EQ Magazine June 2017 Edition by EQ Int'l Solar Media Group

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C ONTEN T

VOLUME 9 Issue # 6

36 SOLAR ROOFTOP

Manipur weavers to get 4 lakh solarpowered looms

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

India’s First Fleet of 200 Electric Vehicles Launched in Nagpur

SOUTHEAST ASIA High-Level Solar Opportunity

12 INDIA No impact of GST on renewables, no need for lower taxes: Mr. Piyush Goyal

The data and information presented in this magazine is provided for informational purpose only.neither EQ INTERNATINAL ,Its affiliates,Information providers nor content providers shall have any liability for investment decisions based up on or the results obtained from the information provided. Nothing contained in this magazine should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sale any securities. The facts and opinions stated in this magazine do not constitute an offer on the part of EQ International for the sale or purchase of any securities, nor any such offer intended or implied Restriction on use The material in this magazine is protected by international copyright and trademark laws. You may not modify,copy,reproduce,republish,post,transmit,or distribute any part of the magazine in any way.you may only use material for your personall,Non-Commercial use, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices.If you want to use material for any non-personel,non commercial purpose,you need written permission from EQ International.

FEATURED NEWS SoftBank’s India solar ambitions may gain from Modi’s EV push

FEATURED NEWS Varanasi to be clean energy city before Munich: Piyush Goyal

65 SPAIN Back In The Game ?

MALAYSIA Working To Increase Renewables’ Pace

INTERVIEW With Dr. Shawn Qu, CEO, Canadian Solar

BATTERY STORAGE

OFFSHORE WIND

China And India Overtake US At Top Of Renewable Energy Attractiveness Index

Offshore Winds Blow Strongly

INTERVIEW

RENEWABLE ENERGY

MARKET SPOTLIGHT

Solar Energy Is The Sunshine Of Energy Needs

India’s Power Play

INTERVIEW

42 BATTERY STORAGE The Next Disruptive Technology In The Power Sector

With Mr. Xiande Li, Chairman, Jinko Solar On The story behind JinkoSolar’s Abu Dhabi solar bid for Sweihan Project

With Sunil Jain, CEO & ED, Hero Future Energies

EQ NEWS Pg. 09-40 FEATURED NEWS International Solar Alliance to set up $300 Bn fund

PRODUCT Pg. 70-78

INDIA

PTC India ties up pacts for 1,050 mw wind power supply Power trading solution provider PTC India has announced execution of agreements with seven state utilities for sale of wind energy for a total 1049.9 mw. The agreements were exchanged between PTC and discoms in presence of Power Minister Piyush Goyal at a conference of power, new and renewable energy and mines ministers of states and UTs held here yesterday, the company said in a statement.

he distribution utilities of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Odisha, Delhi and Noida have signed up. Uttar Pradesh is the largest beneficiary of the scheme and has signed the memorandum of agreement (MoA) for 440 MW. Earlier this year, the tariff for wind energy was discovered transparently through competitive bidding at a historic low of 3.46 per unit.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The scheme is very beneficial for the power industry as a whole and the wind industry in particular. It will attract more investments in the industry and lower tariff through competitive bidding, which will benefit end consumers. This model will be very helpful for scaling up wind power generation in the overall renewable energy basket in future,â&#x20AC;? Deepak Amitabh, Chairman and Managing Director, said in the statement. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had formulated the scheme for tying up of 1,000 mw ISTS (Intra- state Transmission System) connected wind power in India. Under the scheme, the projects are to be set up in windy states for supply of power to non-windy ones and UTs. PTC is the trading partner responsible for purchase and sale of wind power under the programme. The government successfully completed the first ever auction of wind power and associated infrastructure for 1,000 mw in the last week of February with a provision to increase in up to 1,050 MW. The bidders were selected and the Letter of Award was given to successful bidders. The PTC India has successfully tied up entire power with the above discoms, it said. Source:PTI

INDIA

RaysExperts added 30MW capacity to its Rays Solar Park Units in just 90 days

Solar energy portfolio of BHEL crosses 370 megawatt mark

One of India’s top 5 solar power developers and one of the largest solar power EPC company; RaysExperts has successfully commissioned projects that contributed an addition of 30 MW to Rays Solar Parks, Around 99% of solar EPC companies in India have a total individual portfolio of less than 30 MW – which Rays Experts, in a rare feat of sorts, achieved in just 3 months.

he capacity is formed by aggregating multiple owners across the country. A leading hotel chain, a leading newspaper publication, a leading chemicals company and a leading textile manufacturing unit are among the few to name. The plant is located in the Bikaner district of Rajasthan, an area that is among the highest solar radiation zones in India. The global horizontal irradiance (GHI) is 5.8 kWh/day. Major nationalized banks provided support for financing these projects including SBI, Kotak Mahindra, HDFC bank to name a few.

PM Modi calls for allsolar power city model, stresses job creation Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for establishment of model solar cities where the power needs are fulfilled solely by solar energy and gave thrust to manufacturing of solar equipment, which will also help generate employment. Chairing a meeting to review the progress of key infrastructure sectors, including petroleum and natural gas, power, renewable energy and housing, the PM on Monday also called for greater emphasis on ethanol blending, and evolution of mechanisms, so that farmers can benefit the most from this process. He said that setting up of second-generation bio-ethanol refineries should be expedited, to utilise agricultural residues for this purpose. During the meeting, the PM also said that efforts can be made to make certain localities kerosene-free.

June 2017

tate-run power equipment maker BHEL today said its solar energy portfolio crossed the 370 megawatt (MW) mark in 2016-17. BHEL ended 2016-17 with a significant solar PV portfolio of 370 MW, comprising 360 MW ground-mounted power plants and 10 MW rooftop power plants, a company statement said. According to the statement, out of 370 MW, 170 MW of BHEL-supplied groundmounted and 2,290 KW of rooftop power plants are already under operation at various locations. During the year, BHEL secured orders for 131 MW of groundmounted and about 8 MW of rooftop solar PV plants. In addition, it secured its first order for 240 solar PV based pumping stations. BHEL is exploring deployment of single axis solar trackers and battery-based energy storage for solar power plants, it said. BHEL has prototyped floating solar power plant and solar PV based charging stations for charging electric vehicles. It has also enhanced its EPC capacity to address large sized PV plants, it added. BHEL is one of the very few organisations in the country that has the expertise in critical parts of the silicon value chain, viz., processing of silicon wafer to cell, processing of cell to PV module and in design, supply, installation, commissioning and O&M of ground-mounted and rooftop PV power plants and thus offers turnkey EPC solutions. The company has enhanced its state-of-the-art manufacturing lines of solar cells to 105 MW and solar modules to 226 MW per annum. It has also set up 11.5 MWp of solar power plants in its units at Ranipet, Trichy and Hyderabad.

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INDIA

No impact of GST on renewables, no need for lower taxes: Power minister Shri Piyush Goyal

ith renewables tariff already touching new lows, Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said there was no need for lower taxes to encourage clean energy and the GST regime will have no impact on power rates. However, the minister is hopeful that lower GST rate of 5 per cent on coal, compared to existing 11.69 per cent, would help discoms provide power at affordable rates.

“We don’t need support of lower taxes to encourage renewable energy. By itself, it is good for the nation. It reduces pollution. It give discoms 25-year long affordable power at prices which are even below grid (parity price),” Power Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters when asked if the new Goods and Services Tax rates would impact clean energy in India. Yesterday the GST Council had finalised the rates on various products including renewable energy equipment which has been kept in the 5 per cent slab. Solar power tariff dropped to all-time low of Rs 2.44 per unit which is below the grid parity price. Similarly under the wind power auction for 1GW, the tariff dipped to Rs 3.46 per unit. The new rates of solar power discovered in the auctions are even below the average rate of coal-based power produced by NTPC at Rs 3.20 per unit. The minister said,”Solar power prices have gone below grid parity. Wind power prices are also almost at grid parity despite only one bid (auction for 1GW).” He added that the situation today is very different from the past as “We can stand on our feet”. Goyal said, “Twenty five years later, other forms of power would be 3-4 times higher. Solar, wind and hydro would be affordable forms of power. I don’t think GST rates will impact my sector’s tariff.” Explaining further he said, “The GST regime is designed to help bring down costs. As we have seen rates unfolding yesterday, we are little more encouraged that the GST will help bring one nation one tax and help the nation to reduce corruption and difficulties in operation and also bring simpler tax regime.”

June 2017

About lower rates on coal under GST, he said, “The coal sector will also benefit (due to GST) with straight away benefits to consumers because (higher) taxes used to be a burden on consumer of India. I am delighted that the GST council has chosen to keep coal at 5 per cent slab. I am sure that this will help discoms serve the poor and rural consumers with more affordable rates.” About keeping UPS and inverters in higher tax bracket, he said, “UPS and Inverters are the thing of past. Please don’t go back to past. We don’t need UPS/Inverters and Converters anymore.” About taxes on power equipment he said, “As far as power equipment is concerned, this government has been able to maintain the power prices at affordable levels and in fact, reduced it in most cases. NTPC has been able to bring down their variable cost by 20 per cent.”

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INDIA

HSBC takes corporate PPA route for solar power As one walks into the massive building that’s housing global banking major HSBC in Hyderabad’s IT corridor, one could wonder about the amount of energy required to maintain this headquarters for the firm’s global backend operations.

The structure — known as the Hexagon for its unique six-sided design — oversees 50,000 people spread over seven countries and needs 14 megawatts power. “But of this, 10 MW is clean energy,” says Subir Mehra, managing director of HSBC Electronic Data Processing (India) Pvt Ltd, speaking from his office that has a panoramic view of Cyberabad.

SBC EDP has been one of the prime movers in Hyderabad who have made the switch towards renewable energy through corporate power purchase agreements (PPA) with a third-party power producer, a trend fast catching up across the world among corporations.In Hyderabad, the state government has sanctioned 18 corporate power purchase agreements in the last four years a minuscule number compared to the tectonic shift towards clean energy being witnessed elsewhere in the world. According to Bloomberg, some 19 gigawatt (19,000 MW) of corporate PPAs for renewable energy have been signed so far across the world in the first quarter of 2017.Corporate PPA typically involves companies entering into an agreement with a third party power producer for setting up a captive power plant for exclusive use of the purchasing company. As the power plant would be set up at a remote location, the power producer supplies power to the grid and the power purchasing company uses gird through net-metering concept.

“Apart from Hyderabad, our Vizag office too uses renewable energy to meet 50 per cent of its power requirements. Within a few months, we are planning to implement it at one of our Bengaluru offices. When it goes live, the Bengaluru office would be using renewable power to meet 65 per cent of its energy needs,” Mr Mehra said.

“We have been mandated to meet 40 per cent of our energy needs through clean solar energy by the year 2020. In fact, we have exceeded this target at our Hyderabad office, which meets 70 per cent of its energy needs through solar power.”

Source:DC

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INDIA

Power Minister Goyal emphasises on promoting indigenous solar equipment manufacturing

Maharashtra Seamless commissions 20 MW solar PV power project

ind – we are manufacturing in India; hydro equipment is largely indigenous, and coal based thermal plans are mostly indigenous. The missing link in the entire valley chain is solar manufacturing and the government is very seriously looking at ways and means to promote Indian manufacture of high quality solar equipments, Goyal told ANI. So, effectively, we will already be 40 percent of our install capacity roughly by 2022, coming from its renewable sources. This will significantly up the ante on availability of low cost power for several years to come, he added.

As India is looking forward to increase the capacity of renewable energy in the power sector to 225 Giga Watts by 2022, the government main thrust would be to promote indigenous manufacturing of high quality solar equipments, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.

aharashtra Seamless has commissioned 20 MW Solar PV Power Project at Village Khetusar, Tehsil Bap in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and has also obtained Commissioning Certificate from Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation.

Cabinet approves Raising of Bonds of Rs. 2360 crores for Renewable Energy The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval to Raising of Bonds of Rs. 2360 crores for Renewable Energy.

he Bonds will be raised by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) through the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) during the 2017-18. These funds will be used by MNRE in the approved programmes/schemes for solar park, green energy corridor, generation-based incentives for wind projects, CPSU and defence solar projects, viability gap 16

June 2017

funding for solar projects, roof-top solar, off-grid/grid-distributed and decentralized renewable power, investment in corporations and autonomous bodies etc. Such timely investment would boost infrastructure in renewable sector and facilitate achievement of ambitious targets for the renewable energy sector. The resources raised would be used for developing additional capacity in renewable energy sector which would result in generation of additional employment.

Background

The Government had declared additional finance mobilization of Rs. 31,300 crore bonds through NHAI, PFC, REC, IREDA and IWAI in the budget for FYT 2016-17. As a part of this, the Government had allocated Rs. 4000 crores to IREDA to raise “GOI fully serviced taxable Bonds” on behalf of the MNRE during the FY 2016-17. Out of this allocation, IREDA had raised Rs. 1640 crores as per the requirement of MNRE. The MNRE subsequently approached the Cabinet, to approve raising of the balance Rs. 2360 crores in the year 2016-17.

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

Exclusive: IFC to invest $60m in solar power firm Jinko Malaysia

Potential to refinance Rs. 56,000 cr in infra sector, says India Ratings

International Finance Corporation will invest up to $60 million in Malaysia’s solar power Jinko Malaysia to support the rm’s technology investment and related working capital needs at its existing production facilities in Penang.

India Ratings and Research estimates potential to refinance more than Rs. 56,000 crore debt of the Rs. 1,73,000 crore total debt across various infra sub-sectors. In a report on Infrastructure Project and Finance, the Fitch Group company mentions that of this, solar sector is expected to be in the forefront in terms of a number of deals, with refinance of about 33 per cent followed by highways at 27 per cent.

inko Malaysia, the local arm of China-based JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd, will use the funds for a $100-million project to upgrade its existing solar cell production lines to a technology called Passivated Emitter Rear Cell (PERC) that increases energy conversion and reduces system costs. The investment from IFC, an arm of The World Bank, will be in two parts — $40 million of IFC A Loan from IFC’s own account and $20 million mobilised via its Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP), according to an IFC disclosure. This is the second investment within a week from IFC in the renewable energy sector in Asia. Earlier this week, it disclosed a $29 million investment in renewable energy Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd. through non-convertible debentures. Jinko Malaysia, which started operations in 2015, manufactures solar energy cells and modules, and related auxiliary products. It operates solar cell and module manufacturing facilities with production capacities of 1500 MWp and 1300 MWp respectively. Its Chinese parent company JinkoSolar is a company founded in China’s Jiangxi province and is a vertically integrated manufacturer of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar modules.

Starting with recovered silicon materials, supplemented by virgin polysilicon, the company produces monocrystalline and multi-crystalline ingots, wafers, cells, and modules. The bulk of the modules produced by Jinko are sold internationally. Its manufacturing facilities are located in the Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces in southeast China. The company is also increasing manufacturing capacity at its plants in Malaysia and South Africa. Meanwhile, IFC is increasingly becoming an important player in the private investment and venture capital space in Southeast Asia. In an interaction with DEALSTREETASIA last year, Pravan Malhotra, who leads IFC’s investments in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and clean technology sector, had mentioned the region was a growing market. “Supporting inclusive growth is one of IFC’s priorities in the region. We invest in projects that help create opportunities in all segments of society,” he had said.

t also mentions the possibility of shift in the type of instruments issued for the purpose of raising capital in the sector. These could be largely capital market instruments– such as bonds from the conventional term loans. The debt service coverage ratio of projects would improve if the refinance of debt at 100-150 basis points.

With four Investment Trusts, which are likely to hit primary markets in FY 2018, the rating firm estimates that Rs. 6,000 crore could be refinanced. The refinance move is particularly seen to benefit the toll roads and solar projects as most of them are in a ramp up mode. In spite of the 125 basis points reduction in the repo rate during FY 20162017, the average reduction passed on has been the lowest for annuity road projects. This possibly reflects that the refinancing benefit has already been passed on to the entities. The renewable energy sector, particularly, solar power, has potential to reduce its borrowing costs further by at least 100 basis points through bond issuances or bank loans. The sector is also likely to be benefited from the Government thrust on the development of second phase of 20 giga watt solar energy and evolving payment security mechanisms. Yet in this backdrop, grid constraints and plant load volatility could hinder the refinance prospects for the renewable energy, the agency states. Source:THBL

June 2017

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

NTPCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2nd Masala Bonds Listed at LSE NTPCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 2nd Masala Bond got listed on London Stock Exchange. Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal , New and Renewable Energy and Mines inaugurated the ceremony.

The listing of NTPC Masala Bonds on ism as the maiden issue on the exchange marks the growing cooperation between NTPC and LSE, this being the second time NTPC has listed its Notes on LSE. Shri K. Biswal, director ( Finance), NTPC, Smt. Renu Narang, General Manager(Finance) were also present on the occasion. To NTPC and other issuers from India and across the globe, this provided an opportunity to access quality investors for meeting our financing needs. The tremendous response to Masala Bonds enthuses NTPC to look at offshore funds as a regular source of financing its Capex needs.

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Sumant Sinha of ReNew Power Ventures raises $100 million from Piramal Capital “Mr.Sumant Sinha was in talks with various investors including Piramal and several overseas investors, especially from the Middle East to raise around $100 million in structured credit with the aim of using the capital to increase his stake in the company. Investors in ReNew want the least possible amount of their stake to be subject to the mandatory three-year lock-in under the ICDR norms. Piramal, eventually, was able to seal the transaction,” said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity.

umant Sinha, founder of Goldman Sachs-backed green energy producer ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd, has raised around $100 million in structured credit from Piramal Capital’s structured financing group (SFG) to raise his stake in the company a head of a proposed (IPO), two people aware of the development said. The fund raising was necessitated by Sinha’s low stake in the company, which could force private equity investors to lock in part of their shareholding as a promoter stake in ReNew’s proposed IPO. Under the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) issue of capital and disclosure requirements (ICDR) norms, at least 20% of the postissue capital of the promoters has to be locked in mandatorily for three years. Sumant Sinha’s stake in ReNew was in single digits, he added. Investors in ReNew Power want Sinha’s stake to be above 10% and proceeds from the fund-raising would most likely be used for a secondary purchase of shares from investors to achieve this aim, Mint reported in February, citing a person aware of the development. E-mails sent to Piramal and ReNew Power on Thursday evening did not elicit any response. Last month, The Economic Times reported that ReNew Power is planning an IPO of up to $600 million. Investors in ReNew such as Goldman Sachs, sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Asian Development Bank and Global Environment Fund could sell part of their stakes in the proposed issue, the newspaper reported. The IPO is likely within the next 12 months, Sinha told The Economic Times.

June 2017

The plans to go public follow ReNew’s latest $200 million fund raising in February, when JERA Co. Inc. bought a 10% stake in the company, valuing it at $2 billion. Set up in 2015, JERA is an equal joint venture between Japan’s largest utility Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and Chubu Electric Power Co. Founded in 2011 by Sinha, a former chief operating officer at wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy Ltd, ReNew Power now has around 1.2GW of operational capacity across wind and solar projects. In October 2015, the company raised $265 million in equity capital from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Goldman Sachs and Global Environment Fund. The round took the company’s total equity fund-raising to $655 million. Goldman has invested a total of $370 million in the company. The company also recently refinanced its debt through offshore dollar bonds. On 6 February, The Economic Times reported that ReNew Power raised $475 million by selling green bonds to overseas investors.

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

INDIA LOOKING FOR GLOBAL INVESTORS TO FUND INFRA PROJECTS, SAYS LSE CEO India is scouting for global investors as there is a huge demand for infrastructure investment in the country, LSE CEO Nikhil Rathi has said. above, requesting anonymity. “So, India is a fastest growing economy in G-20, growing at 7 per cent a year. There is huge demand for infrastructure investment in India, and it is going global and looking for global investors and London is proving to be natural place for it,”

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) saw listing of bonds worth Rs7,000 crore on. Road Transport Minister Gadkari launched Rs 5,000 crore worth of NHAI bonds on. Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Goyal on Friday kicked off trading of papers worth Rs2,000 crore from India’s biggest power generation utility NTPC.

e have seen that progress built year after year. More money being raised at lower prices to invest directly in Indian infrastructure, whether that’s power, roads, housing, renewable energy. Indian companies are finding welcome opening,” he said. Asserting that Indian power sector is one of the fastest growing power sectors in the world, Rathi said that the country will certainly achieve its ambitious renewable energy target of 175 GW. “India’s renewable energy target that brings with it huge need to investors and also for projects. But, I think that there is lot of confidence in minister’s (Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s) leadership. This ambitious target will be delivered and delivered effectively,” he said. He asserted that more and more investors are sensing that Indian growth story is hugely exciting one, and are looking at platform like London Stock Exchange(LSE) with global reach to provide access to these opportunities. The Indian Government believes that London will continue to remain the premier global financial centre and the place where India will look forward to in a bid to finance for infrastructure, he said. “We are global. We have large number of investors from US, Europe, Middle Wast and Asia. We are seeing that recurring issuance coming from Indian bond issues. We have a very large US manager coming to our market. So, we are global and that will continue to be the case,” he said. Source:PTI

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Rays Power Infra ranks among the top 10 EPC Companies worldwide, outside USA and China Rays Power Infra Pvt Ltd, a leading integrated solar power company with presence across the entire solar value chain, recently announced that it has been ranked among the top 10 EPC Companies worldwide, outside USA and China, as per the Solar EPC and O&M Provider Tracker – Q1 2017 by IHS Technology.

ndia’s growing PV demand attracts more companies to the EPC sector though the market continues to be concentrated. The combined market share of India’s five largest EPC companies has shrunk from 63% to 46%, owing to the market’s overall growth. On the contrary, TBEA and First Solar remain the largest EPC providers globally, but both are losing market share by not being able to grow at the pace of the worldwide market. The companies installed less than 100 MW more in 2016 as compared to 2015, at the same time as global non-residential PV demand grew by 38%.

YES BANK signs MoU with Bureau of Energy Efficiency, appointed as “Participating Financial Institution” to Partial Risk Guarantee Fund for Energy Efficiency (PRGFEE) YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, signs MoU with Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to become the Participating Financial Institution (PFI) to avail the risk guarantee under the Partial Risk Guarantee fund for Energy Efficiency (PRGFEE).

T 22

he PRGFEE is a risk sharing mechanism that provides YES Bank with a partial coverage of risk involved in extending loans for Energy Efficiency projects with an objective of scaling-up Energy Efficiency investments in India. This MoU is a formal agreement between YES BANK and BEE, a statutory body under Ministry of Power, Government of India, to channelize bank finance for energy efficiency projects through BEE approved Energy Services Companies (ESCOs). The PRGFEE is an innovative financial instrument which uses the public resources to channelize private sector finance towards promoting of Energy Efficiency in different sectors of the economy, including MSMEs, buildingsand municipalities.

June 2017

Commenting on the watermark achievement, Ketan Mehta C.E.O., Rays Power Infra said, “This indeed marks a great milestone for all of us at Rays. It is interesting to consider that, as per the IHS Technology’s tracker, though China and the United States remain key markets for the largest PV projects, India is surfacing as a new growth market outside of those regions. Rays Power Infra ranks at numero uno 5, followed by Juwi, Mahindra Susten, Conergy, ACCIONA and TSK across India, Japan, Thailand, UK, Australia, Rest of Americas, Rest of Europe, rest of Asia Pacific and rest of Africa and the Middle East.” IHS’ ongoing analysis of the PV market includes the regular surveying and interviewing of PV systems integrators.

Speaking on the signing of the MoU, Mr. Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES BANK, said “Efficient use of energy is a key step towards fulfilling the Government’s mission of reducing emission intensity and dependence on fossil fuels. YES BANK is committed to global SDGs and climate action and proud to partner Ministry of Power’s pioneering initiative towards channelizing finance foran energy efficient, low carbon future for India.” Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Namita Vikas, Group President & Global Head, Climate Strategy & Responsible Banking, YES BANK LTD said, “Energy saving is the cleanest, and the most important, energy resource. Therefore, a robust investment in energy efficiency projects is the most sustainable way for India to transition to a low-carbon economy. YES Bank is proud to join hands with BEE for initiatives like Partial Risk Guarantee Fund for Energy Efficiency (PRGFEE) that would help boost the support for deeper penetration of the concept in the industry through the ESCO model.” Previously, a memorandum of understanding was signed between SIDBI and YES BANK under the Partial Risk Sharing Facility (PRSF) for financing energy efficiency projects programme sponsored by the World Bank.

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

Solarpack raises USD$104 million in financing for projects in Chile and India Solarpack has raised a total of USD$104 million for nine PV plants in Chile and India. A group of Chilean banks has financed three of the company’s Chilean Small Means of Distributed Generation projects for $35 million. Meanwhile, an Indian financial entity has financed six plants in India for $69 million. The total capacity of the plants is 135.5 MWp, which will help both countries meet their growing energy needs without increasing pollution levels.

olarpack’s three projects in the Chilean Atacama Desert, each of 10.5 MWp, include Pozo Almonte I (operational since 2015 and located in Tarapacá province), Calama Solar I (operational since March 2017) and Puerto Seco, which will start operating in June this year. The last two plants are in Calama. The electricity generated by the plants will be injected into the Norte Grande Interconnected System (SING or Sistema Interconectado del Norte Grande in Spanish). The six Indian solar plants, located in the Indian state of Telangana, will enter operation between the second and third quarter of 2017, with a total capacity of 104 MWp. The state distribution companies TSNPDCL and TSSPDCL will buy the electricity produced for a period of 25 years, through a long-term power-purchase agreement. This is Solarpack’s first contract in India, and it is hoped that the plants will generate around 160 GWh a year.

Mr. Pablo Burgos, Solarpack’s CEO, commented: “Reaching financial close in such different geographical areas demonstrates once again the immense confidence that banks and international credit institutions have in Solarpack’s bankability, business model and management. This represents a new milestone for the company, which is pushing ahead with plans to expand its international presence and deepen its experience in the market it operates in.” Solarpack is planning to expand into new markets in America and Asia Pacific, with PV projects ranging from community supply plants to those aimed at large businesses.

Ujaas Energy secures contract for 1768kwp Rooftop Solar PV Power plants

rom West Bengal Power Development Corporation jaas Energy has received letter of award of contract for 1768kwp from West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL) for ‘ Design & Engineering, Manufacture/ Procurement, Testing, Supply, Installation & Commissioning of Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV Power Plants’ at different buildings of Plants and Township of West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL).

BUSINESS & FINANCE

ADB Issues Green Rupee Linked Bond to Support Renewable Energy in India

IFC-JICA to co-finance $1.5 billion in emerging market projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised 3 billion Indian Rupees (INR), about $47 million, from a new issue of offshore Indian Rupee-linked bonds to help finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in India. “fundraising represents ADB’s maiden Indian Rupee green bond and shows the institution’s long term commitment to financial market development in India,

With a focus on infrastructure, the World Bank arm International Finance Corp. (IFC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) plan to co-finance up to $1.5 billion in emerging market private sector projects. The first such investment will be made in a 414MW power project in Bangladesh. “IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are planning to co-finance up to $1.5 billion in highimpact private sector projects over the next five years under a partnership that aims to modernize infrastructure and expand access to basic services for under-served communities in emerging markets,” IFC said in a statement on Monday. This comes against the backdrop of India implementing its ambitious infrastructure development programmes in sectors such as electricity, roads and ports. The country plans to invest as much as Rs3.96 trillion in creating and upgrading infrastructure in the current fiscal.

” ADB Treasurer

Mr. Pierre Van Peteghem. “In today’s

markets, green bonds are an increasingly important source of financing for climate change projects and given ADB’s strong engagement in the capital markets of developing Asia, it is a natural next step for ADB to issue green bonds in local currency.”

ond issue carries a 6.00% interest rate with a 3.75-year maturity, falling due in February 2021. The bonds, which are denominated in Indian rupees but settled in US dollars, were underwritten by JP Morgan and TD Securities as Joint Lead Managers. The bonds were placed 9% in Asia, 70% in Europe, and 21% in the Americas. By investor type, 48% of the bonds were placed with banks, and 52% with fund managers. Proceeds from the bonds will be mobilized into ADB’s first cofinancing with the JICA LEAP Fund for the ReNew Clean Energy Project, a wind and solar power project across six states in India. India is ADB’s fourth largest shareholder and its largest borrower, excluding cofinancing. In 2016, ADB approved $2.26 billion in sovereign loans and $795 million in private sector projects in India, its largest market. ADB is a regular borrower in the mainstream international bond markets but has also led issuance in developing Asian countries as part of efforts to promote domestic bond markets as an alternative to bank lending. ADB plans to raise up to $30 billion from the capital markets in 2017. ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, ADB is celebrating 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2016, ADB assistance totaled $31.7 billion, including $14 billion in cofinancing. 24

June 2017

artnership establishes principles for enhancing cooperation between IFC and JICA—which will co-finance private sector projects by providing debt and equity, or both. The initiative will also support Japan’s business development efforts in emerging markets,” the IFC statement added. Japan, on its part, has been helping India with some of the infrastructure projects such as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor or bullet train, which will be funded by JICA. The private sector lending arm of the World Bank, IFC has an active direct private equity-style investment practice, apart from lending to companies in India. It also has an active limited partner portfolio in India where it backs private equity and venture capital funds focused on India.

FC and JICA will offer structured finance in renewable energy, energy efficiency, water, and transportation. The two institutions will also help provide financing for corporations working in sectors essential for economic growth and development, such as infrastructure, microfinance, finance for small and medium enterprises, agribusiness, and health care,” the statement said. With infrastructure projects having long gestation periods requiring loans with a long tenure, any such loan at a low interest rate will help Indian businesses. A case in point is the clean energy sector. India’s growing green economy has attracted many private sector businesses which plan to participate in the government’s push for providing clean energy access to its population. India plans to generate 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. Of this, 100 GW is to come from solar power projects.

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

NTPC AMONG FIRST TO LIST ON NEW LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE MARKET India’s state-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is among the first bonds to list on a new International Securities Market (ISM) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The NTPC Masala Bond is available for trading this week on ISM following the publication of its rulebook last week by Minister of state for power, coal and renewable energy Piyush Goyal. “I am pleased that India’s NTPC is one of the first companies to list their recent Masala Bond on London Stock Exchange’s innovative new debt market. London has been a long-term partner for Indian firms looking to raise finance in the global capital markets and the development of an additional platform for the listing and trading of fixed income should be welcomed,” coal and renewable energy Piyush Goyal.

The ISM is an additional market for the issuance and trading of UK and international primary debt targeted at institutional and professional investors. “London Stock Exchange is delighted to announce that its new International Securities Market is now live and welcomes the first bonds to begin trading on the platform,” said Nikhil Rathi, CEO of London Stock Exchange. “The International Securities Market will provide UK and international fixed income issuers an additional efficient London listing venue, giving them access to the City’s deep pool of global capital and an international investor base,” he said.

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n particular, we are honoured to welcome the support of Shri Goyal, India’s Minister of State for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy, for our new market. London Stock Exchange is the global home for Masala bonds raising over 5 billion dollars for supranational, municipal and private company institutions on its markets,” Kulamani Biswal, Director (Finance) at NTPC, said the listing of NTPC Masala Bonds on ISM as the “maiden issue” on the market marks the growing cooperation between NTPC and LSE. “To NTPC and other issuers from India and across the globe, this provides an opportunity to access quality investors for meeting our financing needs. The tremendous response to NTPC Masala Bonds enthuses us to look at offshore funds as a regular source of financing our Capex needs,” he said. Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO at Virgin Money, said: “The new market will improve the competitiveness of UK primary debt markets and support the requirements and demands of issuers and investors alike”. “Additional choice for debt issuers should attract future issuance and provide an efficient, broader and deeper market in the UK,” Gadhia said. EQ

June 2017

Technology

New material may double solar cell efficiency In a breakthrough, scientists have identified a new crystalline material that could replace silicon and double the efficiency of solar cells without a significant cost increase.

onventional solar cells are at most one-third efficient, a limit known to scientists as the Shockley-Queisser Limit. The new material, a crystalline structure that contains both inorganic materials (iodine and lead) and an organic material (methyl-ammonium), boosts the efficiency so that it can carry two-thirds of the energy from light without losing as much energy to heat. This material identified by researchers at Purdue University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US could double the amount of electricity produced without a significant cost increase. Enough solar energy reaches the Earth to supply all of the planet’s energy needs multiple times over, but capturing that energy has been difficult – as of 2013, only about one per cent of the world’s grid electricity was produced from solar panels. The most common solar cells use silicon as a semiconductor, which can transmit only one-third of the energy

because of the band gap, which is the amount of energy needed to boost an electron from a bound state to a conducting state, in which the electrons are able to move, creating electricity. Incoming photons can have more energy than the band gap, and for a very short time – so short it is difficult to imagine – the electrons exist with extra energy. These electrons are called “hot carriers,” and in silicon they exist for only one picosecond (which is 10-12 seconds) and only travel a maximum distance of 10 nanometres. At this point the hot carrier electrons give up their energy as heat. This is one of the main reasons for the inefficiency of solar cells. Huang and her colleagues have developed a new technique that can track the range of the motion and the speed of the hot carriers by using fast lasers and microscopes. “The distance hot carriers need to migrate is at least the thickness of a solar cell, or about 200 nanometres, which this new perovskite material can achieve,” He “Also these carriers can live for about 100 picoseconds, two orders of magnitude longer than silicon,”

JinkoSolar Becomes First Chinese PV Manufacturer to Receive IEC61345 Certification from TUV Rheinland JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., a global leader in the PV industry, recently announced that its modules have received IEC61345 certification from TUV Rheinland.

EC61345 certification employs stricter testing criteria compared to IEC61215 certification, which currently serves as the industry standard UV test. It is mainly used to test modules’ UV resistance under ultraviolet b (“UVB”, 280nm~320nm), which requires exposure to exceed 7.5KWh/m2 on the top side and 0.75KWh/ m2 on the reverse side. To meet these stringent standards, exposed modules on the top side should be over 137.8KWh/m2 under UVA+UVB (280nm~400nm).

Mr. Libai Huang, Asst. professor of chemistry at Purdue, said the new material, called a hybrid perovskites, would create solar cells thinner than conventional silicon solar cells, and is also flexible, cheap and easy to make.

Mr Kai Zhu, senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, said that these are critical factors for creating a commercial hotcarrier solar cell. “This study demonstrated that hot carriers in a standard polycrystalline perovskite thin film can travel for a distance that is similar to or longer than the film thickness required to build an efficient perovskite solar cell,” he said. “This indicates that the potential for developing hot carrier perovskite solar cell is good,” Mr Zhu added. Source:AJI

June 2017

“I’m proud that JinkoSolar is the first Chinese PV manufacturer to receive IEC61345 certification, which further demonstrates our technology strength and leading position in the industry,” commented Mr. Kangping Chen, Chief Executive Officer of JinkoSolar. “We have always been committed to providing our clients with the highest quality and most reliable products while being at the forefront of solar technology.” Source : PRN

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Technology

ISRO TO HELP ADANI GROUP HIKE SOLAR POWER PRODUCE In a first, the Space Application Center (SAC) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed an agreement with a subsidiary of the Adani Group to provide solar insolation data from its satellites.

s per the agreement signed between SACISRO and Adani Green Energy Limited, the former will provide information about daily solar radiation including the quality and quantity of radiation that is required for solar power generators to detemine level of production. At present the company pays foreign companies for this data. In the agreement signed on May 13, SAC-ISRO will grant the company access to data from its Meteorological and Oceanographic Satellite Data archive center (MOSDAC). Confirming the signing,

Tapan Misra, director of SAC said, “SAC will provide data collected from the INSAT-3DR, INSAT-3D and Kalpana-1 satellites to Adani Green Energy Limited, as per the agreement. The company will pay us for this data.” Sources from the company, meanwhile, said, “Since the company is working towards increasing solar power production, the data we receive from SAC-ISRO will help us maneuver the solar panels as per energy requirement. Solar power generators require data of radiation in order to maintain the temperature of solar panels at 35°Centigrade for optimum output. Excessive heating of solar panels causes reduction in power generation so having data in hand helps maintain the temperature.” Adani Green Energy Limited currently operates 760MW solar power plants spread across three locations in the country. The company intends to expand the same to 2000MW.

Young Blood

SAC is said to have tied up with 37 universities from the country, including the Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar, to enlist students in the process of understanding, analysis and research of data collected by the IRNSS satellites. As part of the programme, students from the selected institutes will learn how to use and read the data.

The World’s Largest Floating PV Power Plant of 40MW Connected to the Grid Using Sungrow’s Inverters Sungrow, the global leading PV inverter system solution supplier, announced that the world’s largest floating PV power plant of 40MW with Sungrow’s PV inverters utilized has been successfully connected to the grid in Huainan, China.

power plant is based in a subsided area of mining which is flooded due to the rainy weather with depth of water ranging from 4 to 10 meters in Huainan, a coal-rich city in south Anhui province. And the seriously mineralized water makes this area valueless. “The plant not only makes full use of this area, reducing the demand for lands, but also improves generation due to the cooling effects of the surface,” explained a professional from the local government. Sungrow’s central inverter SG2500-MV employed in this plant features its integration of the inverter, the transformer and the switchgear, as a turnkey station with lower transportation cost due to its 20-foot containerized design. In addition, the combiner box SunBox PVS-8M/16M-W supplied by Sungrow as well is customized for floating power plants, enabling it to work stably in such environment with high level of humidity and salt spray.

“Introducing cutting-edge technologies to products is what we are always committed to. We continue to offer better products and solutions to customers all over the world,” said Professor Renxian Cao, president of Sungrow. Source : PRN

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June 2017

Technology

Arctech Solar Tops the GTM Asia-Pacific PV Tracker Market Share List, Also Leads Indian and Chinese Markets in 2016 According to the recent Global PV Tracker Landscape 2017 report published by GTM Research, Arctech Solar, a leading manufacturer and solution provider of solar tracking and racking systems, was ranked No. 1 on the Asia-Pacific PV tracker supplier market share list with a total market share of 30%.

arket share ratio has far exceeded other manufacturers in this region in 2016. Meanwhile, Arctech was also the No.1 leader in China and India. Being the only Chinese PV tracking manufacturer on the global list, these rankings are testimonials to Arctech Solar’s outstanding performance. In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region is home to Arctech Solar’s gradual expansion in establishing its global market portfolio. Thanks to the Indian and Chinese markets’ increasing demands, Arctech Solar’s sales volume has increased dramatically in 2016. This also prompted Arctech Solar to climb to the Top 5 global PV tracker suppliers of the year. Furthermore, in the same report by GTM, Arctech Solar ranked No. 7 on the cumulative shipments of global PV tracker suppliers as of the end of 2016. The global rank indicates Arctech’s strong development in the global market. Mr. Guy Rong, President of Arctech Solar’s international business division indicated that just last month, Arctech Solar was ranked Top 5 by IHS for tracker performance in 2016.

“The rankings by these international research institutions show the competitiveness of Arctech Solar in an objective way. These rankings reflect that the tracker products made in China has gradually obtained attention and trust from global customers. Certainly, we realize that we still have a huge room for improvement. We will quickly carry out our internationalization process and put more efforts in other important markets.” Almost halfway through 2017, Arctech Solar’s orders for trackers and fixed mounting structures have already surpassed last year’s total sales volume, meaning the company is making history once again with good performance this year, and is moving ever closer to its desired goals of being a leading tracking and racking systems manufacturer. Source : PRN

Arctech Solar Drafts the 1st Solar Tracker Safety Standard for the IEC TC82 WG7 Meeting The IEC TC82 WG7 meeting was held recently at the University of Ottawa, Canada. The meeting covered topics on safety, performance, and testing requirements of CPV modules, cells and the safety standard for solar trackers and CPV optics.

or the first time, a solar tracker safety standard will be incorporated into an IEC standard. Arctech Solar is the only tracker manufacturer who is specially invited by IEC committee to lead the standard drafting. As a producer and advocate of safety standards for solar trackers, Arctech Solar introduced the tracker safety standards in detail during the meeting, answering all queries from the present and online experts. It

June 2017

has been the only international tracker standard drafted by a Chinese tracker supplier in the history of IEC standardization. The standard has come to the consensus and has been preconfirmed and improved after serious discussions. It is expected to enter the Committee Draft for Vote (CDV) stage in early 2018. Bruce Wang, Chief Technology Officer of Arctech Solar proposed that it is necessary to establish an interna-

tionally uniform, reliable safety standard for solar trackers. The proposal of standardization is fully recognized and approved by all experts in the committee. Upon request by the IEC committee, Arctech Solar will submit the final revised standard shortly. Arctech Solar will continuously advocate a more recognized industrial safety standard for solar trackers and promote the tracker industry as a whole.

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Technology

Tata Power Solar and Dell India have built India’s largest vertical solar farm

Trina Solar Announces New Efficiency Record of 24.13% for IBC Mono-crystalline Silicon Solar Cell Trina Solar, a global leader in photovoltaic (PV) modules, solutions and services, recently announced that its State Key Laboratory (SKL) of PV Science and Technology (PVST) has set a new record of 24.13% total-area efficiency for a large-area

(156 x 156mm2) n-type mono-crystalline silicon (c-Si) Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) solar cell.

R Tata Power Solar, India’s largest integrated solar company, and Dell International Services India Pvt Ltd. have together built India’s largest vertical solar farm of 120 kW.

irst of its kind, 45 meter structure built on Dell’s Bengaluru campus provides the dual benefit of producing sustainable green energy and insulation of the building, thus helping reduce power consumption. The south facing vertical solar farm was a very complex project as it needed to be integrated on the façade of the building without compromising on the aesthetics. The project is a foray for Tata Power Solar into vertical solar structures which have the potential to transform urban energy management, utilizing a fraction of the real estate which is at a premium in cities. The solar farm, envisaged by Dell, produces enough energy to light-up its entire cafeteria and basement parking. While this significantly reduces the energy consumption of Dell, the panels itself act as solar insulation by blocking the south sun and thus reducing the power consumption of the air conditioning. The project, by virtue of its unique design, needed significant innovation and customization of the structures, load bearing characteristics and anchorage. To integrate the 480 modules, manufactured by Tata Power Solar, a specially designed, complex scaffolding was built. Safety was of utmost importance as the entire project was on a 11 storied building wall. For optimized plant performance, the vertical structure was designed with a 30 degree moving tilt to better enable maintenance. This project further reinforces the company’s strong engineering and project management capabilities.

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record-breaking n-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cell was fabricated on a largesized phosphorous-doped Cz Silicon substrate with a low-cost industrial IBC process, featuring conventional tube doping technologies and fully screen-printed metallization. The 156×156 mm2 solar cell reached a total-area efficiency of 24.13% as independently measured by the Japan Electrical Safety & Environment Technology Laboratories (JET). The IBC solar cell has a total measured area of 243.3cm2 and was measured without any aperture. The champion cell presents the following characteristics: an open-circuit voltage Voc of 702.7mV, a short-circuit current density Jsc of 42.1 mA/cm2 and a fill factor FF of 81.47%. In February 2014, Trina Solar and the Australian National University (ANU) jointly announced a world record aperture efficiency of 24.37% for a laboratory-scale 4cm2 IBC solar cell, fabricated on a Float Zone (FZ) n-type substrate and using photolithography patterning. In December 2014, Trina Solar announced a 22.94% total-area efficiency for an industrial version, large size (156x 156mm2, 6″ substrate), IBC solar cell.

“We are very delighted to announce the latest achievement from our research team at the SKL PVST. Over the last few years, our R&D team has managed to continuously improve the efficiency of our n-type IBC solar cells, pushing the limits and surpassing our previous records, and approaching very closely to the performance of our best small-area laboratory cell developed in collaboration with ANU three years ago.” said Dr. Pierre Verlinden, Vice-President and Chief Scientist of Trina Solar. “IBC solar cells are one of the most efficient silicon solar cells available today and are particularly suitable for applications for which the requirement of a high power density is more important than LCOE Our IBC cell program has always focused on the development of large-area cells and low-cost industrial processes. In an innovation-driven PV industry, Trina Solar is always focused on developing leading-edge PV technologies and products with improved cell efficiency and reduced system cost. Our goal is to insist on technological innovation, and transform as quickly as possible the laboratory technology into commercial production.”

June 2017

FEATURED NEWS

SoftBank’s India solar ambitions may gain from Modi’s EV push

SoftBank Group is in talks with the Indian government to facilitate the use of renewable energy like solar to charge electric vehicles in the country, a senior executive at the Japanese group’s local unit told Reuters. India is considering electrifying all its vehicles over the next 15 years, a plan that could boost SoftBank’s solar ambitions in the country if the government adopts renewable energy to charge the vehicles.

oftBank, which has said it will invest up to $20 billion along with Foxconn Technology and Bharti Enterprises in solar projects in India, estimates the electrification drive could create a requirement for over 150 gigawatt (GW) of additional power. India has an ambitious target to generate 100 GW of solar power by 2022 and while President Donald Trump is pulling the United States out of the Paris accord on climate change, India is sticking to its renewable energy commitments. SoftBank is also one of the biggest investors in ride-hailing firm Ola, which is preparing for a large-scale rollout of electric vehicles by next year and in May launched its first trial project to test viability.

“Clearly we are at the intersection – on the solar side we are building plants and on the electric vehicles side Ola is planning induction of vehicles,” Manoj Kohli, executive chairman of SB Energy, SoftBank’s solar business, said in an interview. In a few years when the number of electric vehicles and charging stations is significant there may be need for dedicated solar plants to supply energy for transportation, Kohli said. In a strategic shift, India’s most influential government think-tank, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unveiled a policy blueprint last month aimed at electrifying all vehicles in the country by 2032. The blueprint, designed to help India reduce emissions and cut its oil import bill, suggests lower taxes and loan interest rates for electric fleet taxis like Ola while capping sales of petrol and diesel models. 30

Despite government subsidies, electric vehicle sales in India have been negligible mainly due to high battery cost and lack of charging infrastructure, problems automakers say could make electrification unviable. Kohli said the local government would need to take the lead on setting up charging infrastructure and that the new policy, expected to be finalised before the end of the year, is likely to include suggestions to enable that. SB Energy has held discussions with government officials on ways in which countries in Europe and the United States are using solar power to charge electric vehicles and the potential solutions for India, Kohli said.

June 2017

“The intention is very clear that electric vehicle charging should be done using renewable energy. How it is done, the modus operandi, the architecture is still to be finalised,” he said. SOURCE:REUTERS

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FEATURED NEWS

Varanasi to be clean energy city $100 Million ADB Loan before Munich: Piyush Goyal to Punjab National Power Minister Piyush Goyal has taken up the challenge to rapidly make Bank to Finance Solar Varanasi a 100 per cent clean energy city to steal a march on Germany’s Munich. The German city is scheduled to flaunt the tag by 2025. Rooftop Projects

his is the first tranche loan of the $500 million multitranche finance facility Solar Rooftop Investment Program (SRIP) approved by ADB in 2016. The financing includes $330 million from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and $170 million from the multidonor Clean Technology Fund (CTF) administered by ADB. The first tranche loan of $100 million would be financed entirely from the CTF.

“Noting Munich’s aim to become 100 per cent renewable energy powered city by 2025, Goyal threw a challenge to make Varanasi 100 per cent renewable energy powered before 2025 and beat Munich,” stated Power Ministry in a statement on Goyal’s recent four-day visit to Berlin, Leipzig and Munich till June 1, 2017. It further said, “In this way, the World’s oldest city (Varanasi) can also become the first major city to be powered fully by clean energy. The Minister instructed officials to start working on this including the storage and distribution infrastructure required for the same.”

everal development works are on in Varanasi, which is the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where renewable energy is being promoted in a big way. At present, India does not have any city or town which is 100 per cent energised by renewables and Varanasi would be the first such city in the country. India has set an ambitious target of having 175GW of renewable energy from sources like solar, wind, small hydro and bio mass. Earlier last month, lower equipment and borrowing costs had pulled down the solar power tariff to alltime low of Rs 2.44 per unit in the auction conducted for Bhadla solar park. Similarly, under the wind power auction for 1GW earlier this year, the tariff dipped to Rs 3.46 per unit. The new rates of solar power discovered in the auctions are even below the average rate of coal-based power produced by state-run NTPC at Rs 3.30 per unit. During the visit, the Minister apprised the German side how India’s tremendous success in auctions to ensure affordable renewable energy can also be adopted in Germany which is moving away from Feed In Tariffs (FITs). Given the global presence of German Development Agency GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) in over 130 countries, Goyal has proposed a partnership with state-run EESL, which can help India leapfrog and distribute energy efficiency products across the globe. The Minister also explored areas like potential availability of good technical assets in stressed solar companies in Germany, long term funding, grid balancing, electric vehicles development, off grid systems, green energy corridors and long term funding. SOURCE:PTI

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“With a sharp drop in the price of solar panels, India has a huge potential to expand its use of solar rooftop technologies,” said Kenichi Yokoyama, ADB Country Director in India who signed the loan on behalf of ADB. “The program will contribute to the government’s plans to increase solar power generation capacity and also help India meet the carbon emission reduction target in line with its commitment at the recent global climate change agreement.” India’s solar rooftop market is expanding fast with an estimated total capacity potential of 124 GW. “The project is suitably aligned with the goals of Government of India to increase the country’s solar rooftop capacity by 40 GW by 2022,” said Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, who signed the guarantee agreement for Government of India. The loan agreement was signed by H. K Parikh, General Manager, on behalf of PNB.

The entire Solar Rooftop Investment Program will cost $1 billion and the projects financed under the program will install solar rooftop system of around 1 GW capacity. This will contribute to the climate change goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 11 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the typical 25-year lifetime of rooftop solar systems. ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, ADB is celebrating 50 years of development partnership in the region. It is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2016, ADB assistance totaled $31.7 billion, including $14 billion in cofinancing. EQ

June 2017

FEATURED NEWS

State Bank of India (SBI) approves 100MW of Grid-Connected Rooftop Solar Projects under Word Bank Program The State Bank of India (SBI) announced financing of solar rooftop projects worth Rs 400 crore, with private developers. This would add at least 100 MW of solar rooftop capacity to the grid, and is a significant step towards meeting the Government of India’s target for 40 GW of solar rooftop installations.

BI has availed loan of USD 625 million from the World Bank for on-lending to viable Grid-Connected Rooftop Solar PV (GRPV) projects undertaken by PV developers/aggregators and end-users, for installation of rooftop solar systems on the rooftops of commercial, institutional and industrial buildings. Implementation of the program by SBI will support the installation of more than 600 MW of rooftop solar capacity. With the World Bank funded capacity development program, SBI is making efforts to expand and incentivize the market for rooftop solar power by way of low cost financing. Financing is being provided to those with sound technical capacity, relevant experience, and creditworthiness, meeting SBI standards. Developers that the SBI will be financing under this Program include Azure Power, Amplus, and Cleanmax amongst others. The capacity of the projects and programs financed range from 25kWp to 16MW.

“As the largest Bank in India, SBI is committed to finance renewable energy projects to support the Government of India in realising its renewable energy targets. With the World Bank loan, SBI aims at developing the nascent rooftop solar market. As a tropical country, India has a huge potential to be the leader in the rooftop solar space,” said Karnam Sekar, Deputy Managing Director, SBI. “In order to accelerate demand for rooftop solar systems in the market, SBI has developed financing models that will provide loans at a very competitive pricing with long tenor. Several capacity building measures and awareness programs are being undertaken to sensitize operating functionaries. So far, SBI has sanctioned GRPV projects with aggregate capacity of 100 MW, and proposals are in the pipeline with aggregate capacity of around 125 MW. Going forward, off-take of loan would accelerate as awareness builds up in the market for grid-connected solar rooftop,” he added. Aided by government policy and declining costs, rooftop solar has the potential to transform the energy sector.

“We are very pleased that SBI has achieved this first important milestone, of financing 100 MW of solar PV capacity to solar. The World Bank is strongly supportive of the government’s plans to harness this potential. Solar PV will not only improve access to electricity, but it will do so in a manner that avoids the environmental impacts of other traditional electricity sources. Through this project and others like it, tens of millions of electricity customers will eventually be able to generate part of their own electricity needs, from one of the cleanest sources of energy available” said Riccardo Puliti, Senior Director, World Bank.

India is one of the lowest per capita consumers of electricity in the world. Over 200 million people remain unconnected to the electricity grid, and those who are, continue to face frequent disruptions. Power shortages also affect industrial output with many industries and manufacturers relying on expensive and polluting diesel-based back-up power supplies. Despite energy shortages, and the high cost of backup supply, rooftop solar PV systems have not yet become widespread in India. This is primarily due to the lack of adequate financing, unfamiliar technology and low consumer awareness. Until now, those that wanted to install solar rooftop PV systems had to pay the full cost up-front. The total capacity of rooftop solar, therefore, remains low. The World Bank-Clean Technology Fund (CTF) loan will support a number of solar PV business models, to expand the reach of rooftop PV systems to a variety of customer groups. A range of options available to investors under the SBI Rooftop PV Program will include third-party ownership, leasing, rooftop rental, as well as direct end-user ownership. The World Bank is also providing a Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant to support the overall capacity development of the sector. This grant will (i) support an innovative risk mitigation mechanism to enable lending to small and medium enterprises (SME), commercial and industrial customers for GRPV, and (ii) to support strengthening of the investment climate and capacity building of the main stakeholders involved in the expansion of GRPV. SOURCE: WB

June 2017

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electric Vehicles

India’s First Fleet of 200 Electric Vehicles Launched in Nagpur

Solar bus starts 20-day trip in Delhi on Environment Day

solar bus — lit up with LED bulbs and complete with a refrigerator and an air conditioner — started a 20-day journey in the city today to demonstrate how solar power can run an entire household. Called the Solar Comet, the “house on wheels” with solar panels fitted on the roof was flagged off by environment group Greenpeace India to mark World Environment Day. In the next 20 days, the bus will tour across the city, as activists interact with members of resident welfare associations (RWAs) on the the benefits of rooftop solar panels. The Comet, fitted with power saving LEDS bulbs, also has mobile charging points, a mixer grinder and an air cooler, all working on solar energy. The exercise is aimed at creating awareness about the benefits of installing rooftop solar panels in the national capital, Greenpeace India said.

The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis launched India’s first multi-modal electric vehicle project at the Nagpur airport complex today. This unique project brings together e-buses, e-cabs, erickshaws and e-autos on a single platform, the Ola App, which will enable commuters in Nagpur to book them. The fleet of 200 vehicles consists of 100 of Mahindra’s new e20 Plus vehicles, besides those from other manufacturers like Tata Motors, Kinetic and TVS.

peaking on the occasion Shri Gadkari said that it was his Government’s vision to make India a 100 percent e-vehicle nation. Shri Gadkari said his Ministry was prepared to facilitate manufacturers and other companies to take the Nagpur model to other parts of the country. He said e- vehicles need to be promoted in order to cut down the huge crude oil bill, reduce pollution and create cost effectiveness in transportation. To begin with, the emphasis would be on commercial vehicles and then on others.

Shri Gadkari informed that growing demand, coupled with R&D would gradually help to bring down the operational costs, and especially the battery cost. Shri Gadkari added that once the cost of batteries comes down, e-vehicles will compete with diesel and petrol vehicles and finally phase them out.

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“The Delhi government came up with a solar policy last year. But despite the benefits that it offers, Delhiites haven’t really woken up to the idea. Till now the uptake has been very low in residential sectors, Pujarini Sen, climate and energy campaigner of Greenpeace India, said. Delhi s total solar potential is of 2,500 MW, with a residential potential of 1,250 MW. Its official target is to reach solar installations of a capacity of 1,000 MW by 2020 and 2,000 MW by 2025. But as of December 2016, only 35.9 MW of solar panels had been installed out of which, till March 2016, only 3 MW were on residential installations. “We hope the solar bus is able to play its part in encouraging more and more residents to go solar,” Sen said. She said talks with RWAs revealed several misconceptions about rooftop solar energy. People, for instance, believe that rooftop solar entails a high capital investment, though the state and central governments have been offering financial incentives to promote the clean energy. In Delhi, apart from a 30 per cent rebate offered by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, loans are available for those willing to generate solar energy. Roof rights are a common problem faced by people living in apartments, where the terrace is usually owned by those occupying the top floor. In such cases, the RWAs can take a collective decision to install a solar power system in the common areas of the colony, Sen said, saying that some apartments were following this system. All we need is an open mind, she said. Rooftop solar is an environment friendly alternative to coal-powered electricity and can make the city’s air more breathable, Sen added. SOURCE: PTI

June 2017

TRADE WARS

U.S. may put emergency tariffs on solar imports

ISA

ISA pact signed by 3 more nations, India sets aside $2 bn for solar projects in Africa

The United States has notified the other 163 members of the World Trade Organization that it is considering putting emergency “safeguard” tariffs on imported solar cells, according to a WTO filing published.

he move raises the stakes in a global battle to dominate the solar power industry, which has grown explosively in the past five years. As production has increased, prices have tumbled, favoring producers who can take advantage of economies of scale. The United States, China and India are vying to be the market leader, and are looking out for any perceived breach of the international trade rules by their rivals. Last September, the WTO ruled that India was illegally discriminating against U.S. solar exports, while India launched its own WTO complaint about solar subsidies in eight U.S. states. The United States’ ability to attract renewable energy investment has been tarnished by the shift in energy policy under U.S. President Donald Trump, putting China and India on top, a report by British accountancy firm Ernst & Young said earlier this month. The U.S. decision to consider safeguard tariffs follows a petition to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) by Suniva, Inc, the filing said. Under WTO rules, such temporary tariffs may be used to shield an industry from a sudden, unforeseen and damaging surge in imports. They can be challenged by other WTO members. The ITC will decide by Sept. 22 whether the U.S. industry has suffered “serious injury”, and if that is the case it will submit its report to Trump by Nov. 13, the filing said. Suniva’s petition said the volume of imports rose by 51.6 percent between 2012 and 2016, while the value of those imports grew by 62.8 percent from $5.1 billion to $8.3 billion. The petition alleges that increasing imports have taken market share from domestic producers and have led to bankruptcies, plant shutdowns, layoffs, and a severe deterioration of the financial performance of the domestic industry,” the U.S. filing said. Suniva itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 17. While imports have risen, U.S. producers have seen business shrivel, with 1,200 manufacturing jobs lost and a 27 percent wage decline in the four years to 2016. U.S. solar cell plants went from running at 81.7 percent of capacity in 2014 to 28.9 percent in 2016, the filing said. “Data in the petition also indicates that (U.S. producers’)domestic market share fell from 21.0 percent in 2012 to 11.0 percent in 2016, despite a $4 billion growth of the U.S. market over the same period.” (Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Larry King and Jane Merriman) SOURCE:REUTERS

June 2017

he International Solar Alliance (ISA), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with former French president Francois Hollande at the UN Climate Change conference in Paris in November 2015, received a major boost on Monday as three more countries signed the ISA Framework Agreement on the side lines of the African Development Bank’s annual meeting in Gandhinagar. The Republic of Nauru meanwhile ratified the framework agreement of ISA, according to a press statement issued by the Gujarat government. The ISA agreement was signed by three countries Cote d’lvoire, Somalia and Ghana in presence of finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley at an event organised by the ministry of external affairs. India has also set aside $2 billion for solar projects in Africa out of the government’s $10 billion concessional line of credit for Africa, according to a press statement by MEA. The ISA is conceived as a coalition of solar resource rich countries to address their special energy needs and will provide a platform to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach. Within seven months of the opening of Framework agreement for signature in November 2016, the total number of signatories to ISA framework agreement has reached 31, with 6 countries having ratified the agreement so far. The ISA as a legal entity will come into existence once 15 countries ratify and deposit the framework agreement. Underlining the significance of the ‘Signing and Ratification Ceremony of the ISA’, Jaitley stated that it is an important milestone in our economic development. At the five-day event in Gandhinagar from 22 to 26 May, India would also accept ratification documents from those countries that have completed the ratification process. So far, 25 countries have signed the ISA’s framework agreement including Brazil, Rwanda, France, Fiji, Bangladesh, Ethopia and India. Mauritius would be signing and ratifying the framework agreement together on 27 May during the upcoming visit of the Mauritius prime minister to India. Fiji has also completed the ratification process and will deposit its instrument with the MEA in the next few weeks. Jaitley, while addressing a session on Africa India cooperation ‘Partnerships to Industrialise and move Africa up the Value Chains’, said that emerging economies like India are not only proving to be an important source of foreign direct investment (FDI) for the continent but also a vital exports market.

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rooftop

East Coast Railway to install solar power plant to meet bulk needs

ITI in Puducherry goes solar

The East Coast Railway’s (ECoR) Carriage Repair Workshop at Mancheswar here will install a 0.65 megawatt solar power plant by end of October.

10 kw solar panels installed at a cost of Rs. 8.8 lakh

ven the ECoR headquarters here has commissioned two solar power system of 50 kwp each. According to the terms and conditions, the lowest bidder will supply, install, commission and maintain the plant for 25 years. The firm will also bear all the expenditure of the project, he added.The railways will own the plant after 25 years. “We mostly use coal-fired thermal power to meet our electricity need,” he added.The workshop has already installed solar panels on rooftop of its administrative building producing 2 kwp .

BHUBANESWAR: The East Coast Railway’s (ECoR) Carriage Repair Workshop at Mancheswar here will install a 0.65 megawatt solar power plant by end of October. It will produce green energy to meet the workshop’s demand.

Chief workshop manager (CWM) Manas Kumar Poddar said they will install the solar plant over 6,500 square metre inside the workshop at an estimated cost of Rs 5.25 crore.He said the project will be executed through public private partnership (PPP) mode on open bidding system. “We have floated the tender. After the tender process is completed, installation work will be started,” he added.Poddar said the solar panels will be installed on the rooftop of the workshop buildings. According to the terms and conditions, the lowest bidder will supply, install, commission and maintain the plant for 25 years. The firm will also bear all the expenditure of the project, he added.The railways will own the plant after 25 years.

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he Hindu that power generated from the solar panel installed in the institute has completely replaced the conventional energy. “The institute is completely running on solar energy from Monday. The solar power generated is not only used for lighting, air-conditioner but also to run all the electrical appliances in the lab,” Labour Commissioner E. Vallavan

Saving surplus power He added that the surplus power generated would be sent to the main power grid. “During rainy season when power is not generated through solar panels, we could use the conventional power equivalent to the surplus power sent to the main grid,” he said. The Labour Commissioner added that they are partnering with Renewable Energy Agency Puducherry (REAP) to upgrade another seven Industrial Training Institutes in Puducherry to solar energy.

Solar plant launched in Amara Raja unit

iggest solar project in South India’ Minister for Industries on Saturday launched the 2.5 MW powered Rooftop Solar Power Plant at the Amara Raja Growth Corridor at Mordhanapalle village of Yadamarri mandal, 10 km from here. Speaking on the occasion,

N. Amaranatha Reddy Minister said that Chittoor district would provide the best amenities to the entrepreneurs, and Amara Raja group’s entry into solar power generation was a welcome sign, and it was a proud moment for the district, as it happened to be the biggest solar power generation project in South India.

June 2017

rooftop

Solar plant will help RU save Rs 10L Cash-strapped Rajasthan University (RU) was allocated Rs 6.50 crore by the Jaipur Smart City Ltd for setting up of a solar power plant on Tuesday.

Installation of 6 Kva Wind and Solar Hybrid Power Plant At Gamphazol Village

ssam Rifles of 28 Sector Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ IGAR (South) installed a 6 KVA Wind and Solar Hybrid Power Plant at Gamphazol village, Churachandpur District (Manipur) under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) for the year 2016-17 . Gamphazol is located near the Indo-Myanmar border and is devoid of any developmental projects of the government because of its remoteness. The introduction of electricity in the village by Assam Rifles will immensely benefit the daily routine life of the villagers. The people of Gamphazol have expressed their gratitude to the 21 Assam Rifles installing solar power plant and have ensured that it will further strengthen bond between AR and locals.

Coca-Cola’s Ludhiana bottling plant commission 100 KW Solar powerplant In a step towards environmental protection and sustainable manufacturing, Ludhiana Beverages Private Limited, an authorized franchise bottler of CocaCola announced the commissioning of a 100 KW solar power plant.

T 36

The CocaCola System and its bottling partners are working towards a vision of reducing the carbon footprint by 25 per cent by 2020 across its entire value chain of manufacturing, packaging, distribution and sourcing.

June 2017

mount will be spent on installing 950 kilowatt grid connected solar power plant. The idea of planting a solar plant is formulated by the vice chanceller Rajeshwar Singh. The university is allowed to use 50% of the power generated out of the solar plant for free. While the rest 50% will be pay to the Jaipur Smart City Ltd on reasonable rates.Chief public relations officer of Rajasthan University,

Bhupendra Singh Shekawat told, “This solar plant will save Rs 10 lakh of the RU as this plant will meet the 50% of the total power consumption.

Tired of power cuts, school in Jaganathpur switches on the sun The Rajkiyakrit Madhya Vidyalaya (government middle school) at Jaganathpur has set an example by being the first in the state to set up a solar unit. Until now, the students had to study without computers and smart classes and even basic amenities like fans and lights in the want of power supply.

et up at a cost of Rs 2.25 lakh, the 2 KW solar unit was funded by a non-governmental organisation, Round Table India. The solar unit, set up at a cost of Rs 2.25 lakh, was inaugurated by the state art, culture and tourism minister Amar Kumar Bauri. Present on the occasion was national president of Round Table India Manpreet Singh Raja. This school has over 1,200 students and 27 teachers. “The school has moved a step ahead by solving its electricity problem. The government is trying its best to improve the education system and unless we get support from organisations like the Round Table India, the road ahead is difficult,”

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rooftop

2,000 houses in Maharashtra generate own solar power and sell extra to state-grid Sunday was a special day for over 500 residents of Grace Housing society in the Vasant Oscar complex at Mulund as their long cherished dream of having solar power plant finally came true.

ow the society’s sprawling campus, lobbies and parking area will be lit by the solar energy generated during the day by 30 KW panels installed on terraces. The unused electricity for the day will automatically be transferred to the state grid. The panels are expected to produce 45,000 units of power every year with an expected life span of 25 years. Vicky Pandit, a resident, says, “The panel cost us around Rs 14 lakh after 30 per cent subsidy received from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. And we hope to save Rs 5 lakh per year.” The Mulund society’s inspiration was two Panvel doctors and Member of Parliament Kirit Somaiya, who were among the first in the state to install solar panels in their homes and connect it with the state grid under the Rooftop solar power policy introduced in 2016. Rooftop solar power is increasingly become popular. More than 2,000 houses in the state are now connected to the state grid. “It helps cut the power bill, and initial cost can be recovered within five years. I consider it my contribution to nature by reducing the carbon footprint,”

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says paediatrician Dr Prashant Gaikwad from new Panvel, who installed 6 KW panel of Rs 3 lakh at his bungalow a year ago. His home generated 10 units a day of which only 7 units were consumed.

Over 195 industries, a sports complex in Navi Mumbai, 10 educational institutes in eastern suburbs and Municipal corporation of Thane have also joined the solar bandwagon recently. Sidharth Deshmukh, co-founder of a solar company Minus Co2, says, “The trend is picking up as people, industries and commercial establishments have increasingly become environment conscious.”

Mumbai holds the potential to generate close to 1,720 MW of solar energy, according to a report released by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. The report, that gauges the solar energy potential of Mumbai, found that if solar panels are installed atop buildings, the city could generate 1,724 MW energy, half of its requirement.

June 2017

rooftop

Manipur weavers to get 4 lakh solar-powered looms Manipur Commerce & Industries Minister Thongam Biswajit on Sunday said that the Central Government has agreed to provide four lakh solar powered looms to the weavers of the State in order to increase productivity as well as their income.

he Minister was speaking at a reception cum opening of new bank account of weavers at Uchekon, Laikon Lampak in Imphal East district. The function was jointly organised by Departments of Textiles, Commerce& Industry and Handlooms & Textiles. Stating that there are 4.5 lakh households in the State without employment, he said, a new delivery system for raw materials will be launched in the State soon to help weavers. The government is also targeting to generate one lakh jobs in a year under various departments.

The Minister also informed that the spinning mill located at Loitang Khunou in Imphal West district will be revived very soon. The Union Ministry of Textiles will provide 70 per cent subsidy for reviving the mill which is the only cotton spinning mill in the entire North East, he added. He told the gathering that handloom and handicraft emporia will be opened very soon in every district of the State. Handloom and handicraft is very important as it is the main source of income in the State. Project Manager (Handloom), Imphal East, P Meenakumari said it is necessary for weavers to open bank account to avail benefits under various Central Government schemes.

BIAL aims to meet 50% of its energy needs through solar power

The Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) announced inauguration of two projects that will help it to meet 12 per cent of its energy needs through solar power. The BIAL also aims to produce half of its energy needs through solar power by 2020.

ccording to BIAL, the first project of 440kW has been installed in the car park area and the second project of 2.5MW solar panels at the airside. Airside includes all areas accessible to aircraft, including runways, taxiways and apron.

“We aim to achieve 50 per cent of our energy needs through renewable power in the next 3 years. We will continue our effort to look at newer methods to operate our business in an ecologically sustainable environment,” said Hari Marar, President, Airport Operations, BIAL. Source : PTI

Source : AT

June 2017

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rooftop

‘Varanasi can generate 676 MW from solar rooftop panels

Ajmer division of NWR inks pact for solar panels

Prime Minister parliamentary constituency Varanasi has the potential to generate 676 MW power from solar rooftop panels alone. However, outdated grids and a huge line loss pose a challenge, a report.

he Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) report “Vibrant Varanasi, Transformation through Solar Rooftop”, released here by Girish Chandra Tripathi, Vice-Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), also set a road-map for the historic city to generate 300 MW by 2025. The recognised potential 676 MW can be achieved using only 8.7 per cent of the total eligible Varanasi roof space within the 69 sq. km of built up area in the city’s municipal corporation area. “However, given the 40-42 per cent of distribution loss, against a national average of 24 per cent, and inefficient grid of Varanasi based discom Poorvanchal Vidhyut Vitran Nigam Ltd, it would take at least till 2032 to tap the entire potential,” abhishek pratap, director-programmes CEED and lead author of the report, told IANS. pratap said while the present annual power demand of Varanasi is 861 MW, the growth of the town is set to increase the demand to 1700 MW by 2025. Power generation in Varanasi is growing by 5-6 per cent annually like any other tier-2 city. But the growth in construction and industries around the city projects need 8 per cent growth. Our roadmap aims to produce 300 MW from solar rooftop by 2025, but there will be hurdles,” Pratap said.

By signing Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on Thursday evening with distributing solar company for 550 kwp capacities of solar plants, Ajmer division of North Western Railways (NWR) has taken another big leap in solar power connectivity and self-reliance energy. This will help to connect DRM office, Ajmer railway station, zonal training institute in Udaipur and Udaipur railway station with solar power.

As per the survey, despite having huge potential, the development has to go slow in order to avoid grid tripping or failure. “We can’t add even 300 MW suddenly, to avoid grid failure it should be 175 MW… so, the plan is to add 20-25 MW per year to the grid and updating the grid, lines and meters accordingly,” Pratap said, adding that grid expansion and upgradation is a must.

•

At present, the city of Varanasi through the ongoing individual solar rooftop projects at the airport, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Vikas Bhawan, produces power in the range of a few kilowatts. Meanwhile, the entire state of Uttar Pradesh produces only 40 MW of solar power at present against the target of producing 10.7 GW (10,700 MW) of solar power and additional 4.3 GW (4,300 MW) of power from solar rooftops by 2022. As per Prime Minister Modi’s aspirations, India’s domestic solar programme targets to achieve 175 GW as renewable energy by 2022, of which 100 GW is solar. Of the 100 GW solar energy, about 40 GW is from solar rooftops. Source:IANS

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Agreement for this project, under central finance assistance programme of ministry of new and renewable energy, was signed by senior divisional electrical engineer and representative from the company in presence of DRM Puneet Chawla. Speaking to media persons on this occasion, Chawla said solar panels will be installed on rooftops of railway buildings. “The company is leading a leading renewable energy companyand has commissioned clean energy with more than 10 megawatts of rooftop solar projects at various zones of Indian Railways,” added the DRM. In the agreement, it has been stated that complete solar generated power will be purchased by the division at flat tariff rate of Rs 5.50 per unit from the firm which has targeted to install solar plants with capacity of 2 megawatts by December this year. Total installed capacity of solar power plants will be 2.3 megawatt that will generate about 51.5 lakh units per year costing about Rs 36 crore.

“It will help reducing carbon footprints by 3,000 tonnes per year in Ajmer division,” added an official. A total of 17 railway stations including Udaipur and Abu Road will be provided with solar plants this year. “Presently, total solar energy capacity in Ajmer division is 350 KW out of which, 290 KW system has already been installed and stations like Falna, Rani, Marwar and Rana Partap Sangar is already getting solar power,” added an official EQ

June 2017

FEATURED NEWS

MNRE : Historic low Tariff of Rs. 2.44 per unit discovered in Bhadla Phase-III Solar Park in auction by SECI

istory is created, as the record low tariffs achieved in the auction concluded on 09.05.2017 for Bhadla Phase-IV Solar Park, Rajasthan has been broken, with even lower tariff of Rs. 2.44 per unit discovered in the auction carried out by Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) for 500 MW capacity in Bhadla Phase-III Solar Park, Rajasthan. The park is being set up by M/s Saurya Urja Company of Rajasthan Limited, a joint venture between the Govt. of Rajasthan and M/s IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited. The winners are M/s ACME Solar Holdings Pvt. Ltd. (200 MW) at a tariff of Rs. 2.44 per unit and M/s SBG Cleantech One Ltd. (300 MW), quoting a tariff of Rs. 2.45 per unit. The entire solar power will be consumed in the State of Rajasthan and power sale agreement with the State Distribution Companies is already tied up. The developers are responsible to connect to the pooling sub-station of solar park.

The developers will be paying solar park charges of Rs.45.2 lakh per megawatt towards land, connectivity (from pooling substation to state network) and other infrastructural facilities. The projects are likely to be completed in about 12-13 months. The earlier lowest tariff of Rs. 2.62 per kWh, was discovered recently in the auction conducted by SECI for 250 MW Bhadla Phase-IV Solar Park in Rajasthan. Other factors contributing are about 7-8% higher yield in Rajasthan due to better solar radiation conditions, drop in module prices in International market, and strengthening of Indian rupee against US dollar. For the present bid, the bids were submitted by 24 bidders for a capacity of 5500 MW which is 11 times of the bid capacity. Bid received overwhelming global response including developers from Finland, France, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Japan. This became possible only due to constant endeavor at SECI to streamline the bidding process with highest level of transparency and integrity under the guidance of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited New Delhi

Dated:12.05.2017

Notice 1: Final Result of e-RA for 250 MW Bhadla Phase-IV Solar Park under

NSM Ph-II B-IV Tranche-IX (e-RA Conducted on 09.05.2017) Financial Sl. No

Techno

Bid

commercially

Capacity

qualified Bidder

Phelan Energy Group Limited

Avaada Power Pvt. Ltd SBG Cleantech Three Ltd

(After e-RA)

Allotted

VGF

capacity

eligibility as

(MW)

per result of

VGF

Final tariff

(INR/MW)

(INR/kWh)

0.00

2.62

0.00

100

0.00

2.62

100

0.00

250

0.00

2.63

100

0.00

250

0.00 (Zero Only)

(MW)

Total

e-RA

Notice 2: Final Result of e-RA for 500 MW Bhadla Phase-III Solar Park under NSM

Ph-II B-IV Tranche-VIII (e-RA Conducted on 11.05.2017) Financial Techno

Bid

commercially

Capacity

qualified Bidder

(MW)

Sl. No

VGF

Final tariff

(INR/MW)

(INR/kWh)

Allotted

VGF

capacity

eligibility as

(MW)

per result of e-RA

ACME Solar Holding Limited

200

0.00

2.44

200

0.00

SBG Cleantech OneLtd

500

0.00

2.45

300

0.00

500

0.00 (Zero Only)

Total

40Â

(After e-RA)

June 2017

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FEATURED NEWS

Japanese Group ORIX Corp. Partners With SUN Group for Solar SUN Group (“SUN”), a leading principal investor in emerging markets, announced a joint venture partnership for its distributed generation (“DG”) focused solar business, SUN Renewables, with ORIX Corporation (“ORIX”), one of the largest Japanese financial services groups and the largest solar developer in Japan.

he partnership brings together the synergistic strengths of SUN and ORIX to position SUN Renewables as a leading player in DG solar in the country with a clear focus on providing Commercial and Industrial (C&I) clients with clean power and energy efficiency solutions starting with DG solar power. ORIX is one of the largest Japanese integrated financial services groups with diversified businesses ranging from finance, environment and clean energy, real-estate and leasing businesses. It has major presence across the entire value-chain of clean

energy services from power generation, power supply, demand management, energy storage and energy efficiency. ORIX is the largest Japanese solar developer with 1 GW of solar projects (570 MW commissioned) including 150 MW of rooftop solar portfolio. It also has a major presence in wind and biomass power generation as well as energy storage and energy efficiency solutions for large private-sector customers. Besides its financial investment into SUN Renewables, ORIX brings best practices in project development, high quality solar design and engineering, and expertise in monitoring and operating its rooftop solar portfolio which is larger than that of any Indian solar developer’s.

“We are very excited to partner with SUN Group and to leverage its local business knowledge and the Group’s overall operating experience spanning over 100 years,” said Mr Hidetake Takahashi, Senior Managing Director of ORIX. “We liked the Group’s entrepreneurial yet disciplined and long-term mind set of conducting business which is similar to ORIX’s business culture. We are also impressed with the quality of SUN Renewables’ management and its focus on distributed generation solar. With complementary strengths of ORIX and SUN Group, SUN Renewables is ideally positioned to be the market leader in offering comprehensive sustainable energy solutions for the Indian market – starting with solar power.” Uday Khemka, Vice Chairman, SUN Group said, “Distributed Generation Solar Energy will transform the Commercial and Industrial energy landscape in India in the decade to come. We feel honoured to partner with ORIX Corporation, one of Japan’s most reputable financial institutions and the country’s leading solar developer, to help lead this transformation. Our joint venture will benefit from ORIX’s world-class solar track record, management experience and quality processes across hundreds of mega-watts of solar projects with a view to serving our clients over the long-term through robust, quality-conscious processes in every facet of our project development and operations.”

The distributed solar segment in India is expected to grow from a total installed capacity of 1 GW today to about 15 GW by 2022 with opportunities in rooftop as well as small ground-mount solar projects for private, government and public sector power consumption. SUN Renewables’ emphasis is on this segment of Indian solar with a special focus on serving the private power purchase requirements of large C&I clients.

Source:PRN

International Solar Alliance to set up $300 bn fund

he International Solar Alliance (ISA) is proposing to set up a $300 billion fund to support clean energy projects in member countries over the next 10 years.

“The proposal is to strive for 300 bn dollar global fund over 10 year with contributions from the World Bank … and also from Green Climate Fund to leverage $3,000 billion investment from the corporate sector for meeting investment requirement for solar energy programmes and projects in ISA member countries for the next 10 years,” ISA interim Director General Upendra Tripathy told reporters.

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The ISA is an alliance of more than 120 countries. The allocation will be notional and will only be backed with 20 per cent of the amount being budgeted. The risk guarantee premium may be 0.8 to 1 per cent and the World Bank may administer it as a commercial project, Tripathy said.

“We are thinking of creating over a period of 10 years 300 billion dollar fund. 300 billion dollar is a big number,” he said. “The idea of ISA is not to ask for cheques not to tell them to deposit money. This…is the cheque of assurance, of commitment, that if somebody has taken the assurance and the claim comes then only you have to settle it…this will attract capital into this sector in the ratio of 1:10.” Source:PTI

June 2017

International Solar Alliance

MNRE: Commissioning a Study on Common Risk Mitigation Mechanism for Solar Power Generation Projects in Solar Resource Rich Countries Under Aegis of ISA Argentina, Burkina-Faso, Chad, France, India, Ivory Coast, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sénégal, Uganda and Yemen have jointly supported commissioning of a study to define and structure a Common Risk Mitigation Mechanism (CRMM) for solar power generation projects in solar rich countries .

his is a major step in the implementation of the Paris Declaration of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) adopted on 30 November 2015 and of the ISA Programme aimed at mobilising “Affordable finance at scale”. This instrument will dramatically lower the cost of finance for renewable energy and the overall price of electricity. Today, the cost of capital represents a substantial amount of the final costs of renewable energy, in particular solar PV. The Council on Energy, Environment and Water calculates that in India it represents 70% of the total cost of solar power. The proposed CRMM will offer a simple and affordable tool that will create a secure environment for private institutional investment in solar assets. The instrument will help diversify and pool risks on mutualized public re-

sources and unlock significant investments. The study was entrusted by the Interim Secretariat to a task force chaired by Terrawatt Initiative (TWI), the World Bank Group, the Currency Exchange Fund (TCX), the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and also the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). Public and private stakeholders and partners will be consulted to contribute to the initiative and to ensure collective buy-in and validation. Participating countries may each appoint a qualified representative who will liaise with the task force and convey information regarding countries’ specific expectations, experience and needs. They call all other countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics to join them and support this initiative to attract investments into the solar sector.

Background on ISA The International Solar Alliance is an initiative jointly launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30 November 2015 at Paris, in the presence of the Secretary General of the UN, on the side lines of COP21. Under the ISA, solar rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics are invited to share and aggregate data regarding their needs and objectives; emulate successful practices; and set up common mechanisms and instruments, in order to address obstacles to deployment at scale of solar energy.

IIEST creates India’s first smart grid project Kolkata, May 17 (PTI) The Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) has successfully created the country’s first smart grid project, which will generate power from renewable sources of energy. The project will soon be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee, IIEST Director Prof Ajoy Kumar Roy told PTI.

SmArt Grid

“The smart grid will be synchronised to generate power from solar, wind and vegetable waste resources, depending on the weather conditions and availability of waste products. It is the first of its kind in the country. The power to be generated from solar energy depends on the availability of sunlight while wind energy will be produced during nor’wester and tropical storm. The power from biogas will be generated from vegetable waste collected from the campus kitchen and outside markets.” Roy said.

June 2017

n the integrated project, by the Centre for Excellence for Green Energy Systems (CEGESS) of the institute, we are aiming to generate 32 KW of power from whichever resource available and synchronise the smart grid to take the power in the system for use. Thus we will not be depending on one resource. Roy added that the world will be faced with serious situation with the depletion of hydrocarbon source. “Since coal-hydrocarbon based energy technology leads to environmental degradation, the future lies in renewable energy based technology,” he said. The eminent scientist said, this being the age of smart technology, the institute needed to look forward. “The government planners and academicians should be involved in big way as technology is changing very very fast. “The next 50 years will witness unimaginable change in technology, which cannot be static,” he added. Source:PTI

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Battery storage

The Next Disruptive Technology In The Power Sector By David Frankel And Amy Wagner

Low-cost storage could transform the power landscape. The implications are profound. Storage prices are dropping much faster than anyone expected, due to the growing market for consumer electronics and demand for electric vehicles (EVs). Major players in Asia, Europe, and the United States are all scaling up lithium-ion manufacturing to serve EV and other power applications. No surprise, then, that batterypack costs are down to less than $230 per kilowatt-hour in 2016, compared with almost $1,000 per kilowatt-hour in 2010.

Battery storage

CKinsey research has found that storage is already economical for many commercial customers to reduce their peak consumption levels. At today’s lower prices, storage is starting to play a broader role in energy markets, moving from niche uses such as grid balancing to broader ones such as replacing conventional power generators for reliability,1 providing power-quality services, and supporting renewables integration. Further, given regulatory changes to pare back incentives for solar in many markets, the idea of combining solar with storage to enable

households to make and consume their own power on demand, instead of exporting power to the grid, is beginning to be an attractive opportunity for customers (sometimes referred to as partial grid defection). We believe these markets will continue to expand, creating a significant challenge for utilities faced with flat or declining customer demand. Eventually, combining solar with storage and a small electrical generator (known as full grid defection) will make economic sense—in a matter of years, not decades, for some customers in high-cost markets.

In this article we consider, as these trends play out, how storage could transform the operations of grids and power markets, the ways that customers consume and produce power, and the roles of utilities and third parties. Our analysis is directed mostly at developments in Europe and the United States; the evolution of storage could and probably will take a different course in other markets.

Implications for the utility industry

torage can be deployed both on the grid and at an individual consumer’s home or business. A complex technology, its economics are shaped by customer type, location, grid needs, regulations, customer load shape, rate structure, and nature of the application. It is also uniquely flexible in its ability to stack value streams and change its dispatch to serve different needs over the course of a year or even an hour. These value streams are growing both in value and in market scale (Exhibit 1).

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June 2017

Battery storage

Cheap battery storage will pose a challenge for utilities behind the meter (that is, small-scale installations located on-site, such as in a home or business). But it will also present an opportunity for those in front of the meter (large-scale installations used by utilities for a variety of on-grid applications).

Behind the meter

heap solar is already proving a challenge to business as usual for utilities in some markets. But cheap storage will be even more disruptive because different combinations of storage and solar will likely be able to arbitrage any variable rate design that utilities create.

In Some Cases, Grid Defection Is Beginning To Make Economic Sense.

Specifically, net energy metering (NEM) refers to rules that allow excess power to be sold back to the grid at retail rates; and feed-in tariffs, which are guaranteed price adders for renewable power, have played an important role in expanding the global market for renewables. In the US states that have implemented such rules, NEM has proved to be a powerful incentive for consumers to install solar panels.

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lthough it has been helpful for solar, NEM also has put utilities under pressure. It reduces demand because consumers make their own energy; that increases rates for the rest, as there are fewer bill payors to cover the fixed investment in the grid, which still provides backup reliability for the solar customers. The solar customers are paying for their own energy but not paying for the full reliability of being connected to the grid. The utilitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; response has been to design rates that reduce the incentive to install solar by moving to time-of-use pricing structures, implementing demand charges, or trying to reduce how much they pay customers for the electricity they produce that is exported to the grid. However, in a low-cost storage environment, these rate structures are unlikely to be effective at mitigating load losses. This is because adding storage allows customers to shift solar generation away from exports to cover more of their own electricity needs; as a result, they continue to receive close to the full retail value of their solar generation. This presents a risk for widespread partial grid defection, in which customers choose to stay connected to the grid in order to have access to 24/7 reliability, but generate 80 to 90 percent of their own energy and use storage to optimize their solar for their own consumption. We are already seeing this begin to play out in places where electricity costs are high and solar is widely available, such as Australia and Hawaii. On the horizon, it could occur in other solar-friendly markets, such as Arizona, California, Nevada, and New York (Exhibit 2). Many utility executives and industry experts thought the risk of load loss was overblown in the context of solar; the combination of solar plus storage, however, makes it much more difficult to defend against.

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Levelized cost of customer- sited energy Cost of avoided electricity

Grid defection economics estimates are based on Arizona residential customer. Partial defection assumes 90% load departure with solar & storage only. Full defection includes a small generator set for backup power. Solar & storage costs are from Mckinsey's cost-cureve forecast. 290% 1

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Battery storage

Full grid defection—that is, completely disconnecting from the centralized electric-power system—is not economical today. At current rates of cost declines, however, it may make sense in some markets earlier than anyone now expects. Of course, economics alone will not dictate how much and when customers choose to disconnect from their utilities. For example, another important factor is confidence in the reliability of their on-site power. But this dynamic will affect business-model and regulatory decisions sooner.

In front of the meter

torage can also benefit utilities by helping them to address the challenges of planning and operating the grid in markets where loads are expected to be flat or falling. Regulators in some US states, for example, are testing new models of compensation by offering utilities incentives to earn returns by providing contracts for distributed generation. This would, among other things, allow utilities to defer expensive new investments and reduce the risk of long-lived capital projects not being used. Utilities are also acting to procure storage assets to address both long-term regulatory requirements and short-term needs, such as reliability and deferring the construction of a new substation. As storage costs drop, such projects could lower generating costs—and, thus, consumer electricity rates—by putting further pressure on existing conventional gas and coal-generation fleets, depressing prices in capacity markets and providing loadfollowing services.

What utilities can do

tilities must start now to understand how low-cost storage is changing the future. In effect, utilities need to disrupt themselves—or others will do it for them. There are two broad categories of action to consider.

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Redesign compensation structures and explore new opportunities

ooner or later—sooner is better—regulators and utilities will need to find new ways to recover their investment in the grid. The grid is a long-lived asset that is expensive to build and maintain. Fixed fees for grid access are unpopular with consumers, and regulators are therefore not particularly keen on them, either. However, imposing fixed fees could ensure that everyone who uses the grid pays for it. The volumetric or variable rate structure in general use today is a historical construct. People are used to paying for the energy they use. But as more and more customers generate their own energy, the access to the grid for reliability and market access becomes more valuable than the electrons themselves. Because any rate-design changes will likely be slow and incremental (particularly those transitioning to fixed charges), utilities need to respond to these new market realities by capturing new earnings opportunities from expanded services and new transaction fees. There are already some interesting initiatives along these lines. In Australia, utilities are becoming solar-andstorage installers and providing advisory services2 ; while in the United States, one pilot program is selling advanced analytics and data-management services to consumers to help them manage their energy use.3 Utilities in several states are also exploring new services and investing in grid modernization and electrification.

Rethinking grid-system planning

tilities must radically change their grid-system planning approaches. This means investing in software and advanced analytics to modernize the grid. It also means changing how traditional system planning is done, by reconsidering codes and standards (some of which have been in place for decades), moving to circuit-by-circuit nodal planning, and employing asset health assessments to ensure the highest priority needs on the system are addressed.

June 2017

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

In Exclusive Talk With Candaian Solar, CEO Dr.Shawn Qu EQ: Please give a brief background of Cana -dian Solar Globally and its achievements in India? SQ : Canadian Solar is one of the top 3 global module manufacturer. We have a strong history of 16 years in the global PV business. Over 20 GW of Canadian Solar panels have been installed worldwide. We are present in Japan, USA, Canada, EMEA, UK, APAC [India and south east asia], Australia and China. Nearly 10,000 employees work across the world for Canadian Solar. We have manufacturing facilities in Canada, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil. Canadian Solar has a module manufacturing capacity of 7 GW. Canadian Solar is also a top player in solar power plant business, providing project development, EPC, O & M and system solution sales worldwide. In India,Canadian Solar started in 2012 and in 5 years in 2017 we have shipped over 2 GW to Indian consumers. We had crossed the 1 GW milestone in Feb 2016. We are proud for maintaining a leadership position in the Indian PV market with nearly 20% market share. Canadian Solar Indian team has a cumulative solar PV experience of nearly 50 years. We have been leading the Indian market by way of high quality products, on schedule delivery and sales support etc. we are very positive of this market and see good growth prospects. In 2017 alone we aim to cross 1 GW of module shipments from China.

EQ: The recent aggressive bidding by various developers keeping Solar Tariffs in the price range of Rs.2.44-3.34 per kWh in various Solar Tenders…What’s your view on the viability, Costs & timeline pressures, Resource Challenges (Materials, ManPower, Execution, Grid Connection, Land Possession) etc… SQ: These bids are very aggressive. The viability depends on very good and timely execution, realistic projections of IRR and cash flows and realistic financial assumptions made by the bidders. Grid connection and land continues to be a challenge in India, however the Government is developing adequate infrastructure to improve on these aspects. This will help the bidders tremendously.

June 2017

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

EQ: Kindly enlighten our readers on the performance of your modules in India in various geographic locations, customer feedback

SQ : Nearly 7 milion modules have been installed in India over the past 5 years. They have been performing extremely well over the years and giving excellent power generation to the consumers. Customers have reported PR of 19-20%. Plants in Gujarat and Rajasthan have performed better due to better radiation levels. Similarly in the south, PV plants in AP have done well too.

EQ: Present some noteworthy projects, case studies of solar plants built using your solar modules

SQ : There are several signature installations with Canadian Solar modules. To name a few;IGT Terminal 3 in Delhi has Canadian Solar panels ~2.2 MW installed in 2013 RSSB [Radha Saomi Satsang Beas] has the world’s largest rooftop ~ 12 MW with Canadian Solar panels. These are 60cell poly crystalline 260Wp modules. Adani Power selected Canadian Solar as a major supplier [310 MW] in their landmark world’s largest solar PV project [680 MW] at a single location in Tamil Nadu. We have supplied the CS6XP 310,315 & 320 WP modules into this project with short delivery timelines.

EQ: What are your plans for India, your view on the GOI target of 100GW Solar Power by 2022.

SQ : Year to date commissioned projects are around 11GW, and in FY 2018 additional 8GW likely to be installed, and with every year 30% growth, at the end of year 2022, India will reach a number of around 75GW, subject to the FDI into solar projects in India.

EQ: Solar Trade Wars :What is Your View ?

SQ : The ongoing reverse bid values of INR 2.44 & 2.62/unit, will only spoil the ongoing project commissioning, as project developers may wait for further time for module price reduction, giving these low tariff projects. Module prices will not skyfall, as expected by the developers

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in India. With GST implementation now in place, it will worsen the viability of projects with on-going low bid tariff based projects.

EQ: What are the top 5 markets for your company in the past, present and future

SQ : Past : Japan, Europe, USA, China & India. Present : Japan, USA, China, India & Europe. Future: Middle East, China, India, USA, Japan & Europe.

EQ: Canadian Solar started to deliver 1500 V modules in 2016.

SQ : Since 2013, we have delivered close to 1 GW of double glass modules, Dymond modules. Since 2016, we have been delivering mono perc modules. Our R & D teams are also working on several other leading edge solar and module technologies, including, but not limited to, Bifacial modules and poly perc cells.

EQ: Explain various guarantees, warrantees, insurance, certifications, test results, performance report of your modules

SQ : With 20 GW modules supplied globally, we are bankable throughout the world from most major banks. We offer “performance warranty insurance” from AON COFCO insurance company, on optional basis for 25 years performance warranty & 10 years product warranty. Our products are certified by VDE, and tested in worlds top standard labs.

EQ: Kindly highlight your product, technology & company USP’s, distinctive advantages etc…

SQ : Canadian Solar has launched Ku module portfolio,“KuPower & KuMax” series, Ku modules have many technical advantages as they are “cool” in : Lower negative temperature NMOT, Lower Hotspot temperature risk, triple junction box, etc.,

EQ: Do you also bring financing solutions for your customers ? SQ : As of now, financial solutions are not available for “module supplies” towards Indian projects, due to bankability of Indian

projects. However, in case, if the sovereign guarantees available for the supplies in India, we can surely bring “financial solutions” to Indian customers.

EQ: Please share information of some new orders in hand.

SQ : We have been supplying to Adani, Renew, Rising Sun, Suzlon, Mahindra Susten, Shapoorji & Pallonji Group & many other small customers with Canadian Solar high quality CS6U products.

EQ: What’s your commitment towards the solar sector in India

SQ : India is a very important market for Canadian Solar. We have been allocating resources for India market significantly when there has been module shortage in the global market.. Till now, Canadian Solar has supplied over 2 GW to India market, and Canadian Solar has planned to allocate 1.5 GW to 2 GW per annum for India market, at a mutually workable price level to suit their project cost.

EQ: Comment on the warranty claim rate, rejections, replacements etc…

SQ: Canadian Solar has one of the lowest claim rate in India, among any other module suppliers. Canadian Solar has supplied over 2 GW to India alone, and the claim rate is lower than 0.01% for the past 6 years of commissioning period, which is one of the best standards in the industry. This is one of the key reason, Canadian Solar has been still holding No.1 market share in India.

EQ: Are the developers betting on Modules Prices or Interest Rates ?

SQ : In the recent tenders, developers have taken their own assumption on the module price, based on the past record of price falls, over the period of last 2-3 years, and with the same rate of price fall, the prices were assumed for the supplies in 2018-19 period. Prices will continue to reduce, due to technology developments, and however new markets will come up and bridge the gap of supply demand for the existing production capacities. Hence, some turbulence is expected to see in module prices, but skyfall price won’t happen.

June 2017

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

H T I W W E I INTERV N I A J L I N U S . R M D

- CEO & E

NERGIES

TURE E , HERO FU

EQ: Would you please tell us more about Hero Future Energies?

SJ : Hero Future Energies is 4-year-old company, and as on date with 510 MW operating assets (wind+solar) and will hit 1 GW installation base by July 2017. Target for 2020 - 2.5 GW, with 250 MW outside India. Wind & Solar will be having equal proportion.

EQ: What is your view on the recent aggressive bids in Solar & Wind Auctions (RUMS, Bhadla, Wind, NTPC etc)?

SJ : There was a long dry up in the pipeline and biggest contributor to lowering price is the Chinese companies itself as they are constantly upgrading the technology and reducing the prices. Also

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interest rates in India are going down and 100-150 BPS reduction in debt finance is visible. Plus innovative financing, bonds being raised at sub 9% levels. Still the recent NTPC Kadappa and Bhadla tenders were very aggressive.

EQ: What is your view on the 10-15 GW Planned Capacity Addition of Solar & Challenges?

SJ : Adding 10-15GW every year for Solar is not a problem at all, but today the biggest concern is that the demand of the electricity if down and growth of solar is also a cause of concern for banks and thermal power plants as their PLF is reducing as the demand for power is down, lots of states have surplus power. Having said this I am very optimistic on achieving the renewables capacity addition targets.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

EQ: What are your expectations from technology providers?

SJ : Talking of solar modules first, definitely higher capacity, and higher busbar modules, 1500V Technology etc...are making the solar plants more and more efficient. Inverters : As land is still the biggest challenge for utility scale grid connected projects, we are now opting for Huawei string inverters as it reduces the requirement of land as no civil structure is required to house the central inverter or even if we go for container central inverter which takes more land than string inverter solution. String inverters can be hanged below the solar panels, plus they bring more and more efficiency, cuts losses, line losses and have lower auxiliary consumption. Trackers...Now entire south India is opting for trackers to go with solar plants.

EQ: Why select Huawei?

SJ : We used to cooperate with other inverter brands, but after we met Huawei team, visited their manufacturing plant, R&D Centres and they made presentations which were very impressive and constant technology up gradation is clearly visible with Huawei. New Huawei inverters are truly state of the art and meets all the tech compliances and we are happy to give them a big order and hopefully when we win more projects as we have huge plans, I am confident that Huawei will be a very good partner.

EQ: What is your view on impact on grid stability when we add more and more solar to the grid?

SJ : Grid turbulence is more because of wind and not so much for solar as solar provides relatively a lot of stable power to the grid. Still inverters needs to be compatible with storage also as per new CERC guidelines inverters should be HVRT/LVRT compliant and dynamic capacitors should be present in substation to stabilise the grid turbulence.

EQ: Financing....What is your view on domestic vs foreign debt financing?

SJ : Well Hero is a very high rated company and hence its most economical for us to raise money in India. If someone raises foreign finance, the

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forex fluctuation needs to be hedged. Although in the current scenario, policies by new US President Trump is causing the INE to appreciate and dollar to depreciate. Green bonds, masala bonds all these doesn’t make sense for HFE. Some companies are doing partial hedging which increases the forex risk. Masala bonds is a good way to free up the banking lines of domestic banks whose balance sheet is not strong to raise 20000-30000 crore rupees.

EQ: What is your view on rooftop solar market?

SJ : Well target of 40GW is certainly ambitions, even if we achieve half of this, it’s a very big number and achievement. Problem with Indian roofs is that they are flat, small, has multiple uses and installing the solar will restrict other uses of the roof. Unlike the west where roofs are sloping. Advantage is that any roof owner can save a lot of money with rooftop solar, attractive financing packages bundled with asset is like financing a car or house and there will are companies like ours who can put the solar system, invest in them and sign a PPA with the roof owner.

EQ: Advise to Government and other developers.

SJ : From the Government, we expect a stable and long term policy horizon. Solar is on its feet today and doesn’t need any subsidies or VGF. Payments should be on time and continue with the planned bids. For developers....advise is that don’t go too aggressive as it’s not a bottom less pit and none of the developers might like to go the thermal power way.

EQ: On Storage?

SJ : Its need of the day and with 100GW Solar and 60GW Wind, storage is a savior. By 2022 Solar+Storage will hit grid parity as cost of storage and solar both are declining further and we are heading towards a griddles world especially for the residential segment. For Hero, utility and mobility will be most important by 2022 as we expect 6Million 8Million EV's by 2022. Storage is the new frontier and solar is now a commodity. Technology will play a huge role and advise to tech companies is continuously invest in R&D.

June 2017

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Solar Energy Is The Sunshine Of Energy Needs A recent article by Swaminathan S A Aiyar (‘Roll Out the Sun, But Gently‘) and an editorial (‘Solar Power Calls for New Accounting‘) on this page have cast doubts on the Centre’s 100 GW target for solar energy by 2022. The writeups have argued that solar prices are going to drop further on account of long-term interest-rate reductions and improvement in module technology, and that the costs of managing intermittency are steep. So, investments in ‘expensive’ solar today are questionable.

AUTHOR - Mr. Sumant Sinha, CEO, Renew Power

ut this thesis is fundamentally wrong for a few reasons. First, compared to any other source of power today, solar prices are lower. The 500 MW Bhadla Solar Park auction in Rajasthan that closed on May 12, saw prices drop to Rs 2.44 per unit, well below new thermal tariffs, or even the average Rs 3.20 per unit rate at which the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) sells electricity from its coal plants. On this simple economic comparison alone, all new capacity addition ought to be solar-based. Second, solar was priced at Rs 15 per unit only four years ago. That is how the technology cost curve evolves. New technologies are expensive in the beginning. But with continued investments and resultant ecosystem development, they stabilise over time. The thenGujarat chief minister Narendra Modi promoted the first 1,000 MW of solar that kick-started this entire industry. 52

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Had somebody not taken this bold initial step, all this progress would not have taken place. The cost of everything other than the modules — inverters, cables, module structures, etc, that make up more than 50 per cent of the entire cost of a solar project —will reduce only if a market for them is nurtured. And that is what successive governments have done. The National Solar Mission must surely rank as one of the public policy success stories in recent years. To argue that solar prices will reduce even more and, therefore, we should not lock into tariffs today is specious. First, solar is already ‘cheapest’ today. On that score alone, it should be the preferred source for new capacity addition. Second, it doesn’t degrade the environment. We need to sensibly plan for risk and uncertainty by making regular investments over time, and not put all our eggs in one basket. Installing 10-20 GW of solar capacity annually over the next five years is entirely reasonable. As far as the issue of intermittency is concerned, yes, solar is dependent on the sun, and the sun does not shine at any given place 24×7. Intermittency will be a basic problem when solar generation starts accounting for 15-20 per cent of overall supply of power. So, we are some distance away from that. Still, many low-cost smart policy and technology improvements can be initiated today to improve the grid for tomorrow. Take hybridisation of solar and wind energy. Combined solar-wind projects have capacity utilisation factors of over 50 per cent, close to those of coalfired power plants, drastically reducing the intermittency challenge. Second is the development of robust ancillary markets. Ancillary services are backup services that smoothen out the variable

nature of energy supply. Germany has close to 3 per cent of spinning, storage and other reserves to support its grid infrastructure. India has none. Third, higher investments in highvoltage transmission lines to transport large amounts of energy over vast distances quickly and efficiently. Yes, transmission investments would be needed regardless of renewable capacity addition, to ensure the grid is flexible and able to meet our growing power needs. Fourth, investments in software solutions to optimise grid-level operations and consumer-level behaviour. The creation of demand response programs, for example, can prod industries to shift their loads to times during the day when more energy is available on the grid. Storage is another important area. If storage costs come down — which they will — that will be another way to manage intermittency. But storage is only one among many tools to ensure the smooth integration of renewable energy in the grid at prices that don’t fundamentally change the economics of solar. But even so, the problem of intermittency is overblown as there is an essential difference between capacity and generation. Every 4 MW of solar capacity is equivalent to roughly 1MW of coal capacity because of lower load factors in solar. So, while it may seem like we are galloping ahead on annual solar capacity additions, the actual generation is only a fraction of that. In other words, even though solar is about 6.5 per cent of India’s current capacity, it provides roughly only 2 per cent of actual electricity. So, when Aiyar et al suggest that solar can bankrupt coal companies and strain the banks that finance them, it is a bit Source:ET absurd.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

China And India Overtake US At Top Of Renewable Energy Attractiveness Index China and India have surpassed the US at the top of the latest EY Renewable energy country attractiveness index (RECAI). The fall – the first for the US since 2015 – to third in the ranking of the top 40 countries follows a marked shift in US policy under the new administration. The report identifies the US Government’s executive orders to rollback many of the past administration’s climate change policies, revive the US coal industry and review the US Clean Power Plan as key downward pressures on renewable investment attractiveness.

Ben Warren, EY Global Power & Utilities Corporate Finance Leader and RECAI Chief Editor, says: “Movements in the index illustrate the influence of policy on renewable energy investment and development – both productive and detrimental. Supportive policy and a long-term vision are critical to achieving a clean energy future.”

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n China, the National Energy Administration (NEA) announced in January 2017 that it will spend US $ 363b developing renewable power capacity by 2020. This investment will see renewables account for half of all new generating capacity and create 13 million jobs, according to the NEA plan. China also plans to launch a pilot tradable green certificate program in July 2017 for project operators to prove they have generated clean power and sell to consumers. The country has also committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 18% per unit of economic growth by 2020 under the Paris Agreement. India continued its upward trend in the index to second position with the Government’s program to build 175GW in renewable energy generation by 2022 and to have renewable energy account for 40% of installed capacity by 2040. The country has added more than 10GW of solar capacity in the last three years – starting from a low base of 2.6GW in 2014.

Warren says: “The renewable energy industry is beginning to break free of the shackles that have stalled progress in the past. More refined technology, lower costs and advances in battery storage are enabling more widespread investment and adoption of clean energy.” Economically viable renewable energy alternatives coupled with security of supply concerns are encouraging more countries to support a clean energy future. Kazakhstan (37), Panama (38) and the Dominican Republic (39) have all entered the index for the first time. For the complete top 40 ranking and insight on battery storage, offshore wind and rooftop solar developments, visit ey.com/recai.

June 2017

Battery storage

Leading The Charge Battery storage is set to jump-start the clean energy transition while at the same time disrupting the traditional utility business model.

n a series of tweets in early March, Tesla founder, CEO and Chairman Elon Musk made a dramatic offer to help address the issues bedeviling South Australia’s electricity grid: he offered to install 100MW of battery storage within 100 days — or the system would be free. This led to talks between Musk and South Australia’s Premier, and with Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. At the time of writing, it was unclear whether the offer would be taken up, and there are serious questions as to whether such a system would be an appropriate solution to the blackouts plaguing the Australian state. But the attention that Musk’s offer generated is testament to the increasingly important role that battery storage, at scale, is playing in modern electricity systems. Storage technology is the vital missing element in the struggle to enable the transition to clean energy, allowing grids to accommodate ever-growing volumes of intermittent generation and transforming the economics of renewable energy systems. But, along the way, the growth of battery storage promises to transform power markets, accelerate disruption of the utility business model and challenge regulators to rethink how they oversee generation, transmission and distribution. The growing penetration of batteries is, essentially, a solution to a problem that dates back to the construction of the first electricity grids. “The electricity supply chain is the longest supply chain in the world with almost no ability to store the product,” says Matt Roberts, Executive Director of the Washington, DC-based Energy Storage Association (ESA). “That means we have scaled everything to meet the absolute peak of demand — it’s an incredibly costly and inefficient way to build a network.” The inability to store surplus power (beyond the limited capacity of older storage technologies such as pumped hydro systems) is becoming a more

June 2017

pressing problem with the greater penetration of wind and solar technologies. Solar output, while relatively predictable, dips in cloudy conditions, while local wind speeds are hard to predict with confidence more than a few days into the future. In addition, thermal power plants currently play an important role in balancing generation and load to maintain the frequency of power grids within a constant range, which protects electric equipment. Renewable energy generation is unable to provide the ondemand balancing power needed for grid stability. This means that battery systems — predominantly, to date, using the lithium-ion technology seen in electric vehicles — have multiple uses, and multiple market needs they can address. “The opportunity for battery storage exists in all areas of the utilities value chain — in generation, transmission and distribution, as well as on the consumer side, behind the meter,” says Manish Kumar, Managing Director of Arlington, Virginia-based AES Energy Storage, an arm of power company AES Corporation. Thomas Christiansen, Associate Director at EY in Stuttgart, Germany, describes a hierarchy of applications that will become progressively more commercially attractive as battery costs fall: • Islanding uses batteries alongside renewables in isolated grids, displacing expensive small-scale fossil fuel generation using diesel or fuel oil. • Grid balancing provides short-term supply (or demand) to keep electricity grids in equilibrium, and helps to reduce the need for investment in transmission and distribution networks. • Peak shaving reduces demand for expensive power from the grid at peak times. As batteries get cheaper, it becomes economical to use them for energy load shifting, charging the batteries when grid power is cheap and discharging them when it is expensive. These techniques become economic

first for commercial users with high peak charges but moderate overall use, followed by large industrial users with high energy demand. • The behind-the-meter market pairs on-site batteries and renewable systems, allowing both commercial and industrial (C&I) and domestic users to consume more of the power they generate by, for example, using stored solar power into the evening. Around the world, battery storage capacity is rising fast: according to figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) installed capacity will grow at a cumulative average rate of 44%, leaping from just 6GWh in 2015 to more than 81GWh by 2024 (see the chart on page 5). At present, its main applications are to provide balancing services for transmission and distribution systems, and for integrating renewable energy. However, according to BNEF the use of batteries behind the meter, paired with photovoltaic (PV) systems, is set to overtake after 2020. There are two factors behind this rapid growth. First, the cost of batteries has been falling dramatically, driven by enormous increases in manufacturing capacity and expertise. Lithium-ion batteries have fallen in price by some 80% over the last five years, according to BNEF figures. The construction of “gigafactories” is forecast to triple production capacity between 2015 and 2020 to almost 125GWh according to RBC Capital Markets. Lazard estimates that this will help to reduce battery costs by nearly 50% by 2021. Second, the services provided by batteries — especially around fast frequency response — are being recognized by regulators. “The cost of energy storage systems could fall to zero and they still wouldn’t be viable in many markets,” argues Roberts at the ESA. “You need to recognize their value, and that’s what has been accelerating. Frequency response and system reliability have been the gateway, illustrating the value that energy offers.” Changes to rules governing pay-

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Battery storage

“The electricity supply chain is the longest supply chain in the world with almost no ability to store the product.” ments for fast-response assets in the Pennsylvania– New Jersey–Maryland (PJM) electricity market earlier this decade allowed batteries to compete in providing frequency regulation services. This was followed, in 2013, by a mandate from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requiring that the utilities it regulates build 1.3GW of energy storage capacity by 2020. Similarly, the National Grid in the UK has conducted enhanced frequency response auctions in which batteries provided the bulk of the capacity. “We were able to convince PJM of the benefits — in terms of the flexibility, precision and speed — that energy storage can provide in improving grid reliability and resilience,” says Kumar at AES. Because fast-responding resources like batteries provide regulation more efficiently, they offer a higher utilization rate and better availability than traditional power plant resources, he says. Kumar also notes that battery projects were rapidly rolled out in response to the Aliso Canyon methane leak in California, which was discovered in 2015. There, the disaster

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at the natural gas storage facility left southern California at risk of forced power outages, and the CPUC ordered “expedited procurement” of largescale, grid-connected energy storage resources. A number of developers and battery makers, including AES, Tesla and Canada’s AltaGas, stepped forward to put in place around 100MW of battery capacity within months of contracts being signed. According to Kumar, “It shows that batterybased energy storage can compete both technologically and economically against traditional fossil fuel-based resources such as gas-peaking plants,” which, until now, have been favored to provide back-up capacity. However, increasingly cost-competitive battery storage is set to bring disruption in its wake. By helping to smooth the intermittent supply from renewable resources, wider battery use will continue to reduce the peak power prices on which many natural gas-fired power plants depend. In addition, by reducing network utilization, batteries reduce the need for additional grid investment on which regulated network operators depend for their revenues. And by increasing the utilization of customers’ renewable energy systems, batteries will accelerate grid defection, and reduce the peak and system charges that utilities can earn.

“The fastest way into the market for batteries is in frequency response, but the higher-revenue opportunity is in avoiding the network peak,” notes Matt Rennie, EY Global Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) Power & Utilities Leader. He points out that around 50% of network capital expenditure is directed toward meeting around 1% of peak demand. “If you can deploy a solution that alleviates that peak in some other way than building new transformers and new lines, that’s very valuable,” adds Rennie. However, he also notes that the amount of revenue regulated network operators are allowed to collect from network users is partly a function of capital expenditure: “For networks to value that [foregone expenditure], and choose to transfer that value to a new technology company, it’s a big step.” The growth of behind-the-meter battery storage presents even tougher challenges. The technology becomes most valuable for utilities when they are able to aggregate and control, through smart grid technology, large numbers of their customers’ batteries, creating virtual power plants (VPPs). However, the question remains as to whether they have the appropriate relationships with their customers to control the batteries, argues Rennie. “Over the last 15 years, energy retailers have taken so much cost out of their businesses and reduced the relationships with their

June 2017

Battery storage

customers to a transactional level. I’m not sure there’s enough trust there to shift the business model to the sort of partnership you’d need for a virtual power plant model to work,” says Rennie. “It’s likely to be easier for telecoms companies and consumer electronics firms to learn to be energy retailers than the other way around,” he adds. While it is early in the process, some technology companies are already challenging energy retailers. Logan Goldie- Scot, who heads up BNEF’s Energy Storage insight team, says that Germany is currently the largest market for residential solar plus storage systems, with about 50,000 installed: sales are now picking up in other markets, such as Italy and Australia, driven by high retail power prices and limited ability to sell surplus power back to the grid. Combining these systems to provide centralized utility- or grid-scale storage is at the pilot stage, says Goldie-Scot, but notes that companies such as Sonnen in Germany are competing with utilities. “You also have companies such as Sunverge that are targeting the utility as the primary customer, but with a similar model,” where the retail customer receives a discounted system, in exchange for allowing the utility to tap into the battery as required. On the other hand, utilities do benefit from some incumbency advantages, as well as from typically low costs of capital. A great deal of the value of energy storage is location dependent, says Roberts at the ESA — and utilities have the data that reveals the best places on the grid to install these systems. Also, utilities often benefit from brownfield sites with existing electrical interconnections, notes Scott Valentino, Vice President Finance at AltaGas Services (U.S.), part of the Canada-based energy infrastructure firm AltaGas. It was one of the successful bidders to meet the CPUC Aliso Canyon resource adequacy call, contracting with Southern California Edison (SCE) to build a 20MW energy storage facility at AltaGas’s existing Pomona natural gas power-generation facility. Around the world, utilities are responding to the challenges posed by battery technologies with a range of strategies. Some are partnering with or acquiring technology companies. Last year, Innogy in Germany bought Belectric Solar & Battery, and France’s 56

June 2017

A Younicos battery storage installation at the Alamo Solar Power Project, San Antonio, Texas ENGIE took a majority stake in California battery storage company Green Charge Networks. Meanwhile, the Finnish utility Fortum has teamed up with French battery maker Saft to conduct battery storage pilots. Others are undertaking their own VPP pilots. In Australia, AGL Energy is building what it says will be world’s largest VPP, connecting 1,000 batteries. In New York, local utility Con Edison is working with the Californiabased PV manufacturer SunPower to connect some 300 residential PV and storage systems. Some are exploring even more novel approaches. For example, German utility MVV Energie piloted a service that combined districtlevel storage with customers’ PV systems, allowing them to store excess solar-generated electricity without the need for batteries on site. In addition, E.ON has introduced what it calls a solar cloud service, which allows customers with PV systems to “bank” their generation for use at a later time. “It does this virtually, without physically storing the generation on site,” says Goldie-Scot at BNEF. “It’s essentially a local net-metering tariff. It could completely kill the economic driver for storage within the home.” He says that a year ago he would

have been “quite negative on the utility response” to insurgent battery storage business models, adding: “Now, they are raising the bar for these third-party companies.” But while utilities and insurgents experiment with new battery storage business models, the actions of regulators are likely to dictate their success or failure. “In many cases, regulatory barriers are quite high to utilizing batteries,” says Christiansen at EY. For example, in Germany, grid operators are forbidden from owning batteries. And, until recently, German users had to pay system fees both when charging and discharging their batteries. This is still the case in the UK, despite industry lobbying. “The lack of a regulatory definition for storage has led to problems in its treatment under current market rules,” says Andrew Horstead, London-based Strategic Market Analyst, EY Global Power & Utilities.

“The lack of a regulatory definition for storage has led to problems in its treatment under current market rules.”

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Battery storage

Christian sen says: “There is a role for utilities in lobbying to let the regulators know that, if you lighten up a little bit, there are lots of things we could do that are beneficial for customers, for the economy and for the grid.” On the other hand, Horstead notes that there is a need for strong standards to support consumer confidence at the domestic level. Regulators should facilitate widespread storage use, says Kumar at AES: “Regulators should encourage utilities to consider storage as an alternative to flexible peaking capacity on the generation side, or as an alternative to transmission or distribution investments.” But regulators should also aim to provide clarity and consistency in their treatment of battery technology, argues Henrietta Stock, a manager in EY’s Energy Optimisation service in London: “Things are changing very rapidly, and stability in policy would be very helpful.” Undaunted by the complexities involved, investors and independent power producers are increasingly dipping their toes into battery storage markets, aided by the longer-term contracts they are able to strike with utilities. “Developers typically have financed systems from their own balance sheets, cobbling together revenue from short-term utility contracts or wholesale electricity markets,” says EY’s Horstead. “Storage contracts to date in the US and Canada rarely exceeded 3 years. Now utilities are signing agreements for 3 to 7 years, and sometimes as long as 10 years.” This, alongside increasing confidence in the technology, is encouraging investors into the sector. Financial institutions including InfraRed, Investec and Prudential Financial have either backed projects or are seeking investments. However, despite the investment certainty that longer-term contracts with utilities or network operators offer, developers note that it is usually necessary to “stack” revenues from a number of services to make each battery project viable. Valentino at AltaGas notes that the Pomona project supplements revenues from its capacity contract with SCE by supplying energy and ancillary services into day-ahead and realtime markets. Investors face a range of technology and market risks. Valentino notes recent bankruptcies among start-up battery makers, most recently that of Aquion Energy in March. AltaGas uses Samsung batteries, preferring to go with a well established

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Tier 1 provider. Ian Wood, Director in EY’s Corporate Finance service, also notes that, in some markets, demandside response programs may prove to be more cost-effective than batteries, challenging the latter’s business case. There is also the danger that, in fast evolving markets, battery system developers may find that how their systems are configured and contracted for becomes out of date. “There is a lot of regulatory change going on,” says Felicity Jones, Partner – Energy storage, at the UKbased technical and commercial consultancy Everoze Partners. “Developers need to make sure their contracts are designed for agility, to allow them to move between revenue streams.” For example, warranties may be restrictively worded to allow only for certain types of battery use, she notes. Alternatively, in seeking to stack revenues and sell services to different offtakers, battery owners may find that they are subsequently unable to take advantage of emerging revenue streams. “It’s very complex to anticipate, but the goal is to bake in optionality in contract design,” Jones says. But, for all the complexity involved, EY’s Wood argues that the market for battery storage is taking off without the need for a high degree of revenue certainty, paid for with large government subsidies, which was required to develop the nascent renewables sector: “Having certainty around a portion of revenues is sufficient to allow investment to happen.” Nonetheless, the market and technology risks involved suggest that investors and insurgent developers should pursue a different business model to one that worked for renewable energy, Wood suggests: “In renewables, investors would invest in single assets. In battery storage, they are looking to invest in a platform — with a portfolio of assets, and also a management team that will operate, run and trade it, and that is able to adapt to changes in the marketplace.”

Behind the meter: the C&I business case For the pioneering German battery storage firm Younicos, the biggest market opportunity is to be found behind the meter, with C&I users. “We started with grid-level storage, and that’s still important, but we see even more growth potential in providing medium-sized storage systems for commercial and industrial clients — it’s an overlooked part of the market,” says Philip Hiersemenzel, a company spokesman. Younicos has carried out 38 projects around the world, with 200MW of energy storage commissioned or under construction. “As storage and renewable energy becomes more costcompetitive, it’s becoming more interesting for large energy users to invest in battery storage,” he says. As at grid level, batteries for commercial customers offer a variety of services: security of supply, load shaving, improving the economics of onsite renewables, peak-shifting, supporting demand response and avoiding system charges. Depending on the jurisdiction, energy storage systems could typically create savings for commercial customers between 30% and 50%, based on studies EY has conducted in various global markets. As with any battery investment, the economics can be dramatically improved by stacking the services the batteries provide, and ensuring that the owner is getting paid for as many of these as possible, says EY’s Stock. She also cautions that buyers need to understand how the technology type that is chosen, and how the batteries will be used, will influence the economics of the investment. “There are challenges around communicating and understanding the technologies involved,” she says, noting that how frequently the batteries are used, and how completely they are cycled, “can have a significant impact on how long batteries will last.”

June 2017

Market spotlight

India’s Power Play India’s Government has committed to an audacious program of building new renewable energy generation. But, as bid prices tumble, can it deliver sustainable results?

June 2017

combination of strong government support and increasingly attractive economics has helped to push India into second place in the latest issue of our Renewable energy country attractiveness index. This follows recent dramatic growth in renewables, with more than 10GW of solar capacity added in three years — from a low base of just 2.6GW in 2014 — and record new wind capacity installed in 2016–17 of 5.4GW, according to official figures. This growth is in the context of the Government’s ambitious targets — 175GW of renewables by 2022, with 40% installed capacity from renewables by 2030 — and the dramatic price falls in solar PV technology in particular. In recent tenders, solar developers have offered to supply power at lower prices than new-build coal plants, effectively blocking new coal capacity. India’s 2022 target, set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, includes 100GW of solar; 60GW ground mounted and 40GW rooftop. Wind is expected to deliver 60GW, with biomass and small hydro accounting for the remaining 15GW. In the 2016–17 financial year, India added 12.5GW of renewable energy capacity, compared with 10.2GW from conventional sources. In March, ENGIE’s subsidiary Solairedirecte won a tender for 250MW of solar capacity in Andhra Pradesh with a bid of INR3.15/kWh (US$0.049), beating the previous Indian record bid of INR3.30 (US$0.05) by ACME Solar in the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar auction in Madhya Pradesh in February. But the May tender for 250MW of solar capacity in Rajasthan saw a new low of INR2.62/kWh (US$0.041), bid by Phelan Energy Group and Avaada Power for 50MW and 100MW respectively at Bhadla Solar Park. However, such low bids raise questions over whether developers are taking on excessive risk. On the one hand, falling bids track lower technology costs and cheaper capital, allowing developers to maintain margins. On the other hand, those margins are already squeezed by the competition that auctions tend to generate. Some projects may not be delivered or quality may be compromised. Many developers and their investors are assuming costs will continue to fall. Bids also appear to be predicated on developers achieving scale so as to generate operational efficiencies; it is doubtful that all developers will be able to reach the scale required. In addition, major adverse currency moves or rising interest rates will make equipment and finance more expensive, putting projects at risk. Major failures could have knock-on effects. Increased risk perception among investors could raise the cost of capital; if future bids began to climb back up, the utilities and distribution companies with whom developers are entering into power purchase agreements (PPAs) would become less willing to buy. Although these utilities and large power consumers have targets to buy clean power (or green certificates) under the Govern-

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Market spotlight

The Government will have to turn its attention to the ability of India’s grid to manage intermittent renewables. ment’s Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) program, more needs to be done to enforce these obligations, with a number of utilities falling far short. The Government needs to increase compliance with the RPO, as well as ensure that India’s distribution companies, many of which are financially distressed, have the capacity to continue to purchase renewable electricity, especially if bid prices level off or rise. And the availability of capital remains a concern; the Government could ease rules around tapping foreign debt. The Government faces several other challenges in meeting its 175GW target. Issues around land rights — for renewable energy systems or transmission lines — are slowing development. In February, the Government increased the proportion of solar capacity it expects to build in largescale solar parks to 40GW from 20GW. These parks, where the Government secures land rights and transmission capacity, have proved attractive to developers and investors. The Government’s 40GW rooftop target is also looking challenging, with only around 1GW of rooftop capacity added in the country so far. Developers have proved cautious about the credit risk involved in contracting with residential customers, while incumbent utilities have stalled, reluctant to lose valuable clients to insurgent solar companies. In the wind sector, a lack of transmission capacity between areas of high wind resource and load centers has created bottlenecks in the past — although bid prices for wind have also been falling. In February, the country’s first 1GW reverse auction cleared at INR3.46/ kWh (US$0.053), substantially below recent The Government will have to turn its attention to the ability of India’s grid to manage intermittent renewables. bids around the INR5 mark, due to intense competition from 2.6GW of bids. More wind auctions are now expected to drive prices down further. In the last financial year, wind beat its target, installing 5.4GW compared with the target of 4GW. However, despite impressive growth of 6.8GW in 2016, solar is lagging its target of 12GW (7GW of utility-scale and 5GW of rooftop solar), showing just how ambitious the Government’s goals are. The Government’s additional emphasis on PV parks will help to plug the gap, but it needs to do more to encourage rooftop solar installations. In the medium term, as renewable energy penetration rates increase, the Government will have to turn its attention to the ability of India’s grid to manage intermittent renewables, especially around the evening peak, when solar availability falls away. The cost

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and availability of energy storage technology could dictate how close India gets to meeting its renewable targets. Meanwhile, India’s regulators must be mindful of the erosion of electricity market peaks caused by growing volumes of renewables and storage — this can undermine the economics of thermal power plants, risking the stability of the system as a whole.

Wind turbine blade production by Suzlon Energy at its factory in Bhuj, Gujarat, India

Going all in on EVs?

n April, India’s energy minister Piyush Goyal suggested that, by 2030, the Government aims to have such a robust electric vehicle (EV) sector that no new petrol or diesel cars would be sold in India; he added that the Government is working on promoting EVs significantly. State-owned energy companies such as NTPC and POWERGRID are reportedly exploring the potential of EV charging stations: lower than expected energy demand growth is prompting generators and utilities to develop new markets. Last year, EY calculated that, assuming six million EVs on Indian roads by 2020, with an average battery size of 100kWh, the EV fleet would increase annual power demand by 93TWh and could boost distribution company revenues by INR990b (US$15.4b). The fleet would also help absorb growing volumes of renewable energy, and improve grid stability by providing extra storage and distributed generation. Overall, such a fleet would deliver a net positive economic impact of around INR200b (US$3.1b) on the power and utilities sector in India by 2022.

June 2017

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June 2017

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June 2017

61Â

Offshore wind

Offshore Winds Blow Strongly Dramatic falls in the cost of offshore wind are now helping to spread the technology around the world. But are low costs sustainable, and does the industry have sufficient long-term visibility to guarantee its continued success?

ive years ago, the Government of the UK — then, as now, the largest market for offshore wind — set the industry a challenge: to bring down the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from offshore wind by a third by 2020. In January, the Offshore Wind Programme Board (OWPB), which brings together industry and the Government, reported that this target was achieved last year, four years early: offshore projects had an average LCOE of £97/MWh (US$125), down from £142/MWh (US$183) in 2010–11. “We have seen cost reductions thanks to the early adoption of larger turbines, increased competition and the lower cost of capital,” the report noted. “[The] industry is now embracing new opportunities, and the cost of offshore wind will continue to fall over the next decade.” The UK is not alone. In 2016, project developers won tenders run by the Dutch and Danish governments at less than half of the UK LCOE. In November,

June 2017

the Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall won a Danish Government tender to build the 600MW Kriegers Flak wind farm in the Baltic, at just €49.9/MWh (US$54.4), thought to be the lowest yet for offshore wind. A month later, a consortium led by Shell won the tender for the Dutch 700MW Borssele III and IV Wind Farm, in the North Sea. The €54.5/ MWh (US$59.4) bid means that, over the 15-year contract, the Dutch Government will pay operators a total subsidy of just €300m (US$327m), a fraction of the €5b (US$5.4b) subsidy it expected to pay. For these two bids, there are local factors at play. The cost of connecting these farms to grids — perhaps €10/MWh to €15/ MWh (US$11 to US$16) — is not included in the bid price. Both are close to shore and in shallow waters, reducing installation and maintenance costs. But the tenders still demonstrate the potential of what was once a comparatively expensive clean energy technology to deliver, at scale, without prohibitive subsidy costs. “That offshore wind is becoming increasingly cost-competitive with other tech-

nologies is almost self-feeding,” says Nick Gardiner, Managing Director, Head of Offshore Wind at the UK’s Green Investment Bank (GIB), which has committed more than £2b (US$2.6b) to the sector. “The activity you see in the space in Europe is leading to an explosion of interest in other markets.” Globally, around 16GW of offshore wind is expected to be commissioned from 2017 to the end of 2020, according to figures from MAKE Consulting. This compares with 14.9GW installed by the end of 2016. By 2024, MAKE estimates global capacity will reach almost 60GW. The most significant factor in cost declines the dramatic growth in turbine size, says Gunnar Groebler, Senior Vice

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Offshore wind

President – Head of Business Area Wind at Vattenfall: “We’re finalizing implementation of project Sandbank [where construction started in 2015] with 4MW turbines. By the end of this year, we’ll be installing 8.3MW turbines.” Doubling each turbine’s capacity halves the number of foundations that need to be built for the same total output, and dramatically reduces operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, both of which reduce the exposure of the project to weather-related delays. “All of this adds up to quite substantial cost decreases,” Groebler says. Andrew Ho, Senior offshore Wind Analyst at WindEurope, stresses the importance of multi-year policy support for off-

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shore wind. “We wouldn’t have got that technoogical innovation had we not had a supportive framework and market visibility. ... The support we’ve received has allowed the industry to invest in made-foroffshore turbines.” Charles Thompson, Director at the UK’s Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE Catapult), notes that specific policy and regulatory support can help drive down costs: “Local factors play a significant role. Regulatory and consenting regimes differ considerably, with the burden of risk — a significant cost driver — varying enormously.” As an example, he points out the recent low tender prices were supported by regimes that undertake the burden of consent-

ing, site surveys, grid connection and transmission, greatly reducing the cost to developers. Andrew Ho notes the “one-stop” permitting authorities provided by Denmark and the Netherlands greatly reduce the complexity of bidding and negotiating contracts, unlike the “multiple authorities” that developers in UK waters have to deal with.

“ The activity you see ... in Europe is leading to an explosion of interest in other markets.” EQ

June 2017

Offshore wind

Converter substations in Germany’s Nordsee OST wind farm Overall, says Gordon Edge, former Director of Policy at industry lobby group RenewableUK and now Director at Inflection Point Energy Consulting, the accretion of experience across the gamut of offshore wind activities has led to reduced perceptions of risk, which help to shrink the returns that investors demand. “This is helping to bring in bigger pools of capital with lower return expectations,” he says, which — given low interest rates and investors’ constant search for assets with predictable revenues — means there is lowcost debt and equity available. Market participants agree that offshore prices in the €50/MWh to €60/MWh US$54 to US$65) range are likely to remain the exception rather than the rule, given the local factors at play. But the industry is confident average prices can be driven lower. June, 11 leading participants, including utilities (Vattenfall, E.ON, Iberdrola and RWE), equipment makers (Siemens, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind and GE) and oil company Statoil, stated that the industry could achieve cost levels of €80/MWh (US$87), including costs of grid connection, by 2025. Lower offshore wind costs are encouraging countries beyond Europe, which accounted for 87% of installed capacity in 2016, according to MAKE Consulting. Mainland China had already installed almost 2GW by then; it is expected to have 16GW by 2024. Japan, Taiwan and South Korea also have offshore wind development plans. In the US, the industry has faced stiff opposition, but the first offshore wind farm — 30MW off Rhode Island — began operating in 2016. By 2024, it is forecast to have installed 1.4GW of offshore capacity. The GIB’s Gardiner credits the cost reductions the industry has delivered, its performance record and its ability to deliver large volumes of capacity. Analysts note that, while countries outside Europe will benefit from some of the forces bringing down costs — such as technological innovation, cheap capital and accumulated experience — other factors are locationspecific. Edge notes that local supply 64

June 2017

chains will take time to develop, and some regulatory barriers will add costs. In the US, for example, the 1920 Jones Act requires that ships carrying goods between US ports be US-built, which will slow installation of offshore turbines. Similarly, costs tend to increase where governments require that their offshore subsidies benefit the domestic economy, through local content requirements and the development of domestic supply chains. In the UK, Edge notes that, “the Government’s putting in lots of money, and they’re asking, ‘Where’s the beef for the UK economy?’. To keep pushing down costs, you’re going to want to be importing components from Riga [in Latvia], rather than making them in Rotherham [in the north of England].” Meanwhile, some industry voices have raised concerns about unsustainable tender levels due to bidders seeking to buy market share by proposing loss-making projects. DONG Energy CEO Henrik Poulsen has warned of “irresponsible players” submitting bids that are “value destroying.” The danger, some fear, is of auctions leading to a race to the bottom with undesirable results: contingency funding cut to the bone, cost-cutting that adds to health and safety exposures, skimped operational practices or overly optimistic assumptions made on project availability. The risk is that projects could end up being shelved, leaving holes in government renewables targets, or could fail, leaving investors nursing heavy losses. Groebler argues that Vattenfall, at least, has proceeded prudently: “I’ve heard the concerns. But we’re talking about billions of euros of investment. No one can afford to buy market share at that level.” He adds that Vattenfall’s owner — the Swedish state — “has clear return expectations at the industry standard level.” However, he agrees that offshore wind “remains a young sector with associated risks.” Investors should be mindful of them, says Ross McWhirter, Senior Executive – Power & Utilities, Corporate Finance, EY. Key pre-construction considerations

are the number of contracts the investor is party to as well as counterparties’ track records, he says. Once the project is operational, investors should consider the contractual protection provided: availability guarantees, manufacturers’ warranties, the scope of service agreements as well as any protections embedded in the PPA. Tenders and procurement methodologies should take into account the quality of bids, including deliverability as well as price, says Andrew Perkins, Partner, Corporate Finance, at Ernst & Young LLP: “Tender processes should be adapted to reflect this. Feedback from recent market tenders shows an increasing appetite to take long term O&M risk — and, of course, the current cost of capital is low. A major threat to the market, however, would be higher interest rates, as this would increase the LCOE at a time when government support will be even more limited.” But a bigger concern for the sector — and for prospects of further price declines — is medium-term visibility on policy support, says Ho at WindEurope, which, in Europe, is lacking after 2020. Such visibility “would allow investment to continue in offshore.” The corporate group that predicted an average €80/MWh by 2025 also warned that the commitment depended on “the right build-out and regulatory framework,” and that it is “only possible with a stable, longterm market for renewables in Europe.” It continued: “If the offshore industry is to realize its cost-reduction goals, a strong pipeline of projects is needed to scale up offshore deployment and identify efficiencies in the supply chain. Following a record year for installations in 2015, a serious question mark remains over the post- 2020 environment for offshore wind.” Thompson at ORE Catapult agrees, and says that policymakers should “take a long-term view: building a large and complex industry does not happen overnight and requires certainty to deliver investment.”

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Southeast Asia

High-Level Solar Opportunity A 2.6MW solar installation on the roof of Cambodia Beverage Company’s bottling factory in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone

outheast Asia has some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, accompanied by rapidly growing energy demand. High levels of solar radiation, coupled with a rising awareness of the overall benefits of clean energy, suggest significant potential for solar power. However, the region’s uptake of utility-scale solar systems, as seen in other emerging markets, lags significantly behind as a result of a number of local challenges for project developers, including access to large areas of land and to deregulated power markets. Solar developers are therefore shifting their focus upward: specifically, to the rooftops of C&I energy users. With the right support from regulators and policymakers, C&I rooftop solar represents a multigigawatt opportunity across the region. “It’s a way of monetizing an idle asset, and it presents a win-win for the clients and developers,” explains Raju Shukla, executive chairman of Cleantech Solar, a Singapore-based solar rooftop developer that has already commissioned a portfolio of 50 projects across the region. Falling solar system costs — down 25% to 30% over the last year alone — mean that his company can install, own and operate rooftop solar systems while providing customers with power at least 10% cheaper than from the local utility, and up to 40% less, he says. Tapping commercial rooftops could help overcome two of the biggest barriers to large-scale deployment of solar in Southeast Asia. The first is access to suitable land for solar systems. In some countries, securing the necessary approvals and permits can be an onerous process, while compensation payments to existing landlords can be costly. Moreover, there are often alternative uses for land — such

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as palm oil cultivation or, for that matter, fossil fuel-based energy generation — that are likely to offer higher yields per hectare than a solar farm can achieve. The second challenge is the structure of local electricity markets whereby power prices — especially for residential customers — are cross-subsidized by retail customers, making it difficult for solar farms to sell energy to the grid at competitive prices. Installing rooftop solar systems can get around these problems. C&I customers often have readily available “real estate” in the form of substantial roof space on factories, offices and warehouses. In addition to potentially offering power at a lower cost than that available from the grid, rooftop solar systems can deliver higher energy security where power supplies are unreliable. In addition, C&I customers can be offered long-term, fixed-price contracts, often over 20 to 25 years, reducing their exposure to price rises imposed by the local utility. And, whether the customers involved are multinationals with local operations or local suppliers to global supply chains, they can reduce their environmental footprint. The proposition is not without its challenges. Shukla notes that customers tend to require extensive health and safety as well as technical due diligence before allowing a third party to install large systems on their rooftops. Some are reluctant to enter into contracts that extend beyond 10 years. And, in markets where surplus power — such as that generated at the weekends — can’t be sold into the grid through net metering regulations, the power price discounts that can be achieved tend to be at the lower end of the range. Rooftop developers face additional regulatory barriers in the region. For example, in Vietnam, the state utility EVN is currently the sole off-taker of electricity generated by independent power producers. Nonetheless, Shukla says that

client interest is building fast, presenting opportunities for investors. The business model is capital intensive, meaning that those developers who can tap cheap institutional funding offer a competitive advantage. Similarly, advantages will accrue to those developers with the scale to manage their assets actively on an ongoing basis, not least in trading surplus power. In advising developers across the region, we have found significant investor interest in providing debt and equity to support development. International investors have experience of the business model in other jurisdictions, and they recognize the potential to generate predictable, long-term returns from such investments. Those developers offering homogenized, high-quality rooftop systems also stand to benefit from the possibility of raising finance across their portfolio. Cleantech Solar has found significant addressable potential: it calculates that just the 10 largest companies in the region have available roof space and power demand for 2.7GW of systems. Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore already offer regulatory and market environments that are conducive to rooftop solar development, and Vietnam has recently agreed a policy framework to encourage development of solar power, including rooftop, with bidirectional net metering allowing consumers to sell excess power into the grid. Minor regulatory reforms elsewhere could dramatically increase the opportunities, offering attractive returns for investors, compelling power-purchase terms for large energy consumers and an improved environment for local people. With nearby India targeting 40GW of rooftop solar by 2022 (although facing some challenges encouraging development — see page 8), Southeast Asia could look to follow its lead in encouraging a thriving solar rooftop sector.

June 2017

Malaysia

Working To Increase Renewables’ Pace

n 2016, Malaysia launched a series of solar tenders that, if successful, will help it on its way to achieving a renewable energy capacity target of 4GW by 2030, representing 11% of the country’s total power generation by that date. Last year’s tender called for proposals to build 300MW of large-scale solar PV projects. After whittling down 66 bids, Suruhanjaya Tenaga, Malaysia’s Energy Commission, awarded 21-year PPAs to 19 winning bidders, upscaling the tender to a total of 460MW of capacity. Those bids were awarded at around MYR0.4/kWh (US$0.09). In comments to EY, the Energy Commission described the first tender as generating “both [an] overwhelming response and competitive prices.” In February, it published a second tender notice, this time calling for requests for proposals (RFPs) for PV projects ranging from 1MW to 30MW in size, for a total of 360MW in Peninsular Malaysia and 100MW in Sabah, East Malaysia. As with the first tender, foreign ownership will be limited at 49%. In an evolution from the first tender, the Energy Commission has embedded the technical and financial qualification process within one RFP process, rather than having an earlier request for qualification (RFQ) stage, to give bidders more time to prepare ahead of the 1 August deadline for submissions. The Commission says that more than 400 copies of the RFP documents have been purchased by potential bidders. Malaysia currently boasts around 462MW of renewable energy capacity, according to its Sustainable 66

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Energy Development Agency (SEDA), of which the majority (296MW) is solar PV. Under the country’s 2011 Renewable Energy Act, a FiT program was introduced, which is available for small-scale solar PV (less than 1MW), biogas, biomass, small hydro and geothermal, with annual generation capacity caps. That legislation also created SEDA, which is responsible for administering the FiT program and advising the Government on sustainable energy policy. Malaysia’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) sets a goal of reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity per unit of GDP by 45% by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. Of this, 35 percentage points are pledged on an unconditional basis, with the remainder conditional upon receipt of climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building from developed countries. The large-scale solar program is intended to deliver 1,000MW of solar PV plants by 2020, according to the Energy Commission. In addition, the Government has introduced fiscal incentives and a net energy metering program for rooftop solar PV, which is intended to support a further 500MW of capacity by the same year. The current large-scale tender is open to companies or consortia with previous experience in power or related projects, according to the bid notice. The tender is — in line with existing Malaysian Government policy — open only to consortia that are at least 51% domestically owned. There are, however, no local content requirements on developers of projects either under the FiT scheme or the large-scale tenders. Matt Tingle, Associate Director, Infrastructure Advisory – ASEAN TAS at EY in Singa-

pore, assessed the PPA terms for the first tender, finding that they measured up well against international standards. “We were pleased with the bankability of the PPAs,” he says. Malaysia also has a sufficiently deep local capital market to fund new renewable energy capacity, according to Tingle. “The financing market is fairly strong and there’s good appetite for the tenders,” he says, with interest from domestic banks, international lenders and issuers of sukuk (Shariacompliant) bonds. Although the PPAs are ringgitdenominated, US dollar lending was competitive even after swapping into the local currency, Tingle adds. Further initiatives such as the Green Technology Financing Scheme are helping to reduce lending costs to renewable energy projects. When it comes to the integration of intermittent renewable energy generation, the Energy Commission is taking “a controlled approach,” stating that: “This is to gauge the impact on the grid system and identify any mitigation required. Economically, we also want to keep the end-user tariff affordable.” A pilot project will also explore how large battery storage can help with ensuring continued grid stability. There is a long road ahead to meet Malaysia’s targets: its interim aim to achieve 2GW of renewable energy by 2020 is fast approaching. The measures being taken by the Energy Commission to focus on solar PV will help to accelerate its deployment. In addition to the Energy Commission’s efforts, the Government, through the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) is reportedly developing a blueprint for a long-term road map to secure a clean energy future for Malaysia.

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SPAIN

Back In The Game? For many investors, Spain is a case study in how not to promote renewables. A generous feed-in tariff (FiT) program before the global financial crisis saw wind and solar development rocket — putting Spain in second place, globally, behind Germany in terms of installed solar capacity by the end of the last decade.

owever, the uncapped subsidy regime failed to take into account falling technology costs, making its FiTs increasingly attractive and causing developers to pile in. The structure of Spain’s electricity sector meant utilities were unable to pass the costs on to consumers, leaving the Government to shoulder a growing deficit. The post-crisis response was draconian: not only were subsidies for new wind and solar plants slashed, but retroactive tariff cuts were imposed on existing plants, leaving many owners and investors nursing heavy losses. The upshot — apart from ongoing litigation as investors pursue the Government through the courts — was a freeze in new renewable energy capacity after 2011. Despite this hiatus, Spain still boasts substantial renewable energy capacity; some 23GW of wind, 4.7GW of solar PV and 2.3GW of solar thermal, out of a total generating capacity of 100GW. According to the system operator, renewables (including hydro) supplied about 39% of the country’s electricity during the first three months of 2017. Nonetheless, it seems Spain is on course to miss its EU renewable energy target of 20% of final energy generated by renewable sources by 2020 due to lack of progress on renewable heat and transport. To meet it, between 3GW and 6GW of further electrical capacity would need to be brought on-line, depending on energy usage in the next few years. The actions taken so far by the Government, although highly controversial, mean the electricity sector is now in a sustainable position, allowing the Government to bring forward additional renewable energy capacity through a new series of tenders. Rather than guaranteeing income through FiTs, it is requiring developers to bid to receive relatively small subsidy payments. Back in the game? Gran Via in Madrid The first auctions, for 500MW of wind and 200MW

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of biomass, took place last year. A new auction, expected to take place on 17 May 2017, seeks bids for up to 3GW of renewables capacity. The process has raised eyebrows within the industry. The 2016 auction saw bids submitted by wind developers who sought no subsidy in addition to merchant power prices. While this partly reflected falling technology costs, market observers also interpreted the bids as a consequence of developers seeking to recover sunk costs. For the new tender, the Government is to make available subsidies totaling €600m (US$654m) annually, which, according to Bloomberg, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism says guarantees a “reasonable yield” of 7.4%. Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope, welcomes the auction, but says linking subsidies to capital investments “ties investors’ hands in how to do their project economics.” He describes the auction as “unique across the EU for its complexity.” But what has concerned renewable energy specialists is a provision the Government has introduced that allows it to review, after six years, the level of payments to winning projects to ensure that they are not excessively profitable. “The possibility to modify the reasonable profitability of projects every six years could be interpreted as a retroactive measure in disguise,” says Dickson. “This sends the wrong signal to investors who have been through this experience once already and who are now looking for stable revenues on their projects,” he adds. He also notes that the logic of an auction is to introduce competitive tension in procurement, so “there is no excuse for any revision of support levels throughout the lifetime of the installation.” Jorge Casillas, Executive Director of Global Risk and Regulation and Markets at Madrid based developer EDP Renewables, says his company is considering participating in the tender if it decides it can manage exposures created by the regulation. However, he notes that “the scheme introduces risks which cannot be controlled by the

Gran Via in Madrid investor,” such as the ability of the Government to adjust project returns. It does not “provide the stability and long-term visibility on remuneration which is needed for a low-cost investment in renewables,” he adds. Spain’s renewable energy association APPA has also raised concerns about the lack of technology-specific tenders, noting the auction therefore favors wind as the lowest-cost technology. This is shortsighted, as it means the tender will fail to support less mature technologies, says José María González Moya, APPA’s Managing Director. Nonetheless, high levels of interest in the auction are expected, and it is likely that developers will, once more, bid to receive low– or no subsidy payments, receiving only the pool price. This will make financing these projects difficult, requiring developers either to secure PPAs direct with energy consumers or to turn to financial products that allow projects to hedge the power price risk. Ultimately, however, renewables in Spain are following the path seen elsewhere around the world — moving toward cost competitiveness with conventional generation. As financiers get increasingly comfortable with the technologies involved and the power market risk, government auctions and subsidies will become increasingly irrelevant.

June 2017

INTERViEW

The story behind JinkoSolar’s Abu Dhabi solar bid for Sweihan Project JinkoSolar, the world leading renewable energy company, won bidding to build an 1117-megawatt solar plant in United Arab Emirates to produce what could be the world’s largest single site project and the cheapest power generated from the sun.

ver the last three years, JinkoSolar has undergone a profound leap by becoming the world’s largest solar module producer, in addition diversified its business at a global level, reaching major economic performance goals in all aspects. JinkoSolar is scaling on large power stations and increasing its footprint across the world. Following the inauguration of the world’s largest single solar project in Abu Dhabi, XXXX caught up with Mr. Xiande Li, Chairman of JinkoSolar, to find out more about the record-breaking tender.

EQ: What does this project mean to JinkoSolar?

China. We therefore feel ready to now seize more opportunities worldwide.

XL: It was not our first participation in a large international bid of the highest level, we already won the 250 MW project in Mexico and 94 MW in Argentina. Our vision is to be the world’s lowest-cost producer of solar energy. This result shows us that we are on track. This will enable us to build credible international development partnerships and will have shown that we are capable of competing with the best in the world. It is the largest single-site solar project in the world and also with the world’s most competitive bidding of 2.42 US cents per kilowatt.

EQ: How does JinkoSolar finance its energy projects?

EQ: What was JinkoSolar’s participation in the tender? XL: The volume of the project has attracted the world leaders in the sector, which made the process even more selective, but very few big players left in the last phase of the bid. We believe that the track record of the JinkoSolar in realizing large solar projects puts the company in a strong position. We have already successfully delivered over 2GW large scale solar plants in 68

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XL: Speaking in general terms, JinkoSolar already has a proven track record of leveraging international and domestic financial resources. In fact, JinkoSolar is a pioneer in terms of establishing a sustainable independent power production business across the world. We were the biggest winner in China’s Top Runner Program in 2016 awarded with 400MW Top Runner Projects. Now we have connected , owned and operated over 2GW solar plants in China, including 63 utility scale ground-mounted plants and 100 decentralized commercial rooftops covering close 20 provinces, in addition to 7.7 GW in pipeline. In emerging market,JinkoSolar obtained 250MW project in Mexico with investment of 250 million US$ and 94MW in Argentina of 94 million US$. The combination of its strong track record and financial stability makes JinkoSolar an attractive proposition for lenders looking to participate in our renewable energy projects.

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INTERViEW

EQ: Investing overseas offers many potential benefits, but it also comes with risks, how JinkoSolar overcomes these risks? XL: We have a professional overseas development team covering legal, commercial, financing, also we committed to foreign influential consulting firms for consultancy of local laws and regulations, to handle and mitigate these risks. We fully understand that variances in legal culture and thinking may breed differences between a Chinese company and its foreign counterparts in a consortium or between the Chinese entity and the foreign government regulatory body, so the communication before project kickoff is necessary.

EQ: What do you think the key factors for JinkoSolar to win the final bidding? XL: There is no doubt that as the world largest solar module producer, we have a substantial competitive advantage on the pricing. The challenge to bidders was to maximize the power output from the site. We put forward solutions with more power than our competitors based on our leading Mono PERC technology. Furthermore, other key items that drive the LCOE levels are usually the EPC costs, the financing conditions and irradiation. In this particular Abu Dhabi case, module prices and highly competitive financing terms have played a crucial role. We got the best financing support from our partner Marubeni. And Abu Dhabi, and the UAE in general, is a fantastic location for solar, thanks to the natural advantage given by an attractive solar irradiation of more than 2,240 kWh/ sqm.

EQ: How about the profit margin of this project? XL: Cheaper costs of solar energy are creating new growth opportunities, even as the profit margins of generating companies may narrow in the low-price environment. Regarding the earning of the project, I think it should be still attractive, or as a sustainability and business oriented company, we will not do it just out of reputation. This is in incredible time for both the industry and JinkoSolar.

EQ: Can you provide us a broad overview of JinkoSolar’s international development business?

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XL: As one of the country’s first renewable energy companies to “go global”, JinkoSolar has actively tried high-end project cooperation mode of direct investment. In recent years, our international business has experienced rapid development and completed milestone projects, such as 250MW solar plant in Mexico and 94MW in Argentina, which are the largest project in both countries respectively. Recent 1117MW project in Abu Dhabi crown the world largest single site solar plant was won by JinkoSolar again with world’s lowest tariff. It is also the largest overseas solar energy project undertaken by a Chinese company so far in terms of contract value. While solidifying and enhancing its strong presence in China, the Company is expanding its international development, construction and financing operations to capture opportunities in the overseas market brought by China’s “going out” strategy such as the “One Belt and One Road” initiative. As of May 20, 2017, we had won three mega-scales international bids of total capacity of 1.52GW, in additional to 5GW in pipeline. Our overseas business operations are focused on Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.

EQ: What will this project impact the GCC regions? Will it boost the deployment of solar energy in the region and beyond? XL: This result will further increase the development of solar power globally, particularly in sun-rich countries with growing energy needs. Dubai and neighboring emirates and Gulf countries will build on the now proven approach to procure solar power plants on a similar scale to conventional power plants. Its neighboring Saudi Arabia should finally also take note of the compelling nature of solar power, hence the announcement of a 9.5 GW renewable-energy pipeline. The quality of tender and the pitching processwas fair, transparent and efficient. Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (“ADWEA”) has done a fantastic job putting together a world class tender, which only allowed the very best players to compete. Such strict requirements, transparent process, and focus on pure competitive mechanism of the Sweihan project tender, has made it a new benchmark for the industry and for the region, and created a template right for other GCC countries who have similar scenario. UAE has now firmly established itself as the forerunner of solar energy in the Gulf region.

EQ: How can the governments including Chinese government learn from Abu Dhabi experience and further include private foreign investors in its solar energy plan? XL: Now, solar PV is fully capable of competing with conventional power generation on an IPP basis,especially for those heavily energy importing countries. Indirect incentives, such as tax credits, should also be considered,as they will further improve PV solar’s cost competitiveness. Lower cost land, grid access, priority in being connected and transmitted, etc., are all crucial factors to enable the project commercial feasible.

EQ: What is the potential for solar energy in emerging market? XL: Quite a number of emerging market for example Africa, Middle East, Latin America, has limited coal or gas resources at its disposal, but has richest solar irradiation. Meanwhile, increasing demand of energy stimulates them to harness the potential for solar energy. In my view, the ambitious targetswill be achievable if the government, in collaboration with private sector, succeeds in establishing a suitable regulatory framework to develop its rapidly evolving solar energy market.

EQ: How you view the riskiness of investing in these emerging markets? XL: U.A.E.has natural potential with their plentiful sunshine, and they have stability that is perceived as better than other regions. It is less risky, and therefore, I see no problem with looking at it also and Saudi Arabia, these countries as a great investment. By: Saumya Gupta

June 2017

SOLAR ENERGY

“Key technical due diligence parameters, vendor selection process and Inspection criteria of Solar PV Module for Solar Projects”

Mr.Ashish Verma ANALYST AMP SOLAR INDIA

Finally, we landed up at solar tariff of INR 2.44/kWh ($0.0375/kWh) recently at Bhadla Solar (IL&FS 500 MW) Bid so everyone in Solar Industry is taking longterm call on module price (24 cents -27 cents) and chasing the trend which global solar industry has witness in past 2-3 years. Beside this developer, consultants, technology reviewer and Energy industry as a whole have started questioning on long-term viability and sustainability of these projects as the developer has to keep the project cost as minimum as possible or has to make compromises in quality of major component to take the price advantage to get the expected return on financial model.

Let me just start with overview of Solar market dynamics, future perspective, and observations • Globally Blended module prices has been dropped up to 30% (USD 0.33-0.35/Wp) where solar tariff is up to 35%-38% and here in India more than 50% solar tariff has been dropped in past 17 months and modules prices (MSP) up to 36%to 38% • Currently, Solar PV installed capacity is ~350 GWp where 12.20 GW in India. Deployments expected to increase 2.5x times in next 5 years • From past 3-4-year speculation in the performance of solar Poly, C-Si technology has been increased as prices have been dropped up to 55%-60% and half of the capacity is 3 years old. Although Poly c-si technology has proven performance track record but lack of sufficient public data, product information includes BoM and supply-price stressed manufacturing companies (https://www. pv-magazine.com/2017/04/18/ suniva-files-for-bankruptcy/, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ suntech-power-holdings-files-forchapter-15-bankruptcy-protection-1393277713)

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• As Industry, has witnessed a downward trend in project cost due to fall of module prices, and optimization in BoS majorly stressed supply chain is related to Module as MoM 0.95%-1.05% price declination has been observed where BoS 0.20%-0.30%. • Tier 1 Module supplier as per listing by Bloomberg 33 Module manufacturers having a manufacturing capacity of 70 GWp annually cumulatively. Listing of Tier 1 manufacturers in based on the nonrecourse debt financing by the lenders, it has nothing to do with technology and performance. • Power degradation of 0.50% YoY has been observed in Tier 1 Modules Suppliers (DNV GL) • OEM model in PV Module Manufacturing has been increased in past 3-4 years and production process, quality of product performance risk has started growing especially in China and India. • Manufacturers are changing BoM without any consent • Thermal cycle failure, degassing of new material with in the laminate and severe defects in junction box has been found as per DNV GL

Coming to the point.... " Is Solar Industry selecting module vendor based on the right technical parameter or its just solely on the commercial basis? Selection of technology, proven vendor, and technology track record, Efficiency or Module Power rating and Glass, cell class, temperature coefficient, historical performance and key performance data (LID, PID etc) what are the right parameters, how does those parameters affect your performance in long term and what would be cost implication on Module prices of these parameters along with Module BoS". Are developer going to use subpar material especially PV module which accounts more 50%-55% of entire project cost, DC cables manufacturers whose tracker record is not so good, technical specifications have not properly defined and the same scenario for module mounting structure and string combiner box (Monitoring or with our monitoring ).As the same trend of going to follow in tariff reduction module manufacturing Industry will have to compromise with Bill of Material and Quality checkup processes to keep support in prices expected by Developer at any cost. It is essential to understand the technical due diligence parameter and vendor selection process of PV Module which will decide the real price of minimum module prices without compromises with quality.

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SOLAR ENERGY The overall analysis has been covered under two sections

2. Qualification process

1. Key technical parameter and their relevance in performance, cost optimization 2. Qualification Process:

More than 50% of the installations across the globe has happened in past 3 years, cost pressure has been increased drastically on manufacturing front so before selection of module manufacturer for solar project recommending Developer to ensure the module manufacturer should have all the key IEC certificate, good and proven Bill of material(BoM), QAP , manufacturing process (fully automated process leads to higher cell to module ratio without any major defect, No of EL inspection) then negotiate in to the Module prices ( I am sure you will get price variation of 0.75 cents -1.50 cents ). These below documents should be review by the Engineering /Technology team

• • •

Technical and BoM assessment Economic risk and supplier assessment Level 3 and Level 4 inspection during manufacturing and shipment

Key technical parameter and their relevance in performance, cost optimization Generally, Solar industry evaluates the solar module technology, various manufacturers on these below parameters, understanding of these parameters are required in terms of cost optimization, technology performance (Higher yield), reliability, robustness and warranty point of view.

A. Technical parameters in PV Module for Cost Optimization i. Module rating (in Wp): Higher the power rating of a module, lower the BoS ii. Module efficiency (in %): Higher the efficiency, lower the ground coverage ratio and land requirement (Acre/MWp) iii. Weight/Wp: Based on the type of application i.e. rooftop (lighter weight is recommended) and Ground Mount, a key factor for structure tonnage optimization thus overall BoS cost

B. Parameters in PV Module for performance analysis i. Type of cell ii. Type of technology: Mono, Thin film (CdTe/ CIGS) or Poly c-Si iii. No. of Busbar iv. Power Tolerance limit v. Cell characteristics: PID resistance (ask test certificate IEC62804), LID results vi. Power Degradation rate vii. The temperature coefficient of Power viii. NOCT (Nominal operating cell temperature) ix. IAM (Incident angle modifier) profile Other than above parameter Developers should ask module manufactures updated and optimized latest. PAN file of selected pv module to get the optimized energy yield analysis from PVsyst. It might optimize the energy yield by +1.93%-2.10% (http://bit.ly/2s6TAoT).

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a. Technical and BoM assessment

• Cell & Module Process Flow Chart • List of Cell & module line equipment with capacity & location • Process & Quality Control Plan (Preshipment inspection at manufacturing facility, pre-shipment inspection at Third party lab and Outgoing quality control plan) • Provide information on Gold Reference Module & also cell by 3rd party lab (TUV, Fraunhofer, PI berlin) • Testing/Certification Laboratory (3rd Party) • EL criteria and Severity level of acceptance/ rejection as per AQL (ISO 2859-1) • Visual Inspection and Sun simulator results of sample in a lot • No. of Binning: Higher current binning leads to lower mismatch losses during operation. EL criteria (Electroluminescence) needs to be ask from module manufacturers where developer should strictly convey the best acceptance and rejection of micro cracks, maximum cell defective area, inactive cell, dark cells, grid defect, soldering defect, broken fingers and other if specified as these defects can hit the performance of the pv module in long term.

Key documents • IEC test certificate • PV Cycle certificate • Product warranty • Plant performance data (if possible) • Customer reference & degradation data if possible • Data on PID, LID • EL Criteria and QAP plan

“Higher volume of production/ Tier 1 doesn’t reflect the quality of production if not preagreed”

b. Economic risk and supplier assessment if everything is technically perfect, Developer should check the supplier background, Altman Z score, balance sheet and Power guard assurance in any event of failure in performance. Developer should visit and inspect the entire manufacturing plant and audit the below to ensure the wellness and efficiency of overall of process

Level 3 and Level 4 inspection during manufacturing and shipment This phase is one of the most critical and important to inspect based on the pre-agreed terms and condition where approved bill of material shall be used, Quality assurance plant would be followed and Pre-shipment inspection of products shall be performed. In general practices, Developer ask for detailed manufacturing plan and factory details, third party test lab from the manufacturers and then developer appoints third party reputed agency and in house quality team to be at manufacturing facility during product manufacturing. These are three phase where inspection agency/ quality team should inspect according to QAP

Key documents a) In production Inspection: b) Pre-Shipmentinspection :(Visual- for workmanship and product defect, Sun Simulation- for electrical performance of the PV module, Electro Luminance- for latent quality of cell) c) Third party lab test result inspection:( Sun simulation and PID test) If above Inspection agency will give green signal in above inspection result, then a lot should accept and will ready for shipment. d) Outgoing Quality control: Developer should ask flash test report of each modules and should done packaging inspection along with container inspection before shipping out. Just to conclude, Developer should go with the best bill of material for Module and follow minimum inspection level II and acceptance level AQL o for critical, AQL 1.5 for major and AQL 2.5 for minor as PV module is only component which share the maximum cost in overall project and comes with 25 years Power warranty. First don’t start your commercial discussion, it might hamper the product quality.

June 2017

Water-Gen and Vikram Solar showcase Environmental and Humanitarian Water Solutions at India's Smart Cities 2017 Expo. On the heels of the recent $100 million memorandum of understanding between WaterGen and Vikram Solar, and as a sign of the deepening cooperation between India and Israel, Water-Gen and Vikram Solar

eatured at the Smart Cities Expo in India on May 10-12. Water-Gen is one of Israel’s most innovative companies whose dynamic leadership and cutting-edge solutions are aiming to improve the quality of life for people around the world. Vikram Solar, the globally leading Tier 1 solar module manufacturer (by Bloomberg New Energy Finance) and EPC solutions provider, will further boost the efficiency of the Water-Gen technology by powering it with solar energy solution, enabling its use in the remotest parts of India, where electricity is not available.

Water-Gen is especially relevant in India, which lacks sufficient, clean drinking water. Executive Chairman for Water-Gen, Maxim Pasik explains, “Water-Gen will make great strides in changing the lives of the citizens of India for the better. WaterGen products are the solution to one of the world’s most immediate challenges by providing clean, accessible drinking water.” “This month,” Pasik notes, “we will demonstrate in New Delhi how Water-Gen units produce clean drinking water. We will be distributing the refreshing drinking water produced by Water-Gen to the citizens of India in this area.”

June 2017

Vikram Solar ties up with Israel's Water-Gen to introduce unique clean

As a leader in the fastgrowing solar sector, Vikram Solar covers the entire spectrum from modules to EPC to O&M and is now foraying into BOS. “I am confident,” said Gyanesh Chaudhary, Managing Director of Vikram Solar, “that we will successfully provide the solution for Water-Gen to provide clean drinking water in the locations in India that lack electricity, especially in the remote, rural areas.”

asik continues, “Our collaboration with Vikram Solar will ensure we provide clean drinking water to the people of India in rural areas without electricity in one integrated independent system. We will establish water farms powered by solar energy that will produce millions of liters of clean drinking water daily.”

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About Water-Gen:

Water-Gen has developed a cutting-edge Air to Water Generating technology and line of products for household use and large scale AWG modular units for generating clean drinking water from the air, with a vision to improve the quality and quantity of clean and accessible water in the world.

ater-Gen taps this unlimited resource to provide an abundant, renewable source of fresh and clean drinking water by extracting it directly from the air. With the patented GENius, the world’s most energy-efficient Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) module of its kind, Water-Gen’s various water generator models can serve the water needs from a small house to whole villages to an entire country. By generating the water directly from the air, WaterGen has developed an independent, innovative and autonomous solution. It is a plug and drink solution, requiring only electricity and no infrastructure. A healthy, quick and easy solution that aims to benefit every community and all humanity.

n April, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed around 630 million people in the South East Asian countries, including India, use a faeces-contaminated drinking water source. They also noted that worldwide, almost two billion people use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio.

ccording to India’s Prime Minister Narenda Modi, the mission of the Smart Cities Expo is to transform lives and living conditions for the people of India. As part of the Smart Cities Expo, the 4th Water Expo will provide comprehensive insight into the latest and alternative water technologies, including Water-Gen.

he unavailability of clean water affects mortality and creates a deadly environment. Water-Gen is focused on improving the quality of life for billions worldwide who suffer from inaccessibility to safe drinking water, thus saving millions of lives. Water-Gen uses this unlimited resource in the air to provide an abundant, renewable source of fresh and clean drinking water.

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n addition to its AWG line of products, which may also be powered by solar energy, Water-Gen has developed portable water filtration solutions, designed to handle emergencies and benefit victims in relief efforts, including a lightweight, battery energy operated filtration system for contaminated water resources, called the “Spring.” Senior governmental officials and international military bodies are keen on utilizing Water-Gen’s expertise with emergency and rescue devices to handle emergencies and with save and rescue missions.

cross the globe, contaminated water is an almost weekly headline. In India, it has been evaluated that 80% of its surface is polluted which resulted in a loss of $6 billion each year to water-related diseases. In addition to India, Water-Gen is currently collaborating in the U.S., China, Australia, Vietnam; the Gulf States, Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, CIS countries, African countries, and several Latin American countries including Mexico and Brazil.

n the United States, Water-Gen is speaking with officials on the U.S. federal and state levels to set up preventative measures against contaminated water resources and is properly positioned to provide effective

outcomes in U.S. locations such as Flint, Michigan where Water-Gen may provide an alternative solution for clean drinking water. Later this month, WaterGen is demonstrating its products in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

or every community size, WaterGen has the ability to help. The Large Scale Water Generators can potentially service billions around the world, including whole cities, villages, schools, and hospitals. The GEN-350G Medium Scale Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG) was awarded the “Atmospheric Water Generation for Forward Operating Base” CCD Contract with the UK Ministry of Defense. The Genny, the Water from Air Home Appliance, is a plug and drink solution which makes it ideal for homes and offices with a quick and easy installation.

asik is looking forward to representing the company at Smart Cities. “We are very excited to demonstrate on this international stage how we extract water from the air and, of course, how fresh and clean the water is, and how refreshing it tastes. We reaffirm our commitment to work with all international governments to ensure that every human being has access to clean drinking water. This is not only a basic human need. It is a human right.”

June 2017

Growatt SPF30005000 inverters

Growatt HPS30,50,120,150 ROWATT SPF3000-5000 INVERTERS

3kW and 5kW in capacity, scalable up to 30kW with max 6 units paralleled, the new SPF series is perfect for off-grid, backup power and self-consumption applications. Optional liion battery with 2.7kWh and 5kWh capacity covers residential and small commercial applications.

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Large capacity hybrid inverters are suitable for offices, factories, shops or rural villages. All in one design for connecting of PV, grid, battery and load together, makes it easy for installation and commissioning. Programmable working procedure is also available for flexible application scenarios.

Growatt PCS 50,100,250,500

Bidirectional battery inverters from 50kW to 500kW are suitable for offices, factories, shops or rural villages, paralleled upto MW scale for utility grid management, along with PV inverters and bypass cabinet. A hybrid system is configurable for power supply both ongrid and off-grid.

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1500 volt: made in Germany, powering the world. At the Inters olar Europe 2017, KACO new energy presented new products and solutions for the global energy turnaround. At this year’s Intersolar Europe, KACO new energy presented its new 1500-volt inverters for the first time: the 125 kW string inverter blueplanet 125 TL3 and the 3300 kW central inverter blueplanet 3300 TL3 outdoor. For PV plants from 15 kW upwards, the German manufacturer has added the blueplanet 15.0 TL3 to its portfolio. For the storage market, there is a new battery inverter with a power output of 250 kilowatts. The product offering is rounded off by system solutions and services which also apply the cost advantages of state-of-the-art technologies in the devices to lower overall project costs. On view at stand 230 in hall B3. The blueplanet 125 TL3 three-phase string inverter With cutting-edge technology, the blueplanet 125 TL3 consistently continues the “reduce to the max” concept begun by KACO new energy one year ago with the blueplanet 50.0 TL3 INT.

ith a power output of 125 kilowatts and a weight of only around 70 kilograms, the string inverter offers a high power density, especially in view of the fact that an oversizing of up to 1.5 times of its power output is allowed. The high performance of the inverter is underlined by its efficiency of 99 per cent and the MPP range that spans from 875 to 1300 volt. Another new development is that the inverter takes up the energy from 1,500volt solar modules. The blueplanet 125 TL3 has an aluminium outdoor housing for wallmounting: The dimensions being 700 mm x 700 mm x 450 mm, the device is the most handy one in its power class. The inverter defies extreme environmental conditions – a power derating occurs only at temperatures above +55 °C. The use of inexpensive aluminium cables with a cross-section of up to 240 millimetres offers potential for saving on installation costs. Customer-specific string collectors for the blueplanet 125 TL3 allow flexible configuration of the connection technology.

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The central inverter blueplanet 3300 TL3 outdoor 1500 volt input voltage and 3300 kilowatts power output: The blueplanet 3300 TL3 outdoor is the new size for solar parks in the North American utility league with a centralised system concept.

s part of the Integrated Power Station (IPS) the central inverter also meets the growing demand for quick and efficient solutions for large-scale solar parks. In the IPS, inverters, medium-voltage transformers and disconnection units for the DC and AC side are mounted together on one base plate, known as the skid, to create a ready-to-use functional unit. The skid also offers space for additional equipment such as monitoring accessories, sensors for measuring weather data or tracker control units. The blueplanet 3300 TL3 outdoor offers both remote access via the Internet and optimum operating convenience on-site for simple operation and fast maintenance, comprehensive system monitoring and universal communication options.

The blueplanet 50.0 TL3 INT three-phase string inverter Newly introduced last year, the blueplanet 50.0 TL3 INT will be available in two additional models.

he blueplanet 50.0 TL3 OD+ has been equipped by KACO new energy’s development department with special parts so as to make it permanently resilient against salt air corrosion in coastal areas. The inverter has a power derating only from +50 °C upwards; this feature makes it generally well-suited for operation in hot climates. The blueplanet 50.0 TL3 RPonly is a “reactive power only” inverter: In solar parks that are to support grid management, the device delivers reactive power at night as needed.

CPSS (Central Power String Solution) With the CPSS, KACO new energy has designed a system based on the blueplanet 50.0 TL3 INT and combining the advantages of centralised and decentralised system configurations.

he blueplanet Mini-Argus 50.0 string collector transports the direct current from the solar modules to the respective blueplanet 50.0 TL3 INT via a DC line. All string inverters are mounted on a rack with a protective cover in a central position in the solar park. AC wiring is only required from there to the adjacent container with transformer, switchgear and low-voltage distribution. The CPSS is supplied in four standard sizes for PV systems with 0.75 MVA, 1.0 MVA, 2.0 MVA and 2.5 MVA. In the first quarter of 2018, the CPSS can also be ordered with the new blueplanet 125 TL3.

June 2017

In addition, the Germany-based company offers engineering support and global service support for operations and maintenance as part of large-scale projects – no matter whether devices are integrated in system solutions such as the CPSS or ordered as components.

The blueplanet 15.0 TL3 threephase string inverter The blueplanet 15.0 TL3 with a power output of 15 kilowatts offers plenty of scope for solar power systems in the medium power range – in particular, the roofs of commercial and industrial premises.

he inverter operates using two separate MPP trackers which can handle both symmetrical and asymmetrical loads. This enables it to deal with east/west facing roofs (symmetrical load), factory roofs which are shaded or inconsistently designed and open spaces (asymmetrical load). Featuring built-in section switches, the blueplanet 15.0 TL3 can implement performance specifications sent as ripple control signals from grid operators directly via an expansion module with digital inputs; no separate datalogger is required. Preinstalled sockets into which the DC overvoltage protection device of type SPD 1+2 can be fitted emphasise the safety aspect.

LAPP India’s newest ffering EPIC®DATA CABLE COUPLER EPIC®DATA CABLE COUPLER

utomation controlled factories have a large number of data cables installed. Maintainence and support services helps maximize system performance at every stage of its life cycle. However, constant use of cables might result in production setbacks and replacing the cable might not be a viable solution. EPIC® DATA CABLE COUPLER by LAPP GROUP helps safeguard your data connectivity. It helps keep the production up and running with easy to assemble solution. An innovative solution, the EPIC® DATA CABLE COUPLER connects two network data cables on the production floor or in the field immediately.

Contacts (IDC) technology and equires no special tooling. EPIC® DATACABLE COUPLER‘s robust industrial design and construction ensures it is EMC shielded for no loss of signal quality. What more, the DATA CABLE COUPLER can be reused. It is a product that every Maintainance Repair Officer (MRO) should have it handy to restore the problem and ensure the production starts within no time. The product is available in 2 versions - EPIC® DATA CCR FA for Industrial Ethernet cables up to 10Gigabit, Cat. 7A and EPIC® DATA CANCCR for PROFIBUS/CAN BUS/ Sensor actuator cables.

he newly launched EPIC® DATACABLE COUPLER is a cost-effective solution to repair physically damaged data cables which ensure a minimal production shut down. It makes use of Insulation Displacement

PIC® DATA CABLE COUPLER is IP65/67 protectedand vibration proof. It is available in 5 pins and 8 pins that can resist ambient operational temperatures ranging from -40°C to +85°C.

The blueplanet gridsave 250 TL3 bidirectional battery inverter

arge-scale commercial and industrial storage applications are the ideal areas of use for the blueplanet gridsave 250 TL3 with a power output of 250 kilowatts. The battery inverter is suitable for both peak shaving and peak shifting: Customers are consequently saved from high energy costs caused by current peaks and long, high load profiles. The blueplanet gridsave 250 TL3 is tailored for use with lithium ion batteries, in which it stores renewable energy from wind power or photovoltaic plants. It can be used both in gridconnected and off-grid storage systems: The device can establish its own isolated network. The blueplanet gridsave 250 TL3 contributes to network management by supplying reactive power.

June 2017

EPIC® DATA CAN CCR

EPIC® DATA CCR FA

Application areas for EPIC® DATA CABLE COUPLER are : • Repair kit for breaks in network data cable • Connects two network data cable • To extend existing cable systems • To connect shielded cables up to 5 cores and 8 cores • DeviceNet,Sensor/Aktor wiring, Ethernet, Ethercat and Profinet

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Ingeteam showcased its latest developments at Intersolar Europe 2017 Once again, Ingeteam was present at Intersolar Europe, the world’s leading solar trade fair. On a 150 m2 stand, the company will showcased its main technological solutions for the solar energy sector, self-consumption, energy storage, and e-mobility.

Likewise, at the event, Ingeteam presented the latest advances in operation and maintenance services, a sector in which the company has established itself as a global leader, with more than 10 GW of total power maintained in renewable energy generation plants. Ingeteam is responsible for the maintenance of 25,000 inverters in more than 500 PV plants throughout the world.

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1,500V central inverter

2.5 – 40 kW string inverters

On its stand, Ingeteam showcased its latest 1,500Vdc INGECON® SUN PowerMax B Series inverter. With this central inverter it is now possible to deliver an output power of up to 1,640 kVA in a single power block up to 30ºC, reaching a power density of 326kW/m3. Thanks to this powerful inverter and to the possibility of connecting up to four inverters to the same LV transformer winding, Ingeteam achieves up to 6.55 MVA in a single turnkey MV Power Station at 1,500Vdc. The 1,000 Vdc version of this central inverter family is able to provide 1,165 kVA up to 35ºC ambient temperature.

The visitors to Ingeteam’s stand were able to see the company’s smallest string inverters. Featuring two MPP trackers, these single-phase (2.5 – 6 kW) and threephase (10 – 40 kW) inverters, are suitable for operation in self-consumption mode and have been designed in order to harness the maximum power from the sun.

100kW string inverter This brand new three-phase string inverter features one of today’s greatest power density within the string solar inverter sector, as it provides up to 1.47kW/kg. With its cutting-edge technology, this inverter features low voltage ride-through capability and reactive power capability, and is able to provide up to 110kW at 50ºC. It has been conceived to minimise the cabling and installation costs in order to reduce OPEX and CAPEX (no neutral wire and no combiner boxes are required); and it integrates Wi-Fi and Ethernet communications as standard.

PV-plus-storage hybrid inverter Also on showcased Ingeteam’s singlephase battery inverter, the INGECON® SUN STORAGE 1Play. This inverter, originally designed for stand-alone systems, can also operate connected to the public grid, offering self-consumption, grid support and back-up functionalities. Moreover, it features a PV input as standard and it can behave as a normal grid-tied PV inverter as well.

Electric vehicle charging station Finally, electric vehicle charging stations will also be present at Intersolar. This year, visitors will be able to try out the INGEREV® CITY Duo, a dual charging station that enables the simultaneous charging of two electric vehicles.

June 2017

SOLAREDGE PRESENTED EXPANDED COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL PORTFOLIO AT INTERSOLAR EUROPE SolarEdge Technologies, Inc., a global leader in PV inverters, power optimizers, and module-level monitoring services, presentED its next-generation power optimizer, new large-capacity commercial inverters, and complete residential solution at Intersolar Europe.

n the cutting-edge of PV safety and module-level power electronics, SolarEdge unveiled its new S-Series power optimizer, which is an Intersolar Award Finalist in the Photovoltaics category. The S-Series power optimizer has up to 40% higher power density, is 38% smaller, and introduces a new innovative safety feature that extends safety to the connector level. The new safety feature is designed to detect heat abnormalities and initiate shutdown before an arc occurs in order to prevent potential fires. The S-Series power optimizer is expected to be available in 2018.

Based on SolarEdge’s track record of optimizing commercial-scale PV systems, SolarEdge is extending its commercial offering with the launch of larger-capacity, three-phase inverters up to 100kW. The new inverters enable reduced installation time and cost, while also providing smart energy management control. Coordinating PV, storage, and home energy, the SolarEdge residential solution manages and monitors solar energy generation, electricity consumption, energy storage, and device control. The complete solution enables homeowners to increase self-consumption and energy independence. SolarEdge will show its portfolio of inverters for residential installations including the award-winning, single-phase HD-Wave inverter, the new three-phase E-Series inverter which is smaller, lighter, quieter, and more efficient than the previous generation, and a new compact residential solution for 4-8 panels.

June 2017

“Dedicated to making solar systems smarter, SolarEdge continues to lead the industry in developing innovative technologies that help to make PV more economic around the world,” stated Lior Handelsman, SolarEdge’s VP of Marketing and Product Strategy.

isted as a finalist for the EES (Electrical Energy Storage) Award, SolarEdge’s StorEdge inverter is one of the only solutions currently available on the market that combines the management of PV, storage for both on-grid and backup power, and home energy management into a single inverter. The StorEdge inverter with backup power is already available in select markets.

ntersolar Europe attendees are invited to visit the SolarEdge booth, located at Hall B3, Booth 110, to meet with local and global management teams, learn more about SolarEdge’s new product offerings, and participate in daily tours.

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Sungrow Launches 1500V PV Inverters and ESS Solution at Intersolar Europe 2017

Sungrow, a global PV inverter system solution supplier, presents 1500V string and central PV inverters as well as utility scale ESS at the Intersolar Europe 2017 in Munich, Germany.

he SG125HV, the world’s most powerful 1500Vdc string inverter, features a high capacity of 125kW. Also, it is proved to work stably in full power operation without derating at 50 degrees Celsius, maximizing the return on investment for project owners. This 1500Vdc string inverter enables up to 5 MW power block design. As a turnkey station for 1500Vdc systems, the central inverter SG3000HV-MV features its integration of the inverter, the transformer and the switchgear, based on its containerized design of 20-foot, saving costs of transportation and installation. Its maximum inverter efficiency is able to reach up to 99%.

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Committed towards providing integrated energy storage system solutions for residential, C&I and utility scale applications, Sungrow showcases an ESS which consists of the high voltage SC1000HV storage inverter, the latest battery pack, and EMS. This system complies with UL and TUV standards and its battery is supplied by the Sungrow-Samsung SDI joint venture. Thanks to its container design, the ESS can be flexibly configured at customers’ request as well as easily transported to site and maintained. The maximum charge/discharge cycling efficiency can reach up to 96.5% and the maximum capacity for the 40-foot battery container is 4.8MWh. This system can be applied to frequency-modulation and peakshaving uses. Sungrow’s ESS has been enjoying a good reputation in the European market.

In addition, Sungrow showcased residential storage inverter SH4K6 plus battery, residential PV inverters such as SG2K5-S and commercial PV inverters like SG80KTL.”Sungrow is committed to technical innovation which drives our rapid growth. We continue to offer better products and services to customers all over the world”, said Professor Renxian Cao, president of Sungrow.

June 2017

The World’s First-ever ±800kV Modular Multilevel Converter Valve has been Developed TBEA (Tebian Electric Apparatus) from China successfully filled the technical blank in HVDC field

ne of the China’s largest power equipment suppliers – TBEA (Tebian Electric Apparatus) has recently developed the world’s first-ever extra-high voltage (EHV)modular multilevel converter (MMC) valve. It meant that the voltage level of MMC has been brought up from ±350kV to ±800kV, and the capacity has been increased from 1000MW to 5000MW. A new era of HVDC has been opened. Converter valve is the heart of HVDC, playing a key role in making conversion between AC and DC power, and it is the most technical challenging part in the main equipment of HVDC. Through participating in National key research and development program of China (2016YFB0901002), the research team from TBEA have spent the last 9 months

(since September 2016) on carrying out comprehensive and in-depth analysis, prototyping and experimental verification on key technology, equipment and engineering integration design. Now, the team’s effort is being paid-off by announcing the successful development of

the world’s first-ever ±800kV MMC valve with all the type tests specified in IEC 62501-2014 passed. The MMC valve of TBEA employs the technology of MMCUninterrupted developed by TBEA. The MMC-Uninterrupted is able to keep uninterrupted operation during DC faults. It successfully solves the difficulties such as self-clearing of DC faults and restoring of the system, operation under reduced DC voltage and online bypassing/ inserting of valve group when applying the MMC technology in DC overhead line transmission. It provides solid technology foundations for constructing overhead line MMC-HVDC, multi-terminal HVDC system and DC grid. The EHV MMC opens new ways for bulk power integration of renewable energy through long distance power transmission.

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