This system allows power to be used from the grid supply only when the rooftop solar system is unable to supply the required power. Thus, a well-planned rooftop system can efficiently supply power without using grid supply saving expenses otherwise incurred on using power from the grid. In fact, this system can earn revenues as any excess power generated can be fed to the grid for which DISCOMs pay compensation using ‘net metering’. • Off-grid systems The second one is the off-grid system in which the rooftop solar system is not linked to the main grid. This system can run on its own with its own battery. The solar power generated from the rooftop solar system charges the battery which is then used to power various applications. This system is very useful when there is no grid supply or when the supply is very erratic with frequent breakdowns. • Hybrid systems The third one is the hybrid system in which both on-grid and off-grid systems work in tandem. In this type of system, though a battery is used, the advantage here is that after the battery is fully charged the excess power generated is fed to the grid which generates additional revenues for the consumer. Feasibility of rooftops for generating power For home solar rooftop systems, the nature of the roof is very
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important to determine its feasibility. The factors that need to be considered are as follows: • The availability of sunlight throughout the year and the area available on the rooftop is important to calculate the power that can be generated. A typical home solar panel can produce about 290 watts by harnessing one hour of direct sunlight. If sunlight falls for 8 hours then the solar panel can produce 2320 watts electric power. • The orientation of the rooftop towards the sun is important. Exposure towards the south is the ideal orientation for the panel. If the roof is naturally sloping and facing south then it is very ideal for installing rooftop solar panels. This is because India is situated in the northern hemisphere and south facing rooftops receive the maximum amount of sunlight as the earth rotates on its own axis at an inclination. However, if the roof is flat solar panels will need to be placed at an angle facing south to receive the maximum possible sunlight. Further, high rise buildings should not hinder the exposure of the solar panels to sunlight. • The decision on choosing a suitable type of rooftop solar system impacts the cost of the system. Each type involves different components and the costs could vary depending on them. How much rooftop to use Based on the availability of sunlight and the space available on the rooftop the maximum power that can be generated can be determined. Further, based on the type of system – on-grid, off-grid or hybrid – the homeowner can decide on the space to be allocated on the rooftop for producing electric power. Cost-benefit The homeowner can make a cost analysis and decide on the quantum of electricity to be produced so as to be profitable. This could include meeting the home owner’s power needs and the amount of power that can be transferred to the grid to generate additional revenues. Rooftop solar systems are becoming a popular source of electric power because it is a renewable energy source and it is abundantly available during the day. With careful planning, implementing an appropriate rooftop solar system can translate into never-ending electric power supply at minimal recurring expenses. Distributed/decentralized renewable power projects using wind energy, biomass energy, hydro power and hybrid systems are being established in the country to meet the energy requirements of isolated communities and areas which are not likely to be electrified in near future. Off-grid Renewable Energy / Power: • Biomass based heat and power projects and industrial waste to-energy projects for meeting captive needs • Biomass gasifiers for rural and industrial energy applications • Watermills/micro hydro projects – for meeting electricity requirement of remote villages • Small Wind Energy & Hybrid Systems - for mechanical and electrical applications, mainly where grid electricity is not available. • Solar PV Roof-top Systems for abatement of diesel for power generation in urban areas. The main objectives of the programme are: supporting RD&D to make such systems more reliable and cost-effective, demonstration, ||www.renewablemirror.com||
field testing, strengthening manufacturing base.
Missing Target a Foregone Conclusion
With less than four years left to meet its target of installing 40,000 megawatt (MW) of rooftop solar power capacity by 2022, India has installed just about 2,538 MW as of March 2018, a full 94 per cent short of target. At this rate, missing the target is a foregone conclusion, which also jeopardizes the country’s overall solar target of 100 gigawatt (GW, equal to 1,000 MW) by 2022. Rooftop solar has been a key part of the recent renewable engery revolution around the world, and its appeal is clear – residential, commercial and industrial buildings can generate their own electricity, which is green and potentially less expensive than the power they draw from the grid. What’s more, they can inject excess power back into the grid and get paid for it. India’s ambitious target, in fact, is backed by a 30 per cent subsidy for residential buildings. But this has failed to enthuse home owners, the majority of whom pay small electricity bills and find the cost of solar equipment prohibitive in comparison. Commercial and industrial building owners have shown more enthusiasm as their large power bills justify the expense of solar power systems, even though they get no subsidy. But here, policy and regulation are blocking the way, say a range of industry participants, including installation businesses, consultants and power distribution companies (discoms). “The government needs to do much more if it is serious about the 40 GW target,” SanjeevAgarwal, Managing Director and CEO of Amplus Solar, one of the largest rooftop solar installations companies in India, told IndiaSpend. After India announced the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in 2010, rooftop installations went from zero to grow annually at a compound annual rate of 117 per cent between 2013-14 and 2017-18. In 2015, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced its 40 GW target and subsidy for home-owners, and began to urge state governments to announce policies to enable net-metering, a billing mechanism that enables power consumers to be paid for injecting renewable power into the grid. The segment has since grown to install 2,538 MW as of March 31, according to the consultancy Bridge to India. This gives rooftop solar a 10 per cent share in India’s overall solar capacity installation, with large-scale and off-grid solar installations cumulatively nearing 22,000 MW during the same period. On the plus side, the industry is at ‘an inflection point’ right now, Agarwal of Amplus Solar said. “Rooftop solar is a well-established, well-understood sub-sector now, not the hard sell it was when we started four years ago,” he said. “The technology is well established, and costing has come down 40-50 per cent to a level where adoption is quick.” The earliest and most eager adopters of rooftop solar have been commercial and industrial users, accounting for 544 MW and 1,088 MW of capacity installation, as per Bridge to India. “They have large rooftops and large consumption, and are able to break even in 3-4 years,” KanikaKhanna, Director, SunkalpEnergy, which brings together rooftop owners and solar system installers, told IndiaSpend. Across India, grid power tariffs vary by state, but generally, residential tariffs are subsidized and quite low for small users (roughly Rs 5 ||www.renewablemirror.com||
per kilowatt-hour), but get progressively higher for larger users (around Rs 7.75 per kilowatt-hour).
CONCLUSION
Solar energy production does not emit greenhouse gases and is a climate friendly option. During operation a solar plant contributes to significant reduction of CO2 emissions without consuming any fuel. In India, a country having practiced decentralized system for so long, a new thrust to grid connected solar electricity has been given and solar rooftop has emerged as an achievable goal for residential, commercial and industrial sectors. The National Solar Mission targets 100 GW of solar electricity capacity by 2022 with 40 GW as RTPV. To fulfill these impressive targets technology and investment have to be in the top gear. A review of global experience in RTPV installation in top solar countries has been made. It indicated dominance of feed-in-tariff and direct capital subsidy mode until 2011. But in the year 2012 it was observed that self consumption mode of implementation increased from 3.4 per cent to 12 per cent. Soft loans, tax credits, role of municipalities and market based mechanisms have played dominant roles in encouraging peoples' participation. Residential and commercial sectors top in numbers in RTPV installation in most countries. Policies for growth of rooftop solar, challenges and outlook in India have been discussed. Government of India is leading by example through installation of solar rooftops widely on government buildings, airports, railways network, educational institutions, residential sector and commercial complexes. Though high growth is expected and cost wise it can reach parity with coal based power generation very soon, it is to be noted that unlike thermal power plants, RTPV generation is consumers dominated and therefore peoples' participation and acceptance are critical issues for its success. At the national level, manufacturing capacity, investment in R&D, investor friendly environment, skill development, low voltage grid connectivity of variable solar resource and regulatory decisions are major challenges to be resolved. As the penetration of RTPV has to increase boost to manufacturing capabilities not only in solar modules but also in inverters and batteries is must. In skill development providing skills for jobs of engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, repairs, maintenance, testing facilitators are some of the important challenges before the state agencies. While strong foundations are being built in India through net metering policies and revising package of incentives; at city level greater role of municipalities in amendment of building by-laws for considering solar rooftop structure as temporary structure so that it does not need fresh approval for raising height of the building and role of DISCOMS in providing reduction in electricity bills by selling at lower rate in proportion to higher wattage achieved from solar installation so as increase home owners' contribution in energy security for 24 × 7 power for all are being considered. Provisions are also needed for soft loans, tax credits in property and investment. An outlook for linking of solar energy targets with the current missions on ‘Make in India’, ‘Smart city mission’ and ‘Digital India’ as a promise for developing capabilities and transformation of entire power system in the country is recommended. Development of off-grid systems that are ‘Grid ready’ for rural and remote areas, and making by-laws for new buildings for grid connected as ‘Rooftop ready’ should be the suggested goals for the future. RM || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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Thermal Camera
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Thermal imaging camera systems play a pivotal role To limit the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 virus, many businesses across the globe have deployed social distancing requirements, stringent cleaning protocols and capacity limitations as part of their plan to safely reopen. Even with these measures in place, retailers, office complexes and educational facilities are recognizing that technology will also play a critical role to help identify individuals who may have the virus even before that person enters the premises. This is where thermal imaging camera systems play a pivotal role, with casinos, retailers and manufacturing facilities among the first to invest in and deploy this solution to help them to proactively detect an elevated temperature in visitors or employees prior to entry. Many more businesses are expected to follow suit in the coming weeks and months, as they look for additional measures to reduce the spread of the virus and to safely reopen in a COVID-19 world. Thermal surveillance has been part of the traditional physical security and outdoor perimeter detection portfolio for years. This surveillance systems work by picking up heat emitted by an object or a person and can detect vehicles or individuals in a predetermined area. It is especially
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useful in the dark, when a traditional surveillance system might be limited in its detection capabilities due to limited light sources. With the spread of COVID-19, the security industry quickly began to look at how security solutions, and specifically thermal imaging cameras systems, could be leveraged as part of the reopening plan for businesses and schools. Thermal imaging camera systems with a blackbody temperature calibration device offer a more accurate solution that also provides a higher throughput of people for scanning, as well as the ability to locally and remotely monitor and manage alerts. They also integrate with other technologies, such as a turnstiles, physical access control systems and intrusion devices. The combination makes this type of solution ideal for facilities that require a first line of defense in high traffic areas or when rapid people flow is essential - commercial office buildings during morning rush hour, transit stations or manufacturing plants during shift changes. Systems that incorporate a blackbody device typically employ a dual sensor camera, which has a visual sensor and a thermal sensor built into the camera, along with a separate blackbody device. The blackbody device is an integral part
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Thermal Camera
REI Special Issue
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of thermal imaging as it relates to detecting elevated skin temperature scanning as it provides the ongoing calibration of the infrared temperature sensor for a higher degree of accuracy. It also helps maintain thermal equilibrium through its management of radiation while providing a near-perfect temperature source, preventing the temperature readings from being influenced by a common issue of thermal sensors called drift. Throughput is also an important consideration for businesses to take into account. Achieving effective throughput, through a turnstile or a busy main entry door with card reader, requires a single person at a time to be able to walk through without stopping. To ensure a high level of accuracy and to maintain proper resolutions with a thermal imaging camera system, an interval of two to four seconds between each person is required. Depending on how many people need to be processed, elevated skin detection cameras can be deployed at multiple lanes to accommodate anticipated traffic – between 15 and a maximum of 30 individuals per minute can be processed by a camera-black body pair while achieving medical grade accuracy in line with IEC 80601-2-59:2017 standards when using compliant devices and proper installation. Systems that provide a variety of alerting capabilities can provide a high level of flexibility for organizations incorporating elevated skin temperature into their new health and safety operations. While a vast majority of users will deploy a thermal solution with local monitoring, alerting and response, some systems also feature integrations with video management systems for remote monitoring and management. VMS integration can also prove a valuable tool for automated contagion reporting for contact tracing, controlling access through the VMS and PACS integration and activating an organization’s event response protocols. For local monitoring and response, some thermal imaging cameras may include a built-in speaker for configurable audible alerts. These alerts can be customized in response to detecting a temperature variation beyond the norm. The audible alert can announce or alert that a temperature alert has been detected and instruct an individual to proceed to a second scanning area or to stay in place while the appropriate person responds. Installing thermal imaging cameras for scanning elevated skin temperatures will soon become the new normal as more and more companies migrate back to the workplace. Businesses should follow best practices with the installation, deployment and usage following standards of these devices, to achieve the optimal success and the best possible accuracy in elevated skin temperature scanning. Thermal imaging cameras are devices that translate thermal energy (heat) into visible light in order to analyze a particular
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object or scene. The image produced is known as a thermogram and is analyzed through a process called thermography. Thermal imaging cameras are sophisticated devices that process the captured image and display it on a screen. These images can be used for immediate diagnosis or processed through specialized software for further evaluation, accuracy and report output. Thermal imaging cameras take measuring temperature to the next level; instead of getting a number for the temperature you get a picture showing the temperature differences of a surface. What Do Thermal Imaging Cameras See? Visible light is what we see around us every day. It is the only part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see. Visible light only takes up a small area in the electromagnetic spectrum and infrared radiation (IR) represents a larger percentage. If we want to see what’s going on in other parts of the spectrum we need specialized equipment. All objects absorb, reflect and sometimes transmit energy at different levels. Different materials will give off heat or cold energy at different rates. It’s this energy that can be detected by infrared equipment and displayed as images. Thermal Imaging Camera Applications and Uses Originally developed for military use during the Korean War, thermal imaging cameras have migrated into other fields and have found many uses. Firefighters use them to see through smoke, find people and localize hotspots of fires. Law enforcement uses the technology to manage surveillance activities, locate and apprehend suspects, investigate crime scenes and conduct search and rescue operations. Power line maintenance technicians locate overheating joints and parts to eliminate potential failures. Where thermal insulation becomes faulty, building construction technicians can see heat leaks to improve the efficiencies of cooling or heating. Physiological activities, such as fever, in human beings and other warm-blooded animals can also be monitored with thermo graphic imaging. They are also common tools used by home inspectors. Thermal Imaging Camera Features Thermal imaging cameras can be purchased with the bare minimum of features that only read the temperature of the fixed center crosshairs on the display or with multiple features that allow the user to select multiple moveable crosshairs and draw comparisons between them to show the high, low and average temperatures on the display. Thermal imaging cameras have user-selectable multiple color palettes, such as black/white, iron or rainbow. The iron palette is most commonly used by home inspectors. The black/white palette helps identify details on an image, and the rainbow palette has the best thermal sensitivity for displaying the differences in temperature. See sample images below of some color palettes. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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imaging cameras can be used to gather information about the inside of a wall, but they cannot see through walls. It is also important to know that thermal imaging cameras should not be used as the only deciding factor that a problem exists. Using other instruments should always be used to confirm the problem. The History of Thermal Imaging Cameras Thermal imaging goes all the manner back to 1800 once infrared was discovered as a type of radiation on the far side red lightweight. Whereas infrared technology has several uses its most notable for thermal imaging cameras. A typical camera captures the sunshine we will see with our eyes, however a thermal camera captures “invisible” infrared emission, creating technology like vision spectacles attainable. The first thermal camera is nearly a hundred years previous, and it spent a lot of its youth utilized in the wars of the 20th century. But today, they’re home items. Anyone can purchase a camera with a thermal imaging sensing element for simply some hundred greenbacks and use it as a hobby or recreation. Thermal Cameras Thermal imaging may be a methodology of raising the visibility of objects during a dark atmosphere by detection the objects' infrared and making a picture supported that data. Thermal imaging, near-infrared illumination, low-light imaging and are the 3 most ordinarily used visual sense technologies. In contrast to the opposite 2 strategies, thermal imaging works in environments with none close light-weight. Like near-infrared illumination, thermal imaging will penetrate obscurants like smoke, fog and haze. Here's a quick rationalization of however thermal imaging works: All objects emit infrared energy (heat) as an operator of their temperature. The infrared energy emitted by Associate in nursing object is understood as its heat signature. In general, the warmer Associate the nursing object is the additional radiation it emits. A thermal imager (also referred to as a thermal camera) is actually a heat sensing element that's capable of detection little variations in temperature. The device collects the infrared from objects within the scene Associate in Nursing creates a picture supported data regarding the temperature variations. As a result of objects are seldom exactly constant temperature as alternative objects around them, a thermal camera will notice them and that they can seem as distinct during a thermal image. 11 options to seem for in thermal imaging software package Robust desktop and itinerant software package is a vital side of infrared scrutiny workflows. The software package will facilitate enhance and clarify pictures, add analysis and share professional-looking reports in applications spanning mechanical, electrical, equipment and building medicine and additional.
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What to Look for in a Thermal Imaging Camera There are a number of components that contribute to both the quality and the cost of a thermal imaging camera. The two most important factors are the detector resolution and the thermal sensitivity. The detector resolution describes the number of pixels. The most common resolutions are 160 x 120, 320 x 240 and 640 x 480 pixels. A 320 x 240 detector produces an image composed of 76,800 pixels. Since each pixel has a temperature associated with it that is 76,800 temperature data points. Higher resolutions also produce visibly clearer images. Thermal sensitivity is the smallest temperature difference the camera can detect. A sensitivity of 0.05° means the camera can distinguish between two surfaces with only a five-hundredths of a degree temperature difference. Another important factor to consider is the thermal imaging camera’s temperature range. The range tells what the minimum and maximum temperatures are that the camera can measure (-4°F to 2200°F is typical). To obtain the best thermal image to analyze, there are four adjustments that can be made to most cameras: focus, emissivity setting changes, reflective temperature setting changes and thermal tuning. Each of these adjustments must be considered when selecting a thermal imaging camera. Just like a standard camera, the lens of the thermal imaging camera needs to be focused to enhance the clarity of the image. Most cameras can be focused by twisting the lens. More sophisticated cameras have a push-button focus. Emissivity is the amount of radiation emitted from an object compared to that of a perfect emitter of radiation when both are at the same temperature. Adjusting the emissivity is important when taking temperature measurements or when comparing the temperatures of two different objects. Not all cameras allow the user to input reflective temperature. The reflective temperature setting allows the user to compensate for surrounding objects’ temperature reflecting on an object. Just like emissivity, reflective temperature is important when taking temperature measurements or comparing two objects’ temperatures. Not all cameras allow the user to input reflective temperature. Thermal tuning the camera involves adjusting the span or temperature range that the camera sees while in manual viewing mode. Manual mode allows the user to adjust the span to a desired range, and the camera will always display this temperature range. Using the manual mode is best when used to bring out temperature differences of the object being viewed. Thermal Imaging Camera Limitations Because thermal energy can be reflected off shiny surfaces, thermal imaging cameras cannot see through glass. Thermal
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Thermal Camera
REI Special Issue
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It’s necessary to notice that analyzing thermo graphic mental imagery accurately needs special coaching to require under consideration emissivity of objects and alternative factors which will influence temperature measurements by infrared cameras. Just as skilled photographers use a software package to show pictures into beautiful works appropriate for a business enterprise or widespread sharing, thermographers use software package as a tool to investigate so enhance and fine-tune thermal pictures that the data will be shared with manager’s and others. Smart software package absolutely utilizes the radiometric knowledge provided by the camera’s detector to urge the foremost out of the image or video. In addition, the user will import pictures directly from associate degree infrared camera’s memory or a removable storage device like associate degree SD or small SD. once evaluating software package to use with associate degree infrared camera, specialists advocate you make sure the software package includes these necessary features: Multiple images or video formats – method and export pictures in multiple file formats such a .jpg, .tiff, .bmp, .gif or .avi similarly as proprietary formats which will faucet additional knowledge for advanced analyses. Fluke infrared cameras will save in is 2 formats, for example, for additional image process and analysis in good view software package and pictures, will be exported from this software package to several unremarkably used file formats. You’ll conjointly like better to export the temperature knowledge from the image to CSV or XLS format for additional analysis. Edit and manipulate pictures – Modify level and span, amendment emissivity, add markers, highlight boxes, reference pictures and colour alarms. Combine visible radiation and infrared pictures – Modify and mix visible and infrared pictures so as to higher find potential drawback areas. This is often the IR Fusion feature in Fluke software package. Live viewing and sharing of infrared pictures or video – Read streaming knowledge from your camera on your smart phone or pc. This is often accessible via the Fluke Connect mobile app on some models, as an example. Share pictures in a period of time across the net for viewing by remote team members. Remotely management your infrared camera - Some software package helps you to activate motor vehicle focus or capture pictures and alternative functions while not touching the camera, which may be valuable in doubtless venturous areas or tough applications. Create example or custom reports – Best-in-class software package adds choices for building and customizing reports to export in .pdf or .docx formats for sharing. 3-dimensional analysis – A capability of higher software package programs for thermal image analysis, viewing infrared
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pictures from totally different views helps eliminate false positives and supports the identification of extra drawback areas. Fluke’s 3D analysis capability is named 3D-IR. Side-by-side comparison – Necessary to prognostic maintenance, side-by-side comparisons of pictures taken at totally different Times Are enclosed within the Fluke Connect software package platforms plus Health dashboard. Change colour palette – Management colours within the image so as to form heat or cold simply apparent or hold grey scale. Annotations – Add text, audio, and extra visible radiation pictures to assist add all necessary data regarding associate degree application. Categorize and catalogue pictures – Tools to reason, tag or catalogue thermal pictures and go together with instrumentality. This feature is made into Fluke Connect Assets software package. ADVANTAGES Thermal cameras let individuals see what their eyes can’t: invisible heat radiation emitted or mirrored by all objects, no matter lighting conditions. A number of the best advantages of thermal imaging are available in the domain of security. Security cameras became a staple of protection for several (if not all) major businesses across the country, and in such a landscape, the necessity to supply quality pictures is vital to supply constant protection against potential intruders. Thermal cameras provide superior protection in difficult conditions. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Low-Light Situations resistant to Visual Limitations Camouflaging Foliage Fewer False Alarms
Survey Thermal cameras are passive sensors that capture the actinic radiation emitted by all objects with a temperature on top of temperature. This sort of camera was originally developed as a police investigation and visual sense tool for the military, however recently the value has born, considerably gap up a broader field of applications. Deploying this sort of detector in vision systems eliminates the illumination issues of traditional grayscale and RGB cameras. This survey provides an outline of the present applications of thermal cameras. Applications embrace animals, agriculture, buildingsand gas detection, industrial and military applications, similarly as detection, tracking and recognition of humans. Moreover, this survey describes the character of thermal radiation and therefore the technology of thermal cameras. Global Infrared Thermal Camera Market 2018 New Trends – Agiltron, Raytheon, FLIR Systems opposition, Sofradir Europe Fior Markets recently disclosed a brand new report titled international Infrared Thermal Camera Market Insights, Forecast to 2025 that speaks regarding a whole item review Associate in nursing its degree within the market to tell apart ||www.renewablemirror.com||
the key terms additionally as providing the shoppers with an all-comprising thought of the market and its tendencies. The report offers an entire geographical segmentation read of the Infrared Thermal Camera market alongside the assessment of the trade driving it. The report enlists all necessary market updates additionally as technological updates. An aim of this report is to capture the mindshare of our target market. Likewise, the market report contains key esteems and realities of the sales advertise concerning volume, deals and its development rate, profit and its development rate. The report additionally holds regions and country wise development standing which has market size, market share, volume and price. For every geographical regional market, product evaluation and profit analysis are performed and provide and demand statistics additionally as region-wise growth veteran by the market is obtainable within the report. This elaborated study can document four important components of the Infrared Thermal Camera market i.e., the key market players, soul usage, the merchandise divisions, and also the geographical divisions. Major Regions play important role in market are: North America, us, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Europe, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, remainder of Europe, Central & South America, Brazil, remainder of South America, geographic area, GCC Countries, Turkey, Egypt, Republic of South Africa, remainder of geographic area Major Players in Infrared Thermal Camera market are: Agiltron, Raytheon, FLIR Systems opposition., Sofradir Europe, Inc., AIM, L-3 CE, N.E.P., Teledyne, NIT, DALIInfrared Thermal Camera Using Thermal Cameras for Testing Solar Panels Quality assurance is of elementary importance for star panels. The failure-free operation of the panels may be a requirement for economic power generation, long life, and a high come back on the investment. To confirm this failure-free operation a quick, easy and reliable methodology to gauge a star panel's performance is needed, each throughout the assembly method and once the panel has been put in. This technical note illustrates however thermo graphic scrutiny of electrical phenomenon systems, like star panels, permits the quick localization of potential defects at the cell and module level additionally because of the detection of doable electrical interconnection issues. Further, not like alternative strategies, thermal inspections are also meted out beneath traditional operative conditions over giant areas and doesn’t need a system pack up. Thermal imaging cameras are already a longtime R&D tool for the analysis of star cells and panels. For these refined measurements, typically superior cameras with cooled detectors, used beneath controlled laboratory conditions. ||www.renewablemirror.com||
This technical note demonstrates that the employment of thermal imaging cameras for electrical device analysis needn't be restricted to the sector of analysis. The authors show however the most recent generation of FLIR uncooled thermal imaging cameras are presently being employed for electrical device internal control before installation and regular prophetical maintenance check-ups once the panel has been put in. The technical note concludes that scrutiny with a brand new generation uncooled hand-held thermal imaging camera, beginning with the standard management within the installation section, followed by regular check-ups facilitates complete and easy system condition observation. This thermal imaging scrutiny protocol has been shown to assist to keep up the star panels' practicality and to increase their lifespan. Victimization thermal imaging cameras for electrical device inspections can thus drastically improve the operative company’s come back on investment. Railways scraps thermal cameras tender after firms allege advantage China The railways has scrapped a tender for thermal cameras meant for ‘Covid surveillance’ after Indian firms alleged that the tender specifications favoured a Chinese company. In June, Railtel, the railways’ telecom arm, had issued a tender for thermal temperature screening AI-based surveillance cameras for assistance in Covid-19 surveillance. The government company has decided to issue a fresh tender after the controversy. “EOI for selection of partner for thermal temperature screening solution to RCIL’s customers’ stands cancelled with immediate effect. Fresh EOI will be published soon,” a notice by the PSU said. This comes at a time when the Indian government has
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Thermal Camera
REI Special Issue
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banned 59 apps, mostly having Chinese links, saying they were “engaged in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India”. India and China are involved in a tense border stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. A brutal brawl in Galwan Valley on June 15 led to 20 Indian and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers dead. In a letter written to Railtel, one of the vendors said the pre-qualification criteria laid down for the OEM & bidder has some anomalies and ambiguities. Hindustan Times has seen a copy. “Even after the release of the latest corrigendum (on June 23) the department has some ambiguities too in technical specifications. Specifications issued are biased to Chinese OEM i.e. Hikvision, Specs clearly mentioned DeepinMind technology which is a proprietary feature of Hikvision NVRs,” the letter said. Indian firms have alleged that artificial intelligence technology - DeepInMind - which is specified in the tender is a proprietary feature of Chinese firm Hikvision, a company partly owned by the Chinese government. According to Hikvision’s technology, Network Video Recorder (NVR) has a “mind” of its own and can analyse and classify human and vehicle targets from video streams. Under the specifications mentioned in the tender for temperature screening with facial recognition and mask detection, Railtel mentioned “Special interface in DeepinMind NVR.” The specifications for the cameras include temperature screening with facial recognition and mask detection, simultaneous temperature screening for multiple persons, detecting whether people wear masks and giving timely
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alarms on people without masks. While the initial tender for these cameras issued on June 9 excluded a crucial specification called “black body” temperature - the ability of the cameras to accurately measure temperatures emitted by a person to say whether a person has fever or not - and the DeepinMind technology specification, they were included in the revised tender issued on June 23. Railtel had floated the tender to purchase around 800 such camera systems. Hindustan Times had on November 10 last year reported the national carrier is planning a complete overhaul of security at railway stations through the use of facial recognition technology backed by artificial intelligence. It also planned to link the facial recognition system (FRS) with existing databases such as the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) to identify criminals prowling railway stations. Thermal Imaging Systems and COVID-19 • When used correctly, thermal imaging systems generally have been shown to accurately measure someone’s surface skin temperature without being physically close to the person being evaluated. Thermal imaging systems offer certain benefits in that other methods need a closer proximity or contact to measure temperature (for example, non-contact infrared thermometers or oral thermometers). • Temperature-based screening, such as thermal imaging, is not effective at determining if someone definitively has COVID-19 because, among other things, a person with COVID-19 may not have a fever. A diagnostic test must be performed to determine if someone has COVID-19. • Thermal imaging systems have not been shown to be accurate when used to take the temperature of multiple people at
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•
• 1. 2. 3. 4.
Benefits of Thermal Imaging Systems
• The person who handles the thermal imaging system is not required to be physically close to the person being evaluated. In fact, the person who handles the thermal imaging system could be in a different area or room. • The thermal imaging system may measure surface skin temperature faster than the typical forehead or oral (mouth) thermometer that requires a close distance or physical contact with the person being evaluated. • Scientific studies show that, when used correctly, thermal imaging systems generally measure surface skin temperature accurately.
Proper Use of Thermal Imaging Systems The person who handles the system should follow all manufacturer instructions to make sure the system is set up properly and located where it can measure surface skin temperature accurately. The person who handles the system should be trained to properly prepare both the location where the system will be used, and the person being evaluated, to increase accuracy. For details, see the standards and scientific papers listed under References below. Preparing the Area where You will Use a Thermal Imaging System • Room temperature should be 68-76 °F (20-24 °C) and relative humidity 10-50 percent. • Try to control other items that could impact the temperature measurement: 1. Avoid reflective backgrounds (for example, glass, mirrors, metallic surfaces) to minimize reflected infrared radiation. 2. Use in a room with no draft (movement of air), out of direct sunlight and away from radiant heat (for example, portable heaters, electrical sources). 3. Avoid strong lighting (for example, incandescent, halogen and quartz tungsten halogen light bulbs).
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the same time. The accuracy of these systems depends on careful set-up and operation, as well as proper preparation of the person being evaluated. • Thermal imaging systems have been used by several countries during epidemics, although information about their effectiveness as part of efforts to reduce the spread of disease has been mixed. • The FDA issued the Enforcement Policy for Telethermographic Systems During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency guidance to help expand the availability of thermal imaging systems and mitigate thermometer shortages during the public health emergency. The guidance sets forth an enforcement policy that is intended to apply to all thermal imaging systems that are intended for medical purposes for the duration of the public health emergency related to COVID-19, and provides recommendations regarding performance and labeling of such systems.
systems have not been shown to be effective when used to take the temperature of multiple people at the same time. They should not be used for "mass fever screening." These systems measure surface skin temperature, which is usually lower than a temperature measured orally. Thermal imaging systems must be adjusted properly to correct for this difference in measurements. These systems work effectively only when all the following are true: The systems are used in the right environment or location. The systems are set up and operated correctly. The person being assessed is prepared according to instructions. The person handling the thermal imaging system is properly trained.
Conclusion Thermal imaging has been successfully used for medical diagnosis of vascular disorders. The temperature in the affected regions of patients with vascular disorders was low in the extremities due to obstructed arteries. However, in some areas it showed 0.7 to 1°C higher temperature than the normal areas due to inflammation and venous flow alteration. In general the thermal image findings were in good agreement with the clinical findings. However, the areas showing higher temperature contrast were noted not to be Limitations of Thermal Imaging Systems obvious in the clinical examination. This study demonstrates • Although these systems may be in use for initial temperature the usefulness of thermal imaging for medical diagnostics, assessment to triage individuals in high throughput areas with high reliability. RM (for example, airports, businesses and sporting events), the
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REI Special Issue
Technical Article
India has a crucial role to play in achieving RE targets of 175 GW by 2022
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RE Manufacturing in India has a crucial role to play in achieving RE targets of 175 GW by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030. Adani Solar being India’s largest integrated solar Cell & Module Manufacturer, is geared up to ensure the Energy Security of the country with planned expansion up to 3.5 GW of solar Cell & Module Manufacturing capacity from current 1.5 GW. Adani Solar’s cutting-edge technology, scale of operations, cost leadership and reliability, sets up apart from all other global competitors and supporting utilities. Let’s take an in-depth look at the technologies, behind the innovations of its recently announced High Efficiency ultra-highpower modules designed for applications in small to utility-scale power plants with • Power output up to 540W and 660W • 21%+ efficiency • SHINE Series - Module size of 2266×1135mm with 182mm Cell • PRIDE SERIES - Module size of 2390mm X 1303mm with 210mm cell. Adani Solar’s R&D and Technology team has optimized the gallium-doped M10 standard silicon wafers (182mm) and G12 standard silicon wafers (210mm) that produce P-Type Mono PERC module with the lowest LID and LETID performances. It has also been proven that Gallium-doped silicon wafers shows lower LID performance with stable, long-term power generation as compared to boron-doped ones. Adani Solar’s Gallium-doped wafers are coupled with Non-Destructive cell cutting Technology that delivers superior performance. With these gallium-doped cells, Adani Solar modules have increased annual generation performance, power performance and long-term reliability. The 1st year power warranty is an industry-leading 98% and linear annual degradation is within 0.45% after Year 1. Adani Solar has also adopted a superior soldering technology on its modules that has increased the module conversion efficiency by 0.3%. This technology uses wires that maximize light capture and reliably connect cells with reduced gap distance. More importantly, soldering reduces the tensile stress of the cell and ensures higher reliability. If we see the current trend in India’s Solar industry, many Indian manufacturers are still trying to migrate from Poly/ Multi manufacturing to Mono manufacturing, while our overseas contemporaries have already migrated to high efficiency Mono. Adani Solar has already developed the infrastructure to manufacture the M10 (182mm) and G12 (210mm) design with
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high efficiency cells of 23% and above reaching power class bins of 540Wp and above, making it an early adopter in Global Solar technologies in India.
Product design based on industry insights and real-world applications
The initial point in the development of Adani Solar modules was well planned after extensive insights from the PV industry and analysis of customer inputs and voices globally. Adani Solar further considered real-world applications to come with its new – Elan Pride (Bifacial modules with G12 cells) & Elan Shine (Bifacial modules with M10 Cells) and Eternal Pride (Monofacial modules with G12 cells) & Eternal Shine (Monofacial module with M10 cells) modules in the logistics chain. The new world class modules from Adani Solar save 4.1% on BOS cost, 20% on Labour, 5% on Land & Logistics and 3% on LCOE. The working current of Adani Solar modules are as high as 13-17A, including the bifacial gain. The operating current remains within the maximum input current range of the inverter, with no power generation losses. The module length is compatible with 1P and 2P horizontal single axis tracking systems. Adani Solar modules come with “Double glass with frame" design that provides exceptional strength for high load capacity. The strength of the frame negates the need for a crossbeam, hence no shading losses at the back of the module. In terms of BOS simulations using fixed brackets and centralized inverters, Adani Solar modules can reduce BOS costs by more than (US$1.5 cents/W) when compared to mainstream products in the market. With string inverters, Adani Solar modules can improve the capacity ratio of the power plant, reduce AC equipment cost, and bring about the lowest LCOE for large power plants. Adani Solar is partnering with more than 20 global customers to verify the BOS savings, lowest LCOE and high performance of its Elan (Bifacial)/ Eternal (Monofacial) modules in real world applications.
Driving the Solar PV industry forward with breakthrough innovation in volume production
Adani Solar firmly believes in continuous innovations that can be quickly brought into volume production delivering true value for its partners and customers. The module production capacity of Adani Solar is expanding from 1.5 GW to 3.5 GW in 2021. Elan (Bifacial) and Eternal (MonoFacial) series will be produced in volume and receive IEC/ UL certification shortly in the next few months during 2021. The Company is also planning to expand its manufacturing capacity
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Adani Solar Product Portfolio Presenting
to up to 6 GW in 2023-2024. Adani Solar‘s Elan and Eternal range includes 66C and 72C formats, in bifacial and monofacial applications. The 72C (M10) version deploys the traditional 6 rows design in a 72-cell layout with front-side power up to 540W, which is the optimal choice for the ultra-large power plants worldwide. The 66C (G12) module has front power of 660W and a smaller footprint that broaden its applications. Currently, Adani Solar’s Elan Pride & Shine (Bifacial Modules) and Eternal Pride & Shine (Monofacial modules), launching in 2021, will continue to enhance its product portfolio and are the ||www.renewablemirror.com||
most competitive products suited for residential, C&I and utilityscale power plants.
About Adani Solar
Adani Solar continues to lead the Indian solar PV manufacturing industry to new heights with product innovations and optimized power-cost ratio with breakthrough High Efficiency monocrystalline technologies. Adani Solar leads the Indian solar cell and module manufacturing industry by producing the highest cell efficiencies and highest module power bins produced & made from India. Do visit the website at www.adanisolar.com to know more about the company and their products. RM || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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REI Special Issue
Technology Path for Solar PV – Current Trends and Future Advancements
Technical Article
Mr. Sai Charan Kuppili Technical Director JinkoSolar
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P-type Crystalline Silicon, a technology variant, that has evolved a lot on varied optimised techniques to position solar PV modules in high power and high energy density options in the market. It has successfully emerged as a prominent and accepted PV solution by majority of PV module suppliers. Capability of mass-producing these technology variants with higher power classes and high efficiency determines the long-term viability of these products. P-type Crystalline Silicon has clearly topped the charts as the commercial winner owing to the reduced Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) in the last two decades. The technology pretty much paved the path for all the new and upcoming high energy density products penetrating the global solar PV scenario today. The commercially available P-Type wafers ranging from 158.75mm to 182mm or beyond are within the thickness range of 150 to 180 microns and are well diversified within the segment of Mono PERC. This has completely superseded and replaced the 156.75mm Poly Crystalline P-Type product. All kinds of optimisations in Mono PERC happened within short span of eight to ten quarters and is now at the verge of saturation with respect to power and energy density. Global markets constantly foresee reduced tariff trajectories which create the need for new ground-breaking technologies with the metrics of existing P-type Mono PERC as a base case criterion enabling even lower LCOEs. With the advent of technologies like N-type, PERT, TOPCON, IBC, HJT, etc. that are less prone to induced degradations, the combined benefit will be much better coupled with high efficiency and energy density. At the 2021 SNEC, R&D centres of top-notch PV manufacturers indicated plans specific to these upcoming technologies that may attract big ticket investments. Expected trajectory of technology variants in the existing wafer size can be towards N-type materials like PERT & TOPCON, within the next twelve quarters. This will induce a variety of optimisations in the ‘Bill of Material’ - Cell size, MBB, Spacing between Cells, CTM Efficiency, Multilayer Light Re-directing Films, etc. These advancements shall make the technologies more viable for mass production and give way to commercially competent products (compared to P-type). The market share for Bifacial technologies saw a gradual increase
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across the globe, especially in ground-mounted projects with GWs of installations. The continued shortfall and rising prices of major raw materials forced most of the developers to shift towards high efficiency and better energy density solutions like Bifacial. Reliability aspects, specific to metrics on Thermal cycle, Damp heat, Humidity Freeze, LeTID and PID instil higher confidence on the longevity of these products to support the 30-year project horizon. LCOE still remains the determining factor for the adoption of Bifacial technology which changed the face of global PV markets. Tropical Indian climatic conditions with GHIs of 1700-2100 KWh/Sq.mt./ Year, require a minimum 300 microns of thickness for backsheet with 3rd generation K film (PVDF) or PVF to withstand these extreme incident irradiances. The reliability factors of these materials can support the 30-year product life. Performance of Bifacial technology varies depending on type of installation, location, and albedo factor and their specific yield is more as compared to Monofacial for a particular location. Today, we see an increased use of Bifacial variants in standalone PV projects and along with Long Duration Energy storage Technologies within the Distributed Generation segments of some matured markets. The technology is occupying a wider space in the Distributed segment in grid-interactive solutions and in some cases with BIPV + LDES along with Battery bank. Recent tenders with Round the Clock (RTC) demands can be assessed with these latest PV Technologies along with LDES. Thus, operational challenges with intermittent renewables and tropical climates can be mitigated with technology advancements. Jinko Solar has always been at the centre of these technology transformations and progressions, providing the best possible PV solutions to a wide range of customer segments and markets. We cater to the global contemporary needs specific to High Energy Density with the Tiger 163.75mm, 9BB product up to 475Wp on both Monofacial and Bifacial variants. The upgraded variant on P-type - Tiger Pro 182mm with MBB can cater to power needs of up to 600Wp in both Monofacial and Bifacial options. Adding to our platter of fully integrated PV products, we are now offering BIPV and Storage solutions as well to the matured markets. RM
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REI Special Issue
Impact of the increased cost of solar panels on the solar energy sector of India
Gautam Das
Guest Article
The Author is the Co-Founder & CEO of Oorjan Cleantech (https://www.oorjan.com) is one of the leading innovative and fastest growing technology and finance enabled distributed solar energy company for rooftop solar in India.
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India has an ambitious target of developing 175 GW of energy ranging mostly between Rs. 2.00 and 2.25 per unit, with from renewable sources by the year 2022. units scheduled to be commissioned over the following 12 to Of which 100 GW is envisaged to be generated from Solar. By 15 months.The price increase is mostly due to a significant 2030, the country's power demand will be 817 GW, with more increase in the price of polysilicon, a vital input for cell and than half of that coming from clean energy and 280 GW coming module manufacturing. Metal prices have recently increased, from solar energy alone. One of the key selling features that putting increasing pressure on the overall capital cost of solar have helped solar power become the world's fastest-growing generating installations. Chinese module manufacturers have energy source is cost reduction, which has just encountered a recently hiked their costs by more than a fifth and begun snag due to recent increases in solar module pricing. Solar cancelling contracts to provide equipment. module prices have increased by 18% since the beginning of For the majority of solar power projects in India, imports are 2021, after plummeting by 90% over the previous decade. heavily reliant on PV modules, therefore if the price of PV The value of projects awarded in the last six to nine months modules continues to rise, it will be a near-term headwind. will be impacted by a rise in solar photovoltaic (PV) module It has a significant influence on solar projects in two ways: it prices.The government intends to impose a 40 percent basic delays them past their deadlines and slows the uptake of solar customs duty (BCD) on solar modules and a 25 percent BCD power, precisely as numerous major economies have begun to on solar cells beginning April 1, 2022. This is one of the first recognize the role of solar power in reducing climate change. stages toward the capacity secured by developers through the PV module components account for roughly 50-55 percent of procurement process over the last six to nine months at rates the total project cost, therefore a sustained increase in module
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prices of about 4-5 percent per watt will have a 12-14 basis point impact on project developers' debt service coverage criteria. The tariff increase needed to counterbalance such a module price rise is expected to be around 20-22 paise per unit. The impact on the imported PV modules is expected to raise the overall bid tariff for the upcoming auctions by around 55-60 paise/unit. After accounting for the dual impact, the solar bid tariff is projected to remain below Rs. 3/unit. As the notification for cells and modules takes effect in April 2022, both module price behaviour and the fulfillment of supply contracts by Chinese module Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs) will continue to be important factors for solar power providers. The considerable ambiguity surrounding the deadlines for the inclusion of Chinese module providers on the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) may have an impact on the solar power sector's incremental bidding activity. The cost of solar panels has risen, and investment returns may suffer as a result. This sharp surge in prices has alarmed developers who have won projects that have yet to be commissioned, as 85-90 percent of solar modules used in India are imported from China.
on the number of days they get to work after the delivery of panels. Large project developers are finding it difficult to maintain their projects profitable after buying panels in the final phase of development, i.e. 10-12 months after signing the PPA. The significant rise in steel prices, as well as the uncertainty surrounding safeguard duty, have contributed to their misery. The recently established Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme would improve solar panel availability in India, stabilizing project costs in the future. DISCOMs are experiencing financial difficulties, and tariff changes are sporadic and insufficient. As a result, most private players cannot rely on and power markets alone to stay profitable. They have to rely on repeated injections of liquidity through schemes like UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) and entities like Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC). Because it's impossible to forecast where the next subsidy will come from, scale and sprawl develop.
Large corporations integrate vertically to ensure that they are one of the beneficiaries of any subsidies that are implemented. They can utilize it to keep the rest of your power business afloat as long as some arm of the Indian government is paying Modules account for a huge percent of the project’s total cost, the solar energy businesses or injecting liquidity. RM and since Independent power providers (IPPs) have lower margins in the Indian solar energy sector, and even a small increase in module pricing will put them under more strain. For projects that have already signed a power purchase agreement, the increase in module costs has an influence on the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) (PPA). Unless the customer is willing to pay a higher electricity tariff, large-scale projects that have yet to negotiate price agreements (PPAs) with utilities may be delayed.The polysilicon shortfall is expected to last at least through the first half of 2022. Other raw material prices, such as silver and glass, are also on the rise, so it will affect the entire ecosystem. The viability of all the projects will be a major concern. 50% of projects will be able to keep themselves viable depending ||www.renewablemirror.com||
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REI Special Issue
Floating Solar Photovoltaic Power Generation – An Emerging Energy Solution
Guest Article
Abstract
In order to mitigate global warming, usage of renewable energy such as solar PV, wind, hydro, biomass etc have to be increased. Being a clean energy abundantly available and cheaper solution, solar PV takes the lead in the renewable sector. Floating solar PV (FSPV) is a comparatively new technology in the solar segment. It uses solar PV modules installed on floating structures on water bodies like lakes, reservoirs, back waters of hydroelectric dams, canals and industrial ponds etc. The floating structures are held at fixed location by anchoring and mooring system. With the advent of FSPV the existing water bodies which are left unutilised can be effectively used to generate solar power. FSPV can solve problems of uncertainty of availability and acquisition of land. In addition, it can save valuable space on land which can be utilised for other purposes such as farming, industrialisation etc.
Introduction
Nowadays renewable energy resources are the essential pillars for a clean, green and carbon neutral environment. Switching over to renewable energy generation has become a global trend in efforts to mitigate climate change. As solar energy is abundantly available, solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation has been widely accepted and most popular in renewable energy sector. Rooftop and ground mounted solar PV farms are a common site today. Third pillar to solar PV sector is floating solar PV (FSPV) farms. FSPV is an exciting and noble concept in the solar PV sector which does not demand for land resources. It does not demand for additional water resources for solar panel cleaning if the quality of water is compatible with certain standards as recommended by panel manufacturer. Like ground mounted solar farm, FSPV is eco-friendly and sustainable for the environment. FSPV has many advantages and few challenges as well. This article highlights overview of FSPV system and provides an insight into different aspects of the floating solar facilities in general.
Overview of Floating Solar PV System
FSPV panels are mounted on floaters on water bodies such as reservoirs, lakes, back waters of hydroelectric dams, industrial water bodies (e.g., cooling ponds, waste water treatment facilities) and sometimes if conditions permit on the surfaces of sea. Major components of FSPV system such as PV panels, support structures, combiner boxes, inverters, transformers etc are similar to that of 106
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ground mounted PV system. However, there are few components which are unique to FSPV system. Such components are floating platform and anchoring and mooring system. As floating platform provides the base for mounting all components, quality, longevity and integrity of materials used for floating platform are crucial for reliability of FSPV system. In majority cases, HDPE is the most popular material, while FRP and ferro-cement are also used as materials for floating platform. Various designs of a floating platform are available such as pure floats design and pontoon type floats with metal truss design. As floating platform is installed on the surface of water, it is held in place by anchoring and mooring system. The floating platform can generally be anchored through various methods viz bank anchoring, bottom anchoring, flexible anchoring and piles. The design of anchoring and mooring system depends on several factors such as float’s location, wind load, water level variation, bathymetry, soil conditions, water depth etc among other things. Tracking is an unconventional concept in FSPV. Unlike ground mounted system, floating platform can be designed to rotate the entire array to track the sun’s path in order to achieve energy gain. Both single axis (vertical axis Azimuth tracking) and dual axis (vertical and horizontal) tracking with control mechanism can be deployed, although single axis tracking is relatively easier to install because of low resistance of water layer compared to ground. Like ground mounted installation, water cleaning is deployed to reduce soiling losses and enhance energy yield with FSPV panels. Water accessibility is easier for cleaning FSPV panels. If water quality is good, same waterbody can be used for panel cleaning and rinsed water can be discharged back to the waterbody. Alternatively, treated water can be used for panel cleaning as recommended by panel manufacturer.
It has been demonstrated that technical features and specifications of inverter and transformer of FSPV plant are identical to that of ground mounted solar PV plant. However, from layout point of view, there may be differences in type of mounting of these equipment. In case of large scale FSPV system, there is one more option to mount central inverter and transformer on separate floating platform on waterbody, although mounting of inverter and transformer on land is a general practice for smaller capacity plant which is close to shore. Optimisation technique has to be resorted to based on distance from shore, energy losses, cable sizes and voltage drop vis a vis the cost to be spent on structure ||www.renewablemirror.com||
and its supporting arrangement in case inverter and transformer are mounted on the platform itself Special precaution has to be taken for cabling due to closer proximity of water and as such DC/AC cables shall be prevented from touching water. Cables are routed through water tight conduits on separate floater to cross waterbody and connection to utility infrastructure on shore or floating cables can also be used. Conduits are tied with ultraviolent resistant ties or stainless steel clamps along the surface of floats. Submarine cables may also be used as an option, although at a higher cost. Several options are available for deployment of earthing system of FSPV installation – earthing to shore, earthing to waterbed and underwater earthing. All options are equally practiced globally. While earthing to shore is an usual practice as followed for ground mounted installation, underwater earthing is more beneficial in respect of cost optimisation as it reduces the requirement of earthing cables substantially. The major aspects that play a differentiator role in the energy yield assessment are thermal loss factor, water albedo, soiling loss, mismatch loss and long-term degradation rate. The evaporative cooling effect of water associated with higher wind speed provides improved energy yield compared to ground mounted solar. The reflection of solar radiance from water surface is lower than ground or rooftop mounted application. Consequently, water albedo is poor for FSPV installation. Soiling loss due to dust, dirt is expected to be lower, but bird droppings are potentially more. Hence net loss due to soiling is considered to have similar impact like ground mounted installation as no specific database for floating solar application is available. Mismatch loss is a common phenomenon occurring due to differences among solar modules, inhomogeneity in the incidence of solar irradiation and difference in temperature distribution at different locations of a system. Additional mismatch loss in the FSPV system is a result of inhomogeneity in the incidence of solar irradiance and misaligned orientation of PV modules due to large relative movements of solar modules by waves. This factor is also considered similar to ground mounted application as no firm data is available for FSPV installation. Degradation rate of solar PV modules, electrical and electronics components may also differ from conventional solar PV installation due to surface mounting on waterbody. But presently similar factor applicable for ground mounted solar is considered in energy yield assessment of FSPV system due to lack of specific data. It is expected that in near future more precise study of energy yield assessment for FSPV system will be available with further experience of project execution and availability of real time project data.
Present Scenario of FSPV Installations Total installed capacity of FSPV plant stands at 2.4 GWp till the end of 2019 as per research conducted by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. These plants are spread across 35 countries. The Asia Pacific region leads the fleet in the diffusion of floating solar technology, where 87% of the global capacity is installed. China has a total installed capacity of 1.1 GWp followed by Japan and ||www.renewablemirror.com||
South Korea. According to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) 2019 report, global installed capacity is expected to grow to 4.6 GWp by 2022. India has a cumulative installed capacity of 2.7 MWp till 2018 and additional project capacity worth of 1700 MWp is at various stages of development.
Potential Generation From FSPV Installations There are more than 400,000 sq km (km2) of surface area of man-made water reservoirs globally in which more than 6500 nos of water bodies were assessed. Floating solar’s global power generation is estimated to exceed 400 GWp, 2000 GWp and 4000 GWp considering 1%, 5% and 10% usage of total surface area of water bodies respectively. This is a very conservative estimate as reported by World Bank which was carried out based on global irradiance data on significant water bodies, efficiency level of currently available PV modules and the surface area needed for their installation, ease of operation and maintenance. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has estimated India’s potential power generation with FSPV to be 280-300 GWp considering 18,000 sq km of water surface area in the reservoirs. This estimation is on the basis of 30% utilisation of the surface area of the country’s medium and large reservoirs.
Advantages of FSPV Installations There are several advantages of promoting FSPV installations compared to ground mounted solar PV system. The most significant one is avoidance of usage of valuable space on land which can be used for other purposes such as farming, construction etc. It dispels the problem of uncertainty on availability and acquisition of land which is a major burning issue nowadays. It eliminates the need for major site preparation work such as land levelling and grading. It does away with the PV module foundation laying work. The potential for growth of hybrid power generation in water reservoirs is significant. Combination of hydropower generation with floating solar power is of particular interest which can result in higher energy yield at optimum cost as existing transmission line infrastructure can be shared at hydropower sites. The co-existence of both energy resources at large hydropower sites offers operation flexibility. As an example, the FSPV installation can be used to share energy generation of such assets during low water availability such that hydropower plant can be operated in “peaking” rather than “baseload” mode. Additionally, hydropower generation can be used to smoothen variable solar output and provide stability to the grid. Another big advantage of having FSPV installation is its higher energy yield compared to land based system because of natural cooling effect due to closer proximity of water surface. The evaporative cooling of water enhances the energy yield by 3% to 5% as a conservative estimation, although few test results exhibit more optimistic results ranging 10% to 12% additional energy yield. More precise data will be available and richer database will be generated in this aspect in future as we gain experience from execution of projects in different environmental and climatic conditions across geographies. Moreover, as the solar || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
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panels are mounted on waterbody soiling losses due to dust, dirt will be lower compared to land based installation. Other advantages include efficient conservation of water due to reduced evaporative loss from water reservoir, improvements in water quality due to less potential growth of algae, lower shading loss by the surroundings etc. Cleaning of solar modules becomes easier due to readily availability of water, although quality of water should be checked and module manufacturer’s recommendation should be followed for using it for cleaning purpose.
Guest Article
Challenges As the FSPV technology is comparatively new and still in the evolving stage, there are certain uncertainties due to lack of firm database over its long term performance, reliability and cost. There are technological challenges in selection of various components like floating platforms, anchoring & mooring system since FSPV specific standards and technical guidelines are yet to come up to a shape. Environmental severity and humidity impact on various components including electrical and electronic equipment due to salinity and corrosivity of water, high wind speed, closer proximity of water is not yet fully tested. In addition, there may be a possibility that floating platform, solar PV modules, cables etc floating on water surface are subjected to faster degradation leading to potential increase in O&M cost and safety issues. Consequently, reliability and integrity of such installations up to 25-30 years is yet to be proven. Bathymetry and hydrography studies are pre-requisite to understand the topography of waterbed for establishing anchoring and mooring mechanism and feasibility of the installations. Lack of guidelines/ standards hinders the procedure of bathymetry and hydrography surveys. Additionally, as there is no specific guideline for FSPV installation, information related to what kind of statutory clearances is required is not known. FSPV installation makes the O&M task difficult compared to land based installation. Last but not the least is the higher upfront cost of FSPV installation due to requirement of major components like floating platform, anchoring & mooring etc which are absent for ground mounted PV. There is a differential cost of around 20-25% although there is a downward trend of prices of floating solar. However, possibility of improved energy yield due to higher cooling effect of water may neutralise the higher capital cost of FSPV installation.
Conclusion Floating solar technology is an emerging sector. Although floating solar installation has substantial advantages over ground mounted solar, presently it is undergoing some uncertainties because of several challenges including high upfront cost. Technology improvement to the next level of maturity is prima-facie requirement, particularly firming up loss factors and net energy yield capability of FSPV installation. Performance warranties of floating platform, anchoring, mooring and electrical and electronics components have to be
ensured for 25-30 years of trouble free operation. National/ International standards, guidelines/ specifications should be formulated to ascertain the technical complexities of design, quality of materials, installation, operation on water surface including electrical safety, mooring issues and maintenance aspects. Nevertheless, with focus shifted from conventional fossil fuel based to zero carbon globally, today’s energy sector is passing through energy transition. FSPV looks promising to contribute in this transition. There is a huge potential to scale up FSPV power generation globally including India. Governments of different countries and policy makers are also working towards formation of strategies to exploit the energy potential in an effort to limit the global warming by 1.50C. Rapid growth in industrialisation and urbanisation propel higher energy demand. As demand soars deployment of FSPV installations will increase leading to falling of cost. Recent project executions witness a sharp decline in CAPEX for FSPV. The downward trend of FSPV cost may be linked to substantial increase in number of projects, decrease in cost of floaters due to improved manufacturing process, reduction in material cost and aggressive bidding by project developers to gain experience to capitalise the market share early in national and international arena. However, with downward cost there may be a tendency to play with the quality of the installation, although time is yet to come to make such generalised statement. But one common aspect to be contemplated is that there should not be any compromise on quality of projects which may cause environment issues, safety issues and ecosystem instability. Hence national/international standards, regulations, quality protocols shall have to be robust and in place to encourage large scale deployments of floating solar installations and provide quality assurance to the users. With technology maturity and viability of the FSPV installation, the market share of FSPV will accelerate in near future to emerge as third pillar for green energy solution in solar energy sector.
References 1. Where sun meets water: Floating solar handbook for practitioners – World Bank group, ESMAP, SERIS 2. Floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV): A third pillar to solar PV success – The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) 3. Emerging energy solutions : Floating solar photovoltaic on the rise – IFC, May 2020 4. Report on under construction renewable energy projects – CEA, Govt of India, Feb 2020
Author – Anupam Roy Discipline Head – Electrical Tata Consulting Engineers Limited 108
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Goldi Solar unveils all new HELOC™ Pro module series with M10 technology The modules can be widely used in utility, agriculture, industrial, and rooftop applications
The panels are available in premium silver frame in three variants: white, transparent and glass to glass. Higher module conversion efficiency and lower resistance are characteristic from half-cell structure. The new circuit design with multi-busbar technology prevents current losses. Advanced glass and cell surface textured design ensure excellent performance in low light environment and reduced hot-spot losses. Commenting on the launch, Mr. Ishver Dholakiya, Founder & Managing Director, Goldi Solar, said, “Goldi Solar is strengthening ||www.renewablemirror.com||
its product portfolio and creating new growth vectors for the future and building on its strong presence in India. Goldi Solar has made significant progress at the new facility in Navsari. The utility and infrastructure are in place and we are waiting for the machinery to reach Indian coasts. The new product will be available by the end of Q3 FY21. Products will be available both in India and overseas markets.” Mr. Bharat Bhut, Founder & Director, Goldi Solar added, “Goldi Solar is known for its quality and committed delivery in the industry. It was a strategic decision to go into M10 technology. The name HELOC stands for High Efficiency Low on Carbon. The name is our ode to a solar-powered, energy-efficient, low-carbon economy. The new manufacturing facility itself will run on solar power, and the manufacturing processes are more efficient, leading to low carbon emissions. We are proud of how teams across the board have come together to make this launch a success.” Vigorous quality tests have been undertaken and the modules have shown to provide mechanical support up to 5400 Pa snow load and 2400 Pa wind load. Advanced glass and cell surface textured design ensure excellent performance in low light environment. The panels come with a 12-year product warranty and a 30-year performance warranty. Bookings are on and delivery will start in January. Goldi Solar also has plans for backward integration through setting up of multi-gigawatt solar cell manufacturing line, and supporting the ecosystem through manufacturing of raw material used in solar modules. RM || SEPTEMBER 2021 ||
Guest Article
Goldi Solar, a global solar panel manufacturer and EPC provider has officially launched its new product line – HELOC™ Pro module series. It features mono-facial and bi-facial modules with M10 wafer size. With an area up to 2.58 square meter, weight of 32kg and power of 560W, the new modules can be widely used in utility, agriculture, industrial, and rooftop applications.
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Your strong partner for machine building by Phoenix Contact Machine building is a global and very dynamic market. The competition you are facing as a supplier is tough. For you, it is important that you meet the requirements of your customers and develop a range of products and services that allows you to be sustainably competitive. The focus is on the cost- effectiveness, quality, flexibility, and performance of your machines. Phoenix Contact offers you an extensive portfolio of products and services – the decisive contribution to your competitiveness.
Safety for every function
Guest Article
Utilize PSR safety relays if your machine requires few safety functions and logical links to be implemented. The combination of innovative connection technology, space-saving style and clearly arranged design contributes to the quick and economic implementation of the safety- related application.
Protecting network and data
The FL MGUARD security routers and firewalls protect your machine and your network against unauthorized access by people or malware.
Reliable power supply
QUINT POWER with SFB technology trips circuit breakers magnetically and quickly with six times the nominal current. Only faulty current paths are switched off selectively, important machine parts remain in operation. The QUINT UPS-IQ uninterruptible power supply with its IQ technology thinks along and warns you early about a breakdown.
Intelligent motor switching
Switch and reverse motors quickly and reliably with CONTACTRON compact hybrid motor starters. The micro processor control enables wear-free switching. This means that the service life of devices is up to ten times longer than that of purely mechanical devices.
Intelligent motor protection
The CONTACTRON motor manager combines overload and underload detection in a single device. This allows you to detect all critical load states. In the event of an emergency, the motor manager protects the motor and subsequently your machine, because the device shuts down the drive in case of a malfunction.
Securely connecting the field level to the controller
VARIOFACE system cabling connects the controller to the field - easy and error-free. Phoenix Contact provides the corresponding front adapters, system cables, and interface modules.
Protection against surge voltages
Surge voltages pose a risk for machines and can lead to the destruction of important function groups. Increase the safety and machine availability with eff ective surge protection in the supply and before signal interfaces.
Reliable connection with sensor/actuator cabling
The easiest way of performing the signal wiring in the field consists of the use of sensor/actuator cables and corresponding junction boxes. With M8 and M12 lines in variants for all different types of requirements, you can connect individual sensors and actuators as quickly and as safely as modularly designed system components. 110
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Space-saving and safe cable entry systems
CES is the cable entry system for assembled cables and lines. It allows routing all types of different cables in a space-saving way from the control cabinet to the field. You assemble the system consisting of individual sleeves and frames according to your requirements.
One system – fewer parts
The HEAVYCON EVO plug connector system features a standardized mount for cable glands from size M20 to size M40. The cable outlet direction can easily be determined on site. This allows up to eight conventional sleeve housings to be replaced.
All connection technologies, one system
With CLIPLINE complete, you can freely choose the connection technology. Whether screw, push-in, spring-cage, quick, bolt or plug connection: Combine all connection types using the same accessories.
Optimum marking material for your application
The manifold product range covers all the requirements of terminal, cable and conductor marking as well as device and system marking. The quality labeling on plastic markers, labels and metal signs expand the applicability up to areas with increased requirements.
The right tool for every application
The Toolfox tool program offers excellent hand tools and machines for cutting, stripping, crimping, screwing and testing. Our ergonomically-designed tools convince through simple handling, high service life and best working results. RM For further details please contact: Phoenix Contact India Pvt. Ltd., F-26/2, Okhla Industrial Area Phase -2, New Delhi – 110020, E-mail- adverts@phoenixcontact.co.in
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