EQ Magazine Nov 2018 Edition Part 2/2 by EQ Int'l Solar Media Group

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

OWNER :

FirstSource Energy India Private Limited

PLACE OF PUBLICATION :

95-C, Sampat Farms, 7th Cross Road, Bicholi Mardana Distt-Indore 452016, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA Tel. + 91 96441 22268

www.EQMagPro.com

EDITOR & CEO :

ANAND GUPTA anand.gupta@EQmag.net

PUBLISHER :

ANAND GUPTA

PRINTER :

ANAND GUPTA

TRENDS & ANALYSIS

SAUMYA BANSAL GUPTA saumya.gupta@EQmag.net

PUBLISHING COMPANY DIRECTORS: ANIL GUPTA

ANITA GUPTA

CONSULTING EDITOR : SURENDRA BAJPAI

HEAD-SALES & MARKETING : GOURAV GARG gourav.garg@EQmag.net

Sr. CREATIVE DESIGNER

ANAND VAIDYA anandfronton2@gmail.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER : RATNESH JOSHI

SUBSCRIPTIONS :

GAZALA KHAN gazala.khan001@gmail.com

CONT EN T

VOLUME 10 Issue # 11

ENERGY STORAGE

Instruments to Accelerate the Advent of Energy Storage...

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Nissan Leaf approved as an electricity grid stabiliser...

24 DISTRIBUTED SOLAR

Solar pumps will be installed in farms across country in ...

ELECTRIC VEHICLES EV infra policy soon; individua l can set up charging...

22 DISTRIBUTED SOLAR

Solar energy to add power to NMRC’s metro stations

Disclaimer,Limitations of Liability While every efforts has been made to ensure the high quality and accuracy of EQ international and all our authors research articles with the greatest of care and attention ,we make no warranty concerning its content,and the magazine is provided on an>> as is <<basis.EQ international contains advertising and third –party contents.EQ International is not liable for any third- party content or error,omission or inaccuracy in any advertising material ,nor is it responsible for the availability of external web sites or their contents 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.

November Part-B 2018

BUSINESS & FINANCE

SoftBank arm, Essel group to jointly develop 500-MW solar park in India

Tata Power Q2 net profit jumps 85% due to strong show by renewables

www.EQMagPro.com

INTERVIEW

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

WITH Sweety Arya

Drivers and Challenges for Rooftop SolarLoans to Small and Medium Enterprises in India

Marketing Manager Ginlong

BUSINESS & FINANCE Asia-pacific offshore wind energy capacity to rise...

SOLAR PROJECTS

Azure Power Wins 300 MW Solar Power Project with...

ENERGY STORAGE CellCube Energy Storage Provides Independent...

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS First decline in a decade in Asia Pacific’s solar power demand this year...

DISTRIBUTED SOLAR

MICL’s Chembur project goes solar to save ...

60 11 INDIA Vikram Solar conferred with three prestigious awards

www.EQMagPro.com

SAFEGUARD DUTY Safeguard Duty On Solar Panels Imposed Where Is The Protection ...

EQ NEWS Pg. 07-39

PRODUCTS Pg. 74-77

INDIA Rupee fall puts Rs 28,000 crore solar projects at risk: Crisil

November Part-B 2018

:23 2018/10/22 10:09 190mm.pdf 1

EQ-Nov-3G-200x

3GW+ ts from 2015

ipmen in Global Sh

to 2017

CMY

HUAWEI is a leading global ICT and network energy solutions provider. Currently, Huawei network energy products and solutions are used in over 170 countries, serving one third of the world's population. Huawei continuously brings high-quality products and services based on its experience accumulated over the past three decades. Ranked 72nd on the Fortune Global 500 companies, Huawei innovatively integrates digital information technologies such as AI , IoT, big data, and cloud computing, with PV technology, to promote industry-leading smart PV solutions for both utility-scale and commercial scenarios. Huawei Smart PV Solutions bring digitalization to every PV plant and renewable energy enterprise, enabling our customers and partners to lead in the intelligent world. It has been widely deployed in various countries and regions, and recognized by customers from China, Europe, Japan, America, India and etc. Based on reports released by global consultancies IHS Markit and GTM Research, Huawei was ranked No. 1 globally in inverter shipment for three consecutive years, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

8Â

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

儀唀䄀䰀䤀吀夀倀伀圀䔀刀匀伀唀刀䈀唀匀䤀一䔀匀匀䄀琀䜀漀氀搀椀Ⰰ 焀甀愀氀椀琀礀椀猀渀漀琀愀渀愀挀琀⸀ 䤀琀椀猀愀栀愀戀椀琀⸀ 䤀琀椀猀愀氀眀愀礀猀琀栀攀爀攀猀甀氀琀漀昀最漀漀搀椀渀琀攀渀琀椀漀渀猀Ⰰ 猀椀渀挀攀爀攀攀攀漀爀琀Ⰰ 椀渀琀攀氀氀椀最攀渀琀搀椀爀攀挀琀椀漀渀愀渀搀猀欀椀氀氀昀甀氀攀砀攀挀甀琀椀漀渀㬀椀琀爀攀瀀爀攀猀攀渀琀猀愀眀椀猀攀挀栀漀椀挀攀漀甀琀漀昀洀愀渀礀愀氀琀攀爀渀愀琀椀瘀攀猀⸀

䜀漀氀搀椀匀漀氀愀爀倀瘀琀䰀琀搀

⠀䘀漀爀洀攀爀氀礀䜀漀氀搀椀䜀爀攀攀渀吀攀挀栀渀漀氀漀最椀攀猀倀瘀琀䰀琀搀⤀

吀漀氀氀䘀爀攀攀㨀㄀㠀㠀㌀㌀㔀㔀㄀㄀吀攀氀㨀 ⬀㤀㄀㈀㘀㄀㜀㄀㤀㤀㤀㤀㤀 ꤀ ㈀㄀㠀䜀伀䰀䐀䤀匀伀䰀䄀刀倀嘀吀⸀ 䰀吀䐀⸀

椀渀昀漀䀀最漀氀搀椀⸀漀渀攀眀眀眀⸀最漀氀搀椀⸀漀渀攀

10Â

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

INDIA

Rupee fall puts Rs 28,000 crore solar projects at risk: Crisil Nearly half the solar power capacities under implementation worth Rs 28,000 crore face viability risk with the rupee`s steady fall which has made imported solar modules costlier and hiked the cost of setting up solar plants.

Agreements signed for 1900 MW capacity under Aggregated Power Procurement Scheme on Medium Term basis; tariff discovered as Rs. 4.24 per unit A major milestone in the evolution of the medium term market for power was achieved on 29th October, 2018 with the signing of agreements for 1900 MW capacity under Aggregated Power Procurement Scheme on Medium Term basis with PFC Consulting Limited as Nodal Agency and PTC India Ltd. as Aggregator.

Crisil report said these projects include 5.5 giga watt (GW) of projects bid in the past nine months at very low tariffs of Rs 2.75 per unit or less. They are in the early phase of implementation and unlikely to have bought solar modules for orders which are typically placed 9-12 months after bids are won, the report said.

Solar modules account for 55-60 per cent of the project cost of a solar plant, which is typically Rs 5 crore per mega watt (MW), said Subodh Rai, Senior Director, CRISIL Ratings. “Today, over 90 per cent of them are imported. Our analysis shows that for every 10 per cent drop in the rupee, the cost of setting up a solar power plant increases by Rs 30 lakh per MW, assuming other factors remain unchanged,” he said. Also, developers typically do not hedge the exchange rate before placing orders for modules.

If the rupee remains weak and safeguard duty is also levied, project costs would dart up by as much as 20 per cent. In such a situation, viable tariff for future projects will have to be higher by 30 paise per unit,” the ratings agency`s Director Manish Gupta. This would impact the government`s target of setting up 100 GW solar capacity by fiscal 2022, he added.

he PPAs are expected to lessen the burden and would lead to efficient utilization of capacities of some of the coal based stressed power plants. This scheme endeavors to achieve a balance in allocation of risk-reward to the transacting parties. Ministry of Power in April 2018 had issued Guidelines for a pilot schemeto facilitate aggregation of procurement of power (2500 MW for 03 years) from commissioned coal based power plants through competitive bidding.PFC Consulting Limited conducted the Bid Process for selection of capacity on DEEP e-bidding Portal from different projects. Subsequent to the bidding process tariff was discovered as Rs. 4.24 per unit and projects with aggregate capacity of 1900 MW were declared as the successful bidders. The agreements under the scheme were signed with the successful bidders and procuring DISCOMson 29th Oct 2018.

The seven successful bidders are – RKM Powergen (550 MW), Jhabua Power Ltd. (100 MW), MB Power Ltd. (175 MW), SKS Power (300 MW), Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd. (125 MW), IL&FS Energy (550 MW), JP Nigrie (100 MW) The procuring DISCOMs are – Telangana and Tamil Nadu for 550 MW each, West Bengal and Bihar for 200 MW eachwhile Haryana has consented to sign for 400 MW. Source: pib.nic.in

Source: IANS

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

INDIA

JA Solar Receives the BIS Certification in India JA Solar, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-performance photovoltaic products, recently announced that it received certification of its photovoltaic modules from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

n September 2017, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy incorporated solar photovoltaics, systems, devices and components goods under the Compulsory Registration Scheme in, which requires that PV modules be tested in accordance with IS 14286, IS 61730-I, IS 61730-II in local BIS-approved laboratories and BIS-certified before entering the Indian domestic market. After a long test and strict audit, on its poly modules and mono PERC products, JA Solar has recently received BIS certification. With a total shipment of 2.5GW and market share of over 10% in India, JA Solar has become one of the country’s largest providers of PV products since 2011. JA Solar’s PV modules perform well in various environmental conditions, and are widely used in ground-mounted photovoltaic power plants, industrial, commercial and residential distributed photovoltaic systems. In addition, JA Solar modules are selected and used in several important PV projects in India, including 130MW GroundMount Power Station in Maharashtra, 43MW Ground-Mount Power Station in Karnataka, and 865KW Brabourne Stadium Rooftop PV System in Mumbai. It is proven that JA Solar’s modules offer a strong guarantee for ensuring the stability of the power plant system and optimizing power generation.

Mr. Baofang Jin, President and CEO of JA Solar, said JA Solar is committed to the research and development and mass production of high-efficiency PV modules. Obtaining BIS certification represents a major milestone for us, and we look forward to providing customers in India with high-quality products and services as well as further promoting the development and application of renewable energy in the country.

Emmvee: India’s Top PV module manufacturing company has obtained BIS Certification.

mmvee is one of the few companies in India to have obtained with BIS marking certification for its crystal photovoltaic modules. As per the new guidelines of the Indian Govt. it is now mandatory to install have BIS approved photovoltaic modules in Indian market. Emmvee is fully equipped and has certified solar photovoltaic modules to be used in grid connected power plants in India and aboard.

Ideal mix of Thermal and RE is the future for power generation: Power Min R K Singh

ower demand is increasing at over 6 per cent and will grow multifolds in coming times and therefore it is imperative that we should increase use of renewable energy, said Minister of State (I/C) Power and New & Renewable Energy R.K. Singh on Thursday.

“We are in times of change and growth and with the growth of economy and increase in per capita income, the power demand is also increasing at over 6% and will grow multi-folds in coming times. Our commitment is that 40 per cent of total capacity will come from renewables and by 2030 we will be able to cross that.

Source: JA Solar

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

13Â

INDIA

Industry pressing for removal of Rs 2.6 per unit tariff for 1.2 GW auction Solar Power Developers Association (SPDA) is pressing for removal of Rs 2.6 per unit tariff to generate adequate response for 1,200 MW hybrid auction.

Industry pressing for removal of tariff cap for 1.2 GW hybrid tender Solar Power Developers Association (SPDA) is pressing for removal of Rs 2.6 per unit tariff to generate adequate response for 1,200 MW hybrid auction. The successful bidder would set up solar and wind capacities of 12,000 MW together. “The industry’s demand is to remove the tariff cap and let the tariffs be discovered through auction process based on market conditions,” an SPDA spokesperson told .

he industry wanted the tariff cap to be removed completely. The demand seems logical for ministry of new and renewable energy to consider it after last couple of bids experienced zero participation due to tariff cap,” he further added. The hybrid tender was first floated earlier this year in May for 2,500 MW, which was later scaled down to 1,200 MW due to lukewarm response from bidders. The developers are of the view that it would be difficult to sustain a tariff of Rs 2.6 per unit as they are already grappling with the issues of safeguard duty on solar modules and transmission related constraints for wind capacities. Promotion of clean energy is important for government. India has set up a target of having 175 GW of clean energy including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy by 2022. According to the Central Electricity Authority data, India has installed renewable energy capacity of around 72 GW.

“The industry’s demand is to remove the tariff cap and let the tariffs be discovered through auction process based on market conditions,” an SPDA spokesperson told PTI. “The industry wanted the tariff cap to be removed completely. The demand seems logical for ministry of new and renewable energy to consider it after last couple of bids experienced zero participation due to tariff cap,” he further added.

Source: PTI

November Part-B 2018

The hybrid tender was first floated earlier this year in May for 2,500 MW, which was later scaled down to 1,200 MW due to lukewarm response from bidders. The developers are of the view that it would be difficult to sustain a tariff of Rs 2.6 per unit as they are already grappling with the issues of safeguard duty on solar modules and transmission related constraints for wind capacities. Promotion of clean energy is important for government. India has set up a target of having 175 GW of clean energy including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy by 2022. According to the Central Electricity Authority data, India has installed renewable energy capacity of around 72 GW.

www.EQMagPro.com

INDIA Mr. Gyanesh Chaudhary, CEO and Managing Director, Vikram Solar commented, This is yet another proud moment for us. It gives us tremendous joy and pride to have won these awards. Each recognition helps us to remember the incredible work the team puts in regularly and this would not have been achieved without theircollective efforts.

Vikram Solar conferred with three prestigious awards Awarded with Zee Business “Dare to dream award 2018 Kolkata edition”. CHRO Asia honoured Vikram Solar with “Kolkata Best Employer Brand Awards 2018”. World Quality Congress conferred Vikram Solar with “Kolkata Manufacturing Leadership Awards 2018”. Vikram Solar, the globally recognized leading solar energy solutions provider annonuced that the company has beenhonoured with three prestigious awards this week.

www.EQMagPro.com

The Awards details – Zee Business “Dare-to-Dream” Awards 2018 Kolkata Edition served as a platform to recognize superior entrepreneurs from the Indian business & economy. Besides winning the award, Mr. Gyanesh Chaudhary, CEO and Managing Director, Vikram Solar was also honoured as a speaker at the event. The Kolkata Best Employer Brand Awards 2018 was endorsed by the CHRO Asia. The certification was provided by the World Federation of HR professionals. Vikram Solar won the award in Power/ Energy Sector category. The award was conferred to Vikram Solar for its efforts on translating and combining vision with action with HR Strategy, building line to mesh HR Strategy with Business and cultivating competencies for the future to enable building the organization to be future-ready. Kolkata Manufacturing Leadership Awards 2018 was organized by World Quality Congress. Vikram Solar won the award in Solar Category. The key criteria measured by jury revolved aroundinnovative processes incorporated in manufacturing.

November Part-B 2018

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Sembcorp India posts Rs 153.3 crore profit in Sept tr SoftBank arm, Essel group to jointly develop 500-MW solar park in India The agreement will enable the Softbank Group to expand its portfolio further in country and is part of aggressive growth strategy adopted here, a source close to the Subash Chandra-run company said

B Energy, a domestic arm of the Japanese investment powerhouse Softbank Group, has signed up with the Essel group to jointly develop a 500-MW solar park in the country, according to sources. The agreement will enable the Masayoshi Son-run Softbank Group to expand its portfolio further in country and is part of aggressive growth strategy adopted here, a source close to the Subash Chandrarun company said.

“It has won multiple tenders in the recent past and with this agreement it can further accelerate the development of its solar assets,” the source said without disclosing the financial and other details like timeline and the place where the proposed park will come up. Essel Infraprojects, which is part of the Essel group, is into developing large infrastructure projects across multiple sectors and has been focusing on development of solar assets and enabling infrastructure and has planned multiple similar solar assets across the country. “With this announcement the Essel group has further committed itself to development of renewable sector, the source added. In May this year, SoftBank Group had partnered with the now crippled infrastructure conglomerate IL&FS to develop over 20 GW solar capacity in the country by 2025. SB Energy has already won bids for setting up 1400 MW of projects in the country, including 300 MW in the Bhadla III Solar Park being developed by Saurya Urja Company of Rajasthan, a joint venture of IL&FS Energy and Rajasthan. The Japanese group had earlier this year tied-up with China’s GCL System Integration Technology in a 60:40 joint venture for an Indian solar power venture worth $930 million, that would work on loping photovoltaic technology used in solar panels. SoftBank had in 2015 made a commitment to invest up to $20 billion along with Foxconn Technology and Bharti Enterprises in solar projects in the country. The government had set a goal of generating 100 gw solar power by 2022. As per reports, SB has made an initial investment of Rs 40 billion for these projects. However, as per reports, the partnership with IL&FS fell through as SB Energy is facing hurdles in acquiring land, clearances and transmission facility. SB Energy was scouting for domestic partners for executing upcoming solar power projects with capacity of one GW. Reportedly, SoftBank intends to invest $1 trillion by 2030 in renewable energy sector in the country.

Singapore-based energy firm Sembcorp’s India unit has turned around to post a net profit of Singapore dollar 28.9 million (about Rs 153.3 crore) in the September quarter on better operational performance and commencing a new wind power project.

et profit of Singapore dollar (SGD) 28.9 million in the July-September quarter compared with a loss of SGD 2.7 million a year ago, according to a company statement. Sembcorp Energy India Ltd’s “thermal power plant continue to contribute positively and improvement in third quarter of 2018 came from its renewable power plant with good wind season,” it said. The company follows January to December as the financial accounting year.

Sembcorp Industries Group President and CEO Neil McGregor said: “India continued to deliver a positive performance. We secured a longterm power purchase agreement for our second thermal power plant and commenced operations of the 250-megawatt wind power project, the first installed capacity delivered under India’s nationwide wind power tenders. We now have 2,600 megawatts of renewable energy assets in operation and under development globally.”

Turnover rose 9 per cent to SGD 482.5 million. During nine month period ended September 30, 2018, Sembcorp Energy India Ltd posted a net profit of SGD 52.7 million as opposed to a loss of SGD 22.5 million in the same period of the previous year. Turnover rose 12 per cent to SGD 1.4 billion. On the outlook, the company said “India energy business is expected to be profitable for 2018, despite a weaker upcoming fourth quarter”. Sembcorp Gayatri Power Ltd (SGPL), a subsidiary of Sembcorp Energy India Ltd (SEIL), has been merged into SEIL. “Accordingly, the thermal business has been consolidated into SEIL and renewable business will remain with the SEIL subsidiary (Sembcorp Green Infra Ltd),” the statement said. Source: PTI

Source: PTI

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

THE POWER OF RISING VALUE

1.8+ Customer base in India GW

BIS

REGISTERED

FIND MORE ON: facebook/twitter/YouTube/Linkedin www.risenenergy.com

Global Headquarters & Factory: Meilin Tashan Industry Zone, Ninghai, Ningbo 315609. China Tel: +86 574 59953288 Fax: +86 574 59953599 E-mail: info@risenenergy.com www.risenenergy.com

www.EQMagPro.com

India Sales Contact: Bangalore: "REGUS", 2nd Floor, Hotel Ibis Building, 26/1 Hosur Main Road, Bommanahalli, Bangalore 560068. India. Cell: +91 9611333011 Fax: +91 80 6702 7001 Email: ponsekar@risenenergy.com Hyderabad: S.K.Tejaswi Cell: +91 9849494675 Email : tejaswi@risenenergy.com Delhi : Umesh Kaushik Cell : +91 93100 78313 Email : umesh@risenenergy.com

November Part-B 2018

17Â

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Tata Power Q2 net profit jumps 85% due to strong show by renewables Tata Power said its board has also approved plan to raise up to Rs 55 billion through issuance of NCDs on a private placement basis. Tata Power reported an 85 per cent jump in its second-quarter net profit on the back of good performance of its renewable energy business.

onsolidated net profit was Rs 3.93 billion in July-September quarter, compared with Rs 2.13 billion in the same period of the previous year, the company said in a statement here. Tata Power said its board has also approved plan to raise up to Rs 55 billion through issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on a private placement basis.

Revenue in the second quarter ended September 30 rose to Rs 72.34 billion from Rs 66.10 billion last year “mainly due to capacity addition in renewables, increase in fuel cost and increase in shipping tonnage,” the statement said. The rise in net profit was “mainly due to a good performance from renewables and all regulated businesses,” it said. During the quarter, the firm had an ‘exceptional income’ of Rs 18.97 billion from sale of investments in associate companies, Tata Communications and Panatone Finvest, which were classified as assets held for sale in the previous year. Also, there was favourable regulatory order impact that boosted net income by Rs 920 million. “Tata Power’s renewables business profits for Q2 FY19 stood at Rs 1.59 billion,” the statement said. During the quarter, the firm faced pricing pressures and higher fuel cost on Indonesian coal, it said without giving details.

Commenting on the company’s performance, Praveer Sinha, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Power said, “We are happy to report that all our businesses have done well and our operations continue to perform well.” “Our growth agenda now is more focused on renewables, rooftop solar solutions and using the Resurgent Power platform to acquire value-adding assets. In the coming years, we have identified key growth areas which include renewable generation, transmission, and distribution along with new value-added businesses including rooftop solar, smart metering, home automation, microgrids in rural areas and setting up of electric vehicle charging units,” he said.

During the quarter, Tata Power also rolled out retail rooftop solutions nationwide that has received good response from the customers, he said.

November Part-B 2018

Shares of Tata Power settled 12.40 per cent higher at Rs 77.50 apiece on BSE. During the second quarter, Tata Power said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) for setting up commercial-scale charging stations for electric vehicles at the HPCL retail outlets and other locations across India. Also, Tata Power Solar commissioned world’s largest solar rooftop stadium installation of 820kWp at Cricket Club of India in Mumbai. Tata Power boasts of a generation capacity of 10,857 MW. Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (CGPL), Tata Power subsidiary that implemented the 4000 MW ultra mega power project near Mundra in Gujarat, completed refinancing of the outstanding ECB loans amounting to $770 million (about Rs 55.00 billion) through a mix of rupee-denominated debt instruments and equity funding from proceeds of divestment of non-core assets.

“The refinancing of USD loans of CGPL will help in rescheduling the cash requirements as well reducing the effective interest cost apart from reducing foreign exchange related volatility for CGPL,” the statement said. The lenders of Prayagraj Power Generation Company Limited (PPGCL), a 3x660 MW coal-based power project based in UP have issued a Letter of Intent to Resurgent Power Ventures, (Resurgent Power) for the acquisition of 75.01 per cent stake in PPGCL. Resurgent Power is a joint venture based out of Singapore with 26 per cent stake by Tata Power through its wholly owned Singapore based subsidiary. Source: PTI

www.EQMagPro.com

BUSINESS & FINANCE

JinkoSolar Receives BIS certification for its Photovoltaic Modules

www.EQMagPro.com

ecently announced that it successfully received BIS certification for its Photovoltaic Modules. The BIS is India's Standardization and Certification Authority. It was established in 1987 to replace the Indian Institute of Standards (ISI), established in 1946, as the statutory national standard and certification authority in India, responsible for certification of Indian products. After a long test and strict BIS audit, JinkoSolarhas received BIS certification for PV modules in India.

Daniel Liu, Managing Director Asia South, said: “India is a key market for us and also very important to our Global strategy. Serving the needs and expectations of this market is top priority for us and we are very happy to announce that now our high efficiency modules now come with the BIS certification. We also take this opportunity to thank our local partners for their support and cooperation in helping us obtain this certification. Not to mention, we would also like to congratulate the local government for taking this initiative to help reduce the influx of poor quality modules in the country. Jinko Solar is confident to bring the highest quality modules to this market and further India’s solar target.”

November Part-B 2018

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Azure Power Raises over ~US$ 400 Million Since Fiscal First Quarter Azure Power has one of the largest solar portfolios in India. The Company’s 2GW+ pipeline has a weighted average tariff ~17% higher than the lowest solar bid in the market. With the recent equity and debt financings, Azure Power is one of the best capitalized solar companies in India. Azure Power (NYSE: AZRE), one of India’s leading independent solar power producers, announced that it has raised over US$ 400 million from equity and debt financings since June 30, 2018.

hese include the US$ 185 million raised in its first public follow-on offering on the New York Stock Exchange that closed in October 10, 2018 and various project debt financings and short-term debt facilities. Cumulatively, the company believes that this is the largest amount of financing raised by a solar power company in India during this period. With these financings, the Company is well capitalised to deliver its contracted solar pipeline of over 2 GW which is one of the largest solar project pipelines in the country and has a weighted average tariff ~17% higher than the lowest solar bid in the market. The Company’s follow-on offering attracted support from new investors and also existing investors such as La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), International Finance Corporation Global Infrastructure Fund (IFC GIF) and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Speaking on this occasion, Mr Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power said, “The recent financings were done against a challenging economic backdrop, but at the same time this is a testament to the quality of assets that we are developing and the strength of the solar platform that we have built. We are thankful to all our stakeholders and investors in helping us make significant contributions towards the realization of our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s commitment towards clean and green energy, through solar power generation.”

Equinor seeks oil, gas, renewable investments in India: CEO Norwegian energy firm Equinor is exploring investment opportunities in India, its chief executive told Reuters. We are looking at India both from oil and gas, but also from the renewables. It’s a very early (stage), but we need to be on the ground, Eldar Saetre said on the sidelines of a business conference. Separately, the company should also consider investing in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, the CEO said. “We look for opportunities in LNG, but it’s not something we need to grow, need to develop … it’s a part of opportunities that we are exploring,” Saetre added. Source: reuters

REC LTD – Raising Of USD 700 Million 5.25% Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Dollar Notes Of 5 Year Tenor By REC Limited In terms of Regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, this is to inform you that, the Company has successfully raised USD 700 million (Approx. INR 5,140 crore), 5-year bond from its inaugural foray into the 144a market (US Securities and Exchange Act 1933) by using the newly established Global Medium Term Programme of USD 5 billion.

roceeds of the bond will be utilized to finance power projects which is in accordance with the approvals granted by the RBI from time to time and in accordance with the ECB Guidelines. The 5-year benchmark deal has a coupon of 5.25% per annum, payable semi-annually and a maturity date of 13 November 2023. It offers investors a reoffer spread of 240 basis points over the 5-year UST, translating into yield of 5.38%. The transaction saw an oversubscription of approximately 2.5 times with active participation.

Source: thehindubusinessline

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

21Â

BUSINESS & FINANCE

SoftBank Is Planning a $1.2 Billion Solar Plant in Saudi Arabia SoftBank Group Corp. is planning to develop a $1.2 billion solar power plant in Saudi Arabia, even as it faces growing scrutiny over its relati onship with the kingdom, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

he plant, to the north of Riyadh, would generate 1.8 gigawatts of power, the people said, asking not to be identified because the plans are private. SoftBank has started preliminary talks with banks and developers to gauge interest in the facility, they said. Plans for the facility are at an early stage and SoftBank may decide to change the size of the plant or not proceed with it, the people said. The plant would be a pilot project for Saudi Arabia’s wider plans to build more solar power facilities, they said. SoftBank has faced criticism over its relationship with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the murder of government critic Jamal Khashoggi. Last month, the kingdom admitted Khashoggi had been killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, prompting international outrage. The country’s Public Investment Fund is the largest investor in SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund as Masayoshi Son forged personal ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The PIF “continues to work with the SoftBank Vision Fund, and other parties, on a number of large-scale, multi-billion dollar projects relating to the solar industry, which will be announced in due course, including solar power generation,” a spokesman for the fund said in an emailed statement. “Alongside this, the kingdom is moving forward with the overall renewable energy strategy, through which Saudi Arabia aims to be a leading and reliable diversified supplier of renewable energy.” A spokesman for SoftBank didn’t respond to requests for comment. Saudi Arabia and SoftBank signed a memorandum of understanding in March to develop 200 gigawatts of solar power facilities, that would be larger than any other. SoftBank and the PIF last month said they’re continuing to collaborate on solar energy plans after the Wall Street Journal said their $200 billion development was put on hold. Saudi Arabia is seeking to overhaul its energy industry to stop burning oil and gas that are more profitable to export. As part of this strategy, it plans to build at least 16 nuclear reactors over the next 25 years, and is also developing its first wind power plant and a 300-megawatt solar plant.

November Part-B 2018

GCL-SI and DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions Sign Strategic Collaboration Agreement At CIIE

GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (SZ: 002506) (GCL-SI), the world’s leading one-stop solutions provider for solar projects, has sealed a strategic collaboration agreement with DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions (DuPont) during the 1st China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. The two companies will work to advance the quality of photovoltaic (PV) products through innovation and make solar adoption more accessible worldwide. We are very pleased to forge this in-depth partnership with DuPont. The DuPont™ Tedlar® PVF film has always been the prime choice for our modules and I’m confident that our cooperation will further enhance the quality, performance and reliability of our products, said Xin Luo, Chairman of GCL-SI. As global demand for new sources of energy has continued to grow, scientific innovations in the PV industry are of great significance. In the past five decades, DuPont has been at the forefront of solar innovation, according to Eric Wang, Global Commercial Director at DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions. “We are very excited to showcase our innovative achievement at the CIIE and build strategic ties with GCL-SI. Our commitment to innovation has helped us create PV materials that stand the test of time and drive sustainable growth in the PV industry.”

According to Wang, more than half of the world’s solar panels installed since 1975 have DuPont materials in them. DuPontTM Tedlar® film-based backsheet is the only backsheet material proven to protect solar panels for over 30 years in all weather conditions with an aim of maximizing durability and reliability and minimizing system defects. Revenue from PV products manufacturing has fallen in recent years, as the market has been flooded with PV modules and products that have not been tested or that do not meet the toughest industry standards. It is a common objective throughout the PV industry to improve investment returns to that of the last 25 years while lowering overall costs. In that sense, the quality of PV materials is key. Working with partners such as DuPont, GCL-SI aims to provide top-quality PV products and holistic solutions for new energy systems. GCL-SI now has six manufacturing centers for PV modules around the world with a total output of 6 GW. Source: GCL-SI

www.EQMagPro.com

MATERIALS THAT MAXIMIZE YOUR SOLAR INVESTMENT BECAUSE THE WORLD CAN’T WAIT. For over 35 years, DuPont Tedlar PVF film for solar PV modules has delivered proven durability in some of the most extreme environments. Tedlar PVF film provides long-lasting protection for PV systems through an optimal balance of weatherability properties, adhesion and mechanical strength. Safeguard your PV system and enable long-term returns for up to 25 years with Tedlar PVF Film. ™

Materials Matter

™

photovoltaics.dupont.com

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

distributed SOLAR

MICL’s Chembur project goes solar to save INR 4,35,000 INR annually In a breakthrough step for rooftop solar installations on under construction building projects, Avishakti Rooftop Solar Pvt. Ltd has installed a rooftop PV plant for the recently completed project by Man Infraconstruction Limited (MICL Group) in Chembur, Mumbai.

he rooftop solar plant has been installed at Aaradhya One, a residential tower consisting of 12 floors and housing 68 apartments. The 23.4 kWp rooftop solar plant is designed to generate approximately 36,000 units annually. This power will be utilized to light up the commonly utilized appliances of the building like lights in the common areas, lift, water pump etc.

The rooftop solar system was installed during the construction phase will be on grid and will run on Net Metering. Animesh Manek, Managing Director, Avishakti Rooftop Solar Pvt. Ltd explains the technology, The Net Metering technology enables the system to transfer any extra electricity generated by the system back to the grid. On the days the PV system generates less, the required electricity is consumed from the grid. At the end of the year, you pay only for the net usage. i.e. electricity generated minus electricity used. The project will result in an estimated saving of approximately 4,35,000 INR annually by reducing their electricity bills. This can prove to be a major financial advantage for those residing in the building. “It’s all about giving a better quality of services to our customers. Opting for rooftop solar means reducing the maintenance bills of the project’s residents.” said Ravindra K. Yevale, Senior General Manager, MICL Group.

The numbers don’t indicate a major trend among real estate developers for choosing solar. With not enough knowledge about fluctuating prices, maintenance, and policy regulations for the technology, builders often skip it. However, going solar at this stage has its perks. Animesh Manek, Founder & Director, Avishakti Rooftop Solar Pvt. Ltd, the company that installed the rooftop solar system explains, “If real estate developers plan rooftop solar plants for their projects right at the construction stage, it can have its benefits. For instance, sufficient space can be planned to accommodate the solar panels as per the requirement. It also works in making the rooftop PV plant aesthetically appealing.”

November Part-B 2018

The benefits of rooftop solar adoption don’t end at just the financial advantages. Solar energy is a clean form of energy, which means by choosing is a step towards a greener future. The rooftop solar plant installed at Aaradhya One will prevent 64.44 tons of CO2 from being released into the air annually. “Opting for solar energy isn’t just about reducing your electricity bills. Looking at the big picture, it is a noble step toward a better environment. With a step like this, we are improving the quality of life for our customers as well as for those around us”, Parag Shah, Managing Director, MICL Group. “Sustainable living is the need of the hour. Having a green initiative like rooftop solar speaks volumes of the progressive mindsets of the construction companies and translates into a positive impact on their image” Animesh concludes. Source: avishaktisolar

www.EQMagPro.com

CMY

B Series

lngeteam's world class photovoltaic inverters The B Series central PV inverters are available at 1,000 Vdc and 1,500 Vdc. These world class power converters are able to provide a greater rated power at wider ambient temperature range. Thus, the 1,000 Vdc inverter provides 1,275 kVA up to 35ºC. lts 98.9% maximum efficiency level makes it a real market leader. The 1,500 Vdc inverter is lngeteam's latest development. lt reaches 1,800 kVA in a single unit up to 30ºC ambient temperature, performing at the highest possible level. The B Series inverters integrate last-generation power electronics (control unit, digital signal processor, low-voltage ride-through capability and many more) and electrical protections to enable a more advanced inverter performance. Designed for outdoor installations it is available in 2 options: standard model (IP54) and an upgraded model (IP56) which provides a higher performance.

MAIN FEATURES - Wide O&M Service network Pan-India - Patented technology: up to 4.66MW achievable with a conventional two-winding transformer - Manufacturing facility certified by lntertek - Reactive power injection / active power control

At lngeteam, we apply the concept i+c, in every project that we undertake: innovation to find the best solution and commitment to provide the best service. The formula of the new energy

www.ingeteam.com e-mail: india@ingeteam.com Phone: +91 124 420 6491-5

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

distributed SOLAR

10,000 farmers to get subsidy on solar pumps in UP Uttar Pradesh government would be providing subsidy to 10,000 farmers to help them in purchase solar water pumps for their agriculture purpose, said state agriculture minister Surya Pratap Sahi. “The farmers would be given solar pump subsidy from November 15 to December 10 and the farmers who will bring the bank draft of their share would be given the subsidy on first-come basis,” he said. Talking to reporters here said that the government will provide 70 per cent subsidy on the 3 hp solar pumps and 40 per cent subsidy would be given on 5 hp solar pumps. Mr Sahi said that the government has already announced subsidy of 80 per cent on 8 agricultural equipment who were given the benefit till November 5. Claiming about the new maize purchase policy of the government, he said that one lakh tonne of maize would be purchased in 20 districts.

Source: UNI

Jamia switches to solar power Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University joined the green campaign as it recently installed 2,250 kilowatt solar panels on the campus.

Across 52 buildings, 7,816 modules have been installed in the past one week, confirmed the senior university officials. “So far, only 20 per cent electricity demand of the entire university is being met through solar panels. Once the renewable energy module is completely implemented, every 10 years, 11,55,000 joules of coal which is used to supply electricity to the university will be saved. This equals to saving 60,000 trees from being felled down,” professor Sirajuddin Ahmed, in-charge of the building and construction department said. Source: indiatoday.in

November Part-B 2018

Solar energy to add power to NMRC’s metro stations Solar energy would add power to all stations of Noida-Greater Noida Metro Rail corridor’s Aqua Line that would be operational soon, the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) said

he NMRC entered into an agreement with a private firm on Monday for the solar energy project of the Aqua Line which would run between Sector 71 station in Noida and the Depot Station in Greater Noida, covering 29.7 km through 21 stations, it said. “Solar panels will be installed on the roofs of all the 21 stations of the Noida-Greater Noida Metro rail corridor. These panels will also be installed in the parking areas and boundary walls of the metro stations,” the NMRC said in a statement.

A total 10 MW power would be generated by the solar panels which would be use at the metro stations, the depot and in the parking areas, it said. The NMRC would be charged at Rs 3.25 per unit for the power, which, it claimed, is the “lowest tariff” for any metro rail service using solar power. The private partner, Sukhbir Agro Energy Limited, was selected after a tender was floated for the purpose by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which is assisting the NMRC on the Aqua Line.

“A power purchase agreement was signed between the NMRC and Messrs Sukhbir Agro Energy Limited. Manoj Vajpayee, the general manager (technical), signed the agreement for NMRC while Sumit Sood signed the contract for the Delhi-based firm,” according to the statement. NMRC Executive Chairman P D Upadhyay said the agreement has been signed for 10 years. During this period the company would install the infrastructure and provide power to all NMRCoperated metro stations, he said. “The work has started and is likely to get completed within the next six months,” Upadhyay told . The infrastructure work on the Aqua Line, whose construction started in May, 2015, has been completed and is currently under inspection by the commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS).

Source: PTI

www.EQMagPro.com

distributed SOLAR

Subsidised solar pump scheme launched in Odisha Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the Soura Jalanidhi scheme that aims to increase use of solar energy for helping farmers in irrigating their land.

oura Jalanidhi’, is a dug well-based solar pump irrigation system in convergence mode. Under the scheme, 5,000 solar pumps will be given to Odisha farmers at a subsidy of 90 per cent to irrigate 2,500 acres of land. The chief minister also launched the web portal of this scheme on the occasion. The event was attended by 1,000 farmers from 30 districts through video conference. In the first phase, the facility will be available for farmers where electicity is not avaialable for operating pump sets. The solar pumps will be given to the beneficiary farmers at a subsidy of 90 per cent. A total of Rs 27 crore will be spent for the programme, an official said.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said, “I am extremely happy to launch Soura Jalanidhi scheme for our farmers. I hope they will reap the benefits of this scheme and script success stories.” Patnaik said the new scheme will lessen the cost burden of the farmers. “They will get more irrigation facility, produce more and also be able to increase farm incomes,” he said. Patnaik also distributed four go-ahead orders for installation of solar pump to the farmers. Farmers having valid farmer-id, belonging to small and marginal categories having minimum 0.5 acre cultivable land holding and a dug well will be covered under the programme. Source: PTI

Source: Bloomberg L.P.

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

distributed SOLAR

Delhi: BSES launches rooftop solar initiative Phase 2 The second phase of Delhi power distribution company BSES’ Solar City Initiative was launched by Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain

T Solar pumps will be installed in farms across country in near future: PM Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the ‘Krishi Kumbh’ in Lucknow as he expressed hope that the event will pave the way for new technology to be imbibed in the agriculture sector. Addressing the event via video conference, he appreciated the Uttar Pradesh government for its efforts in augmenting the procurement of foodgrains. Amid concerns over rising level of air pollution in the national capital, Modi emphasised on the need to evolve new technologies and ways that will help eliminate the need for farmers to burn crop stubble. Modi asserted the farmers take the country forward and reiterated his government’s commitment to double their income by 2022. He said, a series of steps have been taken to reduce farm input costs and raise profits and noted that a large number of solar pumps will be installed in farms across the country in the near future. The PM said the government is working to deliver the benefits of science to agriculture and the Rice Research Centre being set up in Varanasi is a step in this direction. Modi also spoke of the importance of value addition in farming and said steps are being taken in the food processing sector. After Green Revolution, he said, the focus is now on improving milk and honey production. Addressing the gathering, the PM called for discussion on matters such as judicious use of water resources, better technology for storage and use of latest technology in farming during the event. Source: PTI

November Part-B 2018

his phase, which will cover the Shakur Basti area, follows the success of the first phase started by the company in Dwarka where around 100 housing societies and apartment complexes have signed up for the initiative, a BSES release said.

“The Shakur Basti area is home to several colonies and has a substantial rooftop solar potential of around 15 MWp. BRPL (BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd) is targeting to realise around 5 MWp of rooftop net metering from the area by 2019-20,” it said. Under the first phase in Dwarka, “around 25 societies having installed solar capacity of 1.5 MWp have already been energised or are about to be energised. The work at the remaining societies is at different stages”, it said. “The rooftop solar tariff identified through competitive bidding in the case of Dwarka residents was Rs 2.66/kWh (kilowatt hour) net of generation based incentive and is around Rs 2.50/kWh less than the electricity tariff,” it added. The Solar City initiative, launched in January, is being implemented by BRPL in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ India) under its Indo-German Solar Partnership project.

Commenting on the development, BRPL chief executive Amal Sinha said, “The programme also aims to educate consumers about the benefits of solar energy while ensuring strict quality compliance of the systems being installed. It is also facilitating various finance options available to the consumers.” Earlier this year, BSES said it had energised a record over 1,000 rooftop solar connections in the city, including the Lotus Temple and the Maulana Azad Medical College, with a sanctioned solar load of over 40,000 KW (40 MW). Besides helping the company in meeting its renewable purchase obligations, the initiative will help the it minimise overloading issues in congested areas during the peak summer months, BSES said. Source: IANS

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

29Â

SOLAR PROJECTS

Waaree Energies bags 60 MW solar project in Vietnam Solar power solutions provider Waaree Energies said it has bagged a contract to set up 60 megawatt (MW) ground mounted solar project in Vietnam.

ReNew Power to set up 3 MW floating solar project in Vizag Private renewable energy producer ReNew Power said that it has won an order for developing a 3 MW floating solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The project will be among India’s largest floating solar PV projects, ReNew Power said in a statement.“ReNew won this project after participating in a bidding process conducted by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) for installation of a floating solar PV project at Meghadrigedda reservoir located in Visakhapatnam,” it said.

he project is being financed by GVMC through a grant received from Asian Development Bank under their Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund. “In total, this project is estimated to generate around 4.2 million units of power annually, offsetting over 3,960 tonnes of carbon emissions every year,” it added.

Floating solar is an emerging technology trend with huge potential. We believe floating solar power plants can play a critical role in a country like India which has abundant water bodies,” ReNew Power Head (Distributed Solar and Offtake) Prabhat Mishra said in a statement. “As per industry estimates, if only 10-15 per cent of India’s water resources are utilised for setting up floating solar plants, it could generate up to 300 GW of power.” The state-run Solar Energy Corporation has invited expressions of interest (EoI) to generate 10 GW through floating solar plants, the statement added.

Waaree Energies has been a preferred EPC player in India, and is committed towards making solar energy affordable and accessible. We plan to extend this commitment globally and are actively looking at opportunities that aid transition to solar power," Sunil Rathi, director- sales and marketing, Waaree Energies.

He said the company already have a pipeline of 100 MW to be executed in next six months internationally and 250 MW in the country. Source: IANS

November Part-B 2018

he project, which is being developed in association with a leading utility scale provider, on turnkey basis, will marks Waaree Energies' expansion to South East Asia market, the company said in a statement. Being developed in Khanh Hoa province of the country, the project has been approved by EVN (Vietnam Electricity) for 60 MW and is expected to generate 106,000 units per year, once commissioned, it added. The power generated will be used for feedin tariff, which will further aid in adoption of solar energy in the country, which has set a target to set up 12,000 MW of solar power capacity, the statement said.

economictimes.indiatimes.com

www.EQMagPro.com

distributed SOLAR

Fourth Patner Energy commissions 980-kWp rooftop solar for skoda auto’s production plant in Aurangabad Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy, India’s leading distributed solar energy company has commissioned a 980-kWp Rooftop Solar Carport for Škoda Auto’s production facility in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

his initiative, built in line with the ‘Green Future’ strategy of Škoda Auto and commissioned as part of the ‘INDIA 2. 0’ project, is expected to reduce 922 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, the company said in a release. The carport built by Fourth Partner Energy, is spread over an area of 8,000 square metres, and is expected to provide covered parking space for almost 300 cars. The carport structure of the designated system will cover 30 percent of the plant’s annual energy consumption by generating 1,475 MWh of power per annum.

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

SOLAR PROJECTS

Azure Power Wins 300 MW Solar Power Project with AAA Rated NTPC 86% of Azure Power’s 2 GW+ contracted pipeline is with counterparties that have A to AAA domestic debt ratings. Over 1 GW of the contracted pipeline are with sovereign counterparties. Azure Power (NYSE: AZRE), one of India’s leading independent solar power producers, announced that it has signed a letter of award (LOA) for a 300 MW Interstate Transmission System (ISTS) grid connected solar PV project won in an auction conducted by NTPC Limited, which has a domestic AAA debt rating and is the Government of India’s largest power utility.

A EQ

Azure Power has a long history of over 7 years of developing and operating solar power plants in Gujarat. Local development expertise led to early part commissioning of 260 MW project, 5 months ahead of PPA operation date. Azure Power won more than 50% capacity in a 500 MW auction in September 2017 with GUVNL, a AA- domestic debt rated entity. Azure Power (NYSE: AZRE), one of India’s leading independent solar power producers, announced the early commissioning of a 95 MW solar power plant in Gujarat which was completed in record time for a ground mount project built by the company and has been commissioned approximately 5 months ahead of the scheduled PPA operation date.

T zure Power will provide power to NTPC at a tariff of INR 2.59 (~US 3.6 cents) per kWh for 25 years. The solar PV project can be located anywhere in India, which will likely be outside a solar park, and is expected to be completed in early 2021. With this win, 86% of the company’s 2 GW+ contracted pipeline is with counterparties that have A to AAA domestic debt ratings and over 1 GW of the pipeline is with sovereign counterparties.

Our long history of superior solar power operations with NTPC from the inception of National Solar Mission has contributed to our success of winning this 300 MW project with NTPC. We are delighted to make a contribution towards the realization of our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s commitment towards clean and green energy, through solar power generation. Speaking on this occasion, Mr Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power said,

Azure Power Announces Early Commissioning of 95 MW Project in Gujarat

November Part-B 2018

his section is the first phase of a 260 MW allocation by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) to Azure Power and was developed outside a solar park. Azure Power will provide power for 25 years at a tariff of INR 2.67 (~US 3.9 cents) per kWh to GUVNL which has a strong offtake credit and has been rated AA- by ICRA, a Moody’s company. Azure Power has a long history of developing and operating solar power plants under the Gujarat Solar Policy 2009. Some of the first solar projects in India were built in Gujarat given several advantages the state has including high levels of solar radiation, an extensive and stable electric grid network, and the strong credit quality of its DISCOM, GUVNL. Azure Power developed and is operating India’s first MW-scale distributed solar rooftop project in Gujarat’s state capital city, Gandhinagar. In 2013, World Bank recognized this project as one of the Top 10 public-private partnerships in the Asia Pacific region.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power said, With the early commissioning of this plant we have set a new record for the company on delivering projects ahead of schedule, once again demonstrating our strong project development, engineering, and execution capabilities. We are pleased to start selling lowest cost solar power in the state of Gujarat, approximately 23% cheaper than the recent average pooling price of power in the state, thus contributing towards the realization of our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s commitment towards clean and green energy, through solar power generation. Our sincere gratitude to GUVNL and the state of Gujarat for all the cooperation and support extended.

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

33Â

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Asia-pacific offshore wind energy capacity to rise 20- fold in next decade: Wood Mackenzie Asia-Pacific region’s offshore wind power capacity would rise 20-fold to 43 Gigawatt (GW) through 2027, according to a recent report by global natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

t said that China, leading in the race, is expected to see offshore wind capacity grow from 2 GW last year to 31 GW in the next decade. Taiwan, which comes next, would account for 20 per cent or 8.7 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2027. This would make it the largest offshore wind market in Asia-Pacific excluding China (APeC) by 2020. A few markets in Asia-Pacific, driven by declining prices, have set ambitious offshore wind targets. However, not every market is set for success as a stable domestic offshore supply chain and strong government support are needed to sustain growth in the long term. “Together with South Korea and Japan, East Asia needs about $37 billion in investments to meet the mammoth growth in offshore wind capacity over the next five years,” Liew said. He added that prices are coming down and thus future offshore wind prices were projected to be competitive with traditional thermal prices by 2025. “This should attract investments in offshore wind, though Asia-Pacific is still playing catch-up with Europe as it is still in the process of establishing a dedicated infrastructure to support large scale offshore growth,” he said. Despite the enormous potential of offshore wind in Asia-Pacific, key challenges around technology maturity and limited regional offshore wind supply chain remain. Advanced offshore technology used in regional leader China still lags behind that of European offshore.

Taiwan presents the biggest offshore market in APeC due to a relatively stable regulatory regime, a supportive government, and openness to foreign investment, said Robert Liew, senior analyst, Wood Mackenzie.

However, the government has pledged to shut down nuclear plants by 2025, thereby leaving a void of 5 GW of power capacity to be filled. Offshore wind is poised to fill this gap as more than 5.7 GW of projects have been approved and planned for commissioning by 2025, the research firm said in a report.

November Part-B 2018

“Local turbine suppliers in Korea and Japan are investing in new and larger offshore machines comparable to western turbines. This will take time as it will require more research and development, testing new demonstration units, and establishing developer buy-in,” Wood Mackenzie said. In addition, to support the ambitious growth in offshore wind capacity, a robust supply chain needs to be developed. This would require strong commitments by regional governments to support and invest in the growth of offshore wind. Source: Wood Mackenzie

Source: edelman

IHS Markit revises 2018 China solar PV outlook, in light of new 2020 PV target discussions in China the Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) reported that China had added 34.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) power in the first three quarters of 2018, bringing the total installed PV capacity to 165 GW, just 1.5 GW higher than previously forecast by IHS Markit. NEA is now discussing new PV targets for 2020, with reported proposals ranging from 210 GW to 270 GW.

ased on these figures, the IHS Markit 2018 outlook for China has been raised from 37 GW to 40 GW. While it appears that China will maintain a steady level of annual installations, quarterly fluctuations will continue, shaped by policymaking decisions. The total cumulative PV capacity in China is forecast to reach to 255 GW at the end of 2020, resulting in around 40 GW of installations per year in 2019 and 2020. Further adjustments of these numbers will be made once there is clarity on final policy decisions. As forecast, the limits on new PV installations announced by the Chinese government in May 2018 have resulted in a reduction of PV installations in the second half of the year. However, the fall in module prices has bolstered demand even more than we first anticipated, and the prospect of a new policy sets the path for continued build-out of PV in China. The new figures from NEA, combined with the indications from the IHS Markit “PV Market Survey Trend – China,” caused an upward adjustment in these figures, to more than 40 GW. With plans to more than double the original 105 GW PV target conceived in the 13th five-year plan to be achieved by 2020, the Chinese government has indicated its continued determination to lead the global build-out of renewable energy sources, as well as the manufacturing of solar PV cells and modules. China’s challenge will be to design a policy to install new PV installations in the most power-hungry regions at a lower cost than other energy sources. Any further increase in the current $17 billion subsidy payment backlog must be avoided. Support for distributed solar photovoltaics (DPV) with self-consumption, competitive tenders or lower feed-in tariffs, and further top-runner auctions are likely to be introduced in the wake of the new 2020 target.

www.EQMagPro.com

ROOFTOP SOLAR | OPEN ACCESS SOLAR | UTILITY SCALE SOLAR Sunsure Energy Pvt. Ltd. | www.sunsure-energy.com info@sunsure.in |+91 990 2366 059 505-506, Tower-A, Unitech Business Park, Sector-41, Gurugram, Haryana - 03 www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

35Â

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

First decline in a decade in Asia Pacific’s solar power demand this year As compared to 2017, the region’s solar demand will dip 18 per cent to 59 Gigawatt in 2018 due to declining installations in China, India and Japan, according to Wood Mackenzie

fter a decade of stellar growth, solar power’s demand in the Asia-Pacific region is set to decline for the first time this year, according to Wood Mackenzie, a global energy research and consultancy firm. China has had an unprecedented growth in photovoltaic (PV) installations over the past few years. The 13th five-year plan, published in 2016, set a minimum target of 105 Gw by 2020. It met the target in 2017 – three years ahead of plan – as the cumulative capacity reached 131 Gw. During 20162018, costs declined at a faster pace than the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) levels as module oversupply continued. As a result, installation frequently surpassed the annual provincial construction quota for utility-scale projects and led to delays in subsidy payments and curtailment. To regain control of the pace of solar development and reduce the subsidy burden, China implemented several stop-gap measures in May this year. These included cancellations of further quotas for utility-scale projects, quota restrictions on distributed solar of 10 Gw for 2018, reduced FIT levels, and the transition towards auctions.

As compared to 2017, the region’s solar demand will dip 18 per cent to 59 Gigawatt (Gw) in 2018 due to declining installations in China, India and Japan. “Traditionally the leader of the pack in Asia-Pacific, China’s solar installations are expected to fall 30 per cent this year as it is adopting various policy instruments which will reduce subsidies,” Wood Mackenzie’s solar analyst Rishab Shrestha said.

In Japan, high levels of FIT have attracted more than 80 Gw of solar pipeline capacity despite the high-cost environment. Developers pushed back on grid connection timeline to realise module cost savings and significant projects remained in development status. The government reevaluated the pipeline to only permit projects — of around 50 GW capacity including operational ones — that have sound business plans that would be grid-connected within the next three years Japan is currently transitioning from FIT to auction for projects greater than 2 Mw. The past two auctions have been undersubscribed due to several issues such as tight permitting and grid connection timeline, high cost, grid constraints, and limited land availability. Furthermore, the submitted bids for the second auction were all above the ceiling tariff of JPY 15.5 per kWh. Due to these issues, utility-scale solar installations will decline significantly. Nonetheless, distributed solar installations are expected to remain stable as FIT remuneration declines along with cost. “The key trend we are seeing is the phase out of subsidies and transition towards auctions, which is leading to lumpy demand in the region,” Shrestha said. He also added that Asia-Pacific will still add 355 Gw of new solar capacity over the next five years, and this is partly attributable to the reduction in PV capital cost globally. By 2023, Wood Mackenzie expects the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to fall by 25 per cent to US$ 55 per Megawatt-hour (MWh). This makes solar energy more competitive compared to traditional energy sources such as gas and coal, and could drive additional demand from emerging markets in the region. Markets with attractive policies including Taiwan and Vietnam which have high FIT and South Korea and Philippines which have Renewable Portfolio Standards are likely to benefit the most. Also, as Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) approaches the wholesale power price levels, as in Australia, for example, voluntary procurement will become a significant driver of solar installations. Source: Wood Mackenzie

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

37Â

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Nissan Leaf approved as an electricity grid stabiliser in Germany Technology company The Mobility House, energy supplier ENERVIE, transmission system operator (TSO) Amprion and car maker Nissan have devised an innovative charging and energy management technology that qualifies the electric car for all the TSO regulatory requirements for primary power regulation. This means that the car can be integrated as a regulating reserve for the German electricity grid – said to be a breakthrough in the establishment of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology in Germany.

o meet the universal desire for a transition to decentralised energy generation from renewable sources here in Germany, new and innovative solutions for stabilising the electricity grid are necessary. The increasing use of renewable energy leads to fluctuations in the grid, which must be initially balanced by primary regulation, able to prevent impending power cuts at a second’s notice. Electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf come with integrated bidirectional charging technology. With its CHAdeMO charging connector, the Leaf is not only able to extract power from the grid and store it in its traction battery, but, if necessary, also to feed power back. This is called the Vehicleto-Grid (V2G) concept. This is a pilot project at the ENERVIE site in Hagen, Germany. In combination with intelligent charging and energy management technology from The Mobility House, the charging and discharging processes can be controlled and monitored.

Thomas Raffeiner, CEO and founder of The Mobility House (TMH) said, We are pleased that Mobility House technology has been approved by the TSO for the most challenging and important product of the German power supply system.

Guillaume Pelletreau, Vice President and Managing Director, Nissan Center Europe said, We are very proud that the Nissan Leaf has, as the first electric car ever, been approved as suitable for stabilising grid frequencies. Leaf batteries could make an important contribution to energy transition in Germany and a sustainable future. As one of four TSO’s responsible for the transmission of power in Germany, and thus charged with the stability of the power grid, Amprion is a supporter of the ambitious V2G project. The TSO has defined the technical and regulatory requirements for prequalifying a mobile battery storage unit for the market for primary regulation. Amprion has now approved the Nissan Leaf, as the first electric car, in combination with the control system from The Mobility House, as suitable for this function.

Andreas Walczuch, Head of System Services and Energy Market at Amprion said, We are proud to be the first in Germany to prequalify an electric car for primary regulation. This innovation shows us that electric cars may have a part to play in securing system stability.

Erik Hohne, executive spokesman of ENERVIE Group in Hagen, said, “By providing the infrastructure for the project on site, ENERVIE has extended its commitment to e-mobility as an innovative partner for industry, commerce and the people in the region by a further facet. Source: autocarpro.in

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Cheaper EV Charging Seen Under U.K.’s First Half-Hourly Tariff Renewable power supplier Octopus Energy Ltd. is introducing the U.K.’ s first time-of-use tariff, allowing consumers to choose the cheapest time to charge their cars, do the laundry or top-up storage heaters. The energy supplier’s flexible rate will save users money and reduce demand on the grid at the busiest times of the day.

he half-hourly price tracker marketed as “Agile” has been running with about 150 customers on a trial basis since March. Users with their own EVs reduced their peak consumption by 47%, according to a report from Octopus. The average consumer could save about 188 pounds ($243) a year on their energy bill. The tariff could also reduce the billions of pounds needed to upgrade the U.K’s aging energy networks by decentralizing demand through a smart grid. It will also help support the EV market, Octopus said.

Our current infrastructure isn’t really up to the job, Greg Jackson, chief executive officer of Octopus, said in an interview. There’s “controversy in the energy world, a lot of concern, that as we electrify vehicles, the grid — especially the local distribution networks — won’t be able to handle the demand. A big unknown for electric vehicles is how charging them will impact consumption. If people arrive home from work and plug in when demand is already at its highest, the network could struggle to cope. On a time-of-use tariff, it will be cheaper to charge outside of peak times. Britain’s transition to EVs could become the catalyst that energy consumers need to learn about power markets and seek out the cheapest suppliers of electricity. Lawmakers and the energy industry are hopeful that more savvy energy consumers will engage with smart homes, automated appliances and electric vehicles. There could be as many as 11 million EVs in the U.K. by 2030 and as many as 36 million by 2040, according to a National Grid Plc report.

“We need to do anything we can to speed decarbonization up, not slow it down because our systems can’t cope with it,” Jackson said. “The reality is that what we need is a smart grid to spread the load and that would make a significant impact on the speed” and cost of reducing carbon emissions. Source: Bloomberg L.P.

Enclosures

IEC 61111

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

EV infra policy soon; individual can set up charging station for commercial use: R K Singh The power ministry would soon bring an electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure policy, which will also allow individuals to set up charging station for commercial use to boost e-mobility, said Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh

he EV charging infrastructure is required to boost EVs in the country. India intends to have sizeable share of EVs in the vehicle strength by 2030, which is in line with it’s commitment to reduce emission intensity by one third from the level of 2005.

About the extension of 1,200 MW hybrid auction (wind and solar), the minister said, “The tariff ceiling has been increased to Rs 2.70 per unit. We are extending it because we have increased the ceiling price”. The auction scheduled for October 26 was postponed till November 14. The successful bidder will set up hybrid solar and wind capacities of 1,200 MW together. The industry has been opposing the Rs 2.6 per unit tariff cap under the hybrid tender. Meanwhile, the last date of bid submission for 10GW solar auction is also extended till November 19. The techno-commercial bid opening will be carried out on November 20. The auction, which also includes 3GW manufacturing component, has been extended many times. The bids were to be submitted on November 12. Promotion of clean energy is important for the government. India has set up a target of having 175 GW of clean energy, including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy, by 2022.

The minister said India has 72 GW of installed renewable energy capacity, while 20 GW is under various stages of implementation and 27 GW is being bid out. Singh also informed that his ministry is working to coordinate with oil ministry to set up EV charging station at petrol pumps.

November Part-B 2018

We have circulated the EV Charging Policy for comments (among other department/ ministries). The second line of the policy says that everybody is free to set up EV charging station, R.K. Singh told reporters at International Symposium to Promote Innovation & Research in Energy Efficiency (Inspire). When asked whether individuals would be able to use the facility on commercial basis, he replied, “Absolutely. You dont need a licence”.

To support investments in new, innovative and scalable business models, the EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Ltd) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) also signed an agreement for a Global Environment Facility (GEF) for grant of USD 13 million to establish an Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund (EERF) on this occasion. The EERF aims to expand and sustain investments in the energy efficiency market in India, build market diversification, and scale up existing technologies. During Inspire 2018 on Friday, the EESL and GAIL (India) Ltd signed MoU to develop natural gas based cogeneration and trigeneration projects in Commercial & Industrial Sectors. This agreement is set to benefit industries such as hotels, hospitals, airports, commercial malls, commercial/ government buildings, integrated residential complexes, educational institutions, data center, among others, with the advantages of combined heat & power technology. Inspire 2018 has been organised in collaboration with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI). The event was also attended by Junaid K Ahmad, Country Director, The World Bank (WB) and Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director, Asian Development Bank (ADB).

www.EQMagPro.com

rooftop

HFM Solar commissions 1 MW Roof-Top Solar Power Plant in Lucknow. Rooftop Solar Power Developer, HFM Solar Power Private Limited has commissioned a 1 MW roof-top solar power project at the University of Lucknow, Lucknow. The roof-top solar was built in collaboration with SECI and MNRE. The solar plant will reduce emissions from grid power and backup diesel generators, and will abate around 1300 Tons of CO2 per year.

he company will provide solar power to University of Lucknow on the 'pay as you go' or OPEX model. Solar Powerwill be provided at tariff rates cheaper than the grid tariffs, which is estimated to save the university approx.Rs. 6 million annually. Medhir Jain, Director, HFM Solar said â&#x20AC;&#x153;India has one of the best solar conditions and solar is already the cheapest form of generation in many parts of the world.

www.EQMagPro.com

We are happy to note that the solar power supplied to University of Lucknow will be at a cost which is 50% cheaper than the grid tariff, providing significant cost savings to the university. Through our partnership, we are helping University of Lucknow reduce their carbon footprint and electricity costs simultaneously. This is a very compelling proposition to institutes like University of Lucknow, and we hope to replicate it for other premier institutes across the country as well. We are committed in implementing Solar Energy Projects to help reduce CO2 emissions and contribute towards the objective of energy conservation.

November Part-B 2018

41Â

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Sodium-ion battery pilot in Bondi could change the way we store energy A new trial at Sydney Water’s Bondi sewage pumping station will soon be storing renewable energy through the use of sodium-ion batteries, a cheaper alternative to the traditional lithium-ion batteries in use around the world.

he Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) today joined with project participants to announce commissioning of the $10.6 million renewable energy generation system at the Bondi pumping station which features 6 kW of solar panels, an energy management system and a temporary lithiumion battery pack.Sydney Water will use lithium-ion batteries for 12 months to test the energy management system before transitioning to sodium-ion batteries as the first batches of batteries are received from industry partners in China. The project has been led by energy storage researchers from the University of Wollongong (UOW) Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) in collaboration with Sydney Water and battery storage manufacturers in China. Sodium-ion batteries have been developed to be comparable in performance to marketplace alternatives, as well as being cheaper, modular and expandable. The Bondi pumping station was chosen due to the daily volume of wastewater it moves as well as proving the technology against highly intermittent and impulse-heavy loads. The system will generate approximately 8,000 kWh of energy each year – more than the Bondi pumping station requires to power its own needs. This pilot could be scaled up, as Sydney Water has a network of more than 780 sewage pumping stations. On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA previously announced $2.7 million in funding for the Smart Sodium Storage Project which will develop and demonstrate sodium-ion batteries in renewable energy storage applications.

November Part-B 2018

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said: “Part of ARENA’s role is to deliver secure and reliable electricity and battery technology will play a major role in allowing variable renewable energy to be dispatchable. Thanks to the contribution of world-leading researchers from the University of Wollongong, these relatively inexpensive and reliable sodium-ion batteries aren’t too far off, potentially reducing our reliance on lithium. We’re always excited to support significant R&D which shows promising commercialisation prospects as the novel sodium-ion technology will assist in the faster uptake of renewable and innovative storage solutions for Australia, Mr Miller said.

ISEM Director Professor Shi Xue Dou said the project was translating research outcomes into tangible impacts for society. “Sodium-ion batteries are a potential game-changer because the materials are much more abundant than those for traditional lithium-ion batteries, reducing the cost of the raw materials as well as reducing reliance on scarce, expensive lithium. “Critically, this project will deliver commercialscale and ready-for-manufacture sodium-ion battery technology that allows lower-cost distributed renewable energy supply to become a reality.” Professor Dou said.

The smart sodium storage solution project will be instrumental in developing the entire supply chain including the product design, development and manufacturing process. The approach of piggybacking on established lithiumion manufacturing and production processes is also a clever way of not only overcoming the difficulties of such a new technology but the approach will assist in bringing forward sodium-ions demonstration and wider use for storage in Australia and the world.

Source: arena.gov.au

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

43Â

international

Sri Lanka green energy project gets 30 million euros French loan Sri Lanka will get 30 million euros from France for a project to cut transmission losses at state utility Ceylon Electricity Board, and lower the island’s dependence on fossil fuels for electricity generation, the Ministry of Finance said.

SCHMID Group, SABIC and RIWAQ announced their collaboration at FII SCHMID Group, SABIC and RIWAQ announced their collaboration at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Forum to set up joint ventures in the fields of Energy Storage and Advanced Silicon Material.

t the Future Investment Initiative (FII) forum in Riyadh, SCHMID Group, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and RIWAQ announced their collaboration for establishing a KSA based joint venture with the support of SABIC NATIONAL initiative “Nusaned” focusing on manufacturing and technology development in the fields of advanced silicon material and large scale energy storage solutions utilizing SCHMID’s redox flow technology, for which the companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). With an estimated total investment of more than 430 million USD, the joint venture mission is fully aligned with KSA’s Vision “2030” and National Industrial Strategy to develop value chain silicon and high-tech industries in the Kingdom.

Ceylon Electricity Board has an ambitious capital investment plan for the next ten years to maintain 100 percent electrification while improving supply quality and reliability,” a Ministry of Finance statement said.

Christian Schmid, President and CEO of the SCHMID Group, said: Saudi Arabia’s strategic vision to enable establishment of a globally leading local industry focusing on future oriented segments provides an excellent growth platform for technology oriented companies. SCHMID is proud to have the opportunity of partnering with a KSA based global leader like SABIC. We are confident that the possibilities enabled with this partnership will significantly contribute to realization of our joint target of creating a KSA based global champion. RIWAQ Vice chairman and Managing Director Mohammed S. Bajba, said: We are very proud to actively participate in establishing a unique and strategic anchor project that will contribute to the Kingdom economy. The intended projects will create high technical skills jobs and related culture in my country and contribute to the whole world. Source: schmid-group

November Part-B 2018

his is part of a 260 million US dollar project – Green Power Development and Energy Efficiency Improvement Investment Programme – to improve energy savings by upgrading the island’s transmission infrastructure with a smart electricity grid and smart metering.

While ensuring a continuous supply of electricity, managing a strategic balance between indigenous energy resources and imported fossil fuels and coal is a major challenge faced by Sri Lanka’s power sector,” it said. The French loan will go into implementing the second phase of the project. The project has already received 150 million US dollars from Asian Development Bank with French Agency for Development providing 22 million Euros for the first phase. The CEB will bear the remaining cost. A credit facility agreement for the French loan was signed Source: economynext

www.EQMagPro.com

international

Malaysia’s biggest Merkel’s Coalition Finally Endorses Large Scale Solar Green Power Plan ruling coalition sealed a long-awaited plan to boost auctions of wind and solar project takes off Germany’s power, brushing aside the political turmoil that’s dogged the alliance since the summer and Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s TNB large scale solar LSS plant in Mukim Tanjung 12, Kuala Langat, Selangor, Malaysia’s largest LSS project todate, has begun transmitting power to the national grid.

n a statement, the utility company said work was progressing well for the solar plant, which was expected to generate its full capacity of 50 megawatts by year-end. The LSS project is a testament of TNBs aspiration and commitment towards the growth of renewable energy RE in Malaysia. It also displays its expertise in RE and shows TNB as a reputable developer of power projects, it added.

making good on election promises. oalition lawmakers agreed to auction a total of 8 gigawatts of wind and solar power from 2019 to 2021, redeeming a pledge they made in February, according to a statement released by the Christian Democrat and Christian Social Union caucuses. The capacity adds to regular power auctions and is “aimed to speed achievement of a 65 percent share for clean power in the nation’s energy mix by 2030,” the parties said. Next year, the government will draw up a new package of auction plans for the period 2021 to 2030, they said.

Source: UNI

China lifts antidumping, countervailing measures on EU polysilicon China will remove anti-dumping and countervailing measures on solar-grade polysilicon imports from the EU, the Ministry of Commerce announced.

he restrictions were first imposed on EU products in May 2014, after an investigation found that the EU dumped and subsidized the polysilicon products exported to the Chinese market, the ministry said in a statement. After an expiry review launched at the request of the domestic industry, the two-year measures were renewed for another 18 months starting in May 2017. In March 2018, the ministry said that affected parties in the domestic industry could apply for an expiry review 60 days ahead of expiry. In the period, no applications were filed, and the ministry decided against starting any expiry review. Solargrade polysilicon is a key material for making solar cells.

www.EQMagPro.com

Squabbling in the three-party coalition over the terms of a plan to expand renewables focused on how to alleviate voters’ unease about the rising cost of electricity and green energy subsidies. Another factor was an unexpected gain in the price developers offered for electricity from wind farms in recent auctions. Spreading wind farms is “decisive for us,” said the statement from the CDU and CSU lawmakers. The Social Democrats make up the third party in the coalition, which is led by Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a bid to reduce the costs to power consumers of supporting clean power, the Bnetza power regulator will hold pilot auctions that incorporate exclusion of compensation to park owners for the so-called “redispatch” of wind power in congested grid conditions and when wholesale power prices are negative, according to the agreement.

According to the coalition’s policy blueprint from the spring, the government also plans to auction additional amounts of offshore wind. The proposal was excluded from Wednesday’s accord. The time table for the additional wind and solar tenders is: gigawatt each for onshore wind power and solar in 2019 1.4 gigawatts each for wind, solar in 2020 1.6 gigawatts for each in 2021 Source: Bloomberg L.P.

November Part-B 2018

TECHNOLOGY

Kanazawa University Research: Highly efficient Wetprocessed Solar Cells With Molecules in the Same Orientation Researchers at Kanazawa University report in the journal Organic Electronics documents a new method for controlling the orientation of conducting molecules in organic solar cells that results in the enhanced light adsorption and performance of the cells.

olar cells are a cost-effective, alternate source of energy. A subtype of these, organic solar cells make use of organic polymers inside the cell. Using these polymers makes the cells light-weight and increases their flexibility. Organic solar cells are produced by two different chemical methods: dry processing and wet processing, with the latter being a faster method. There are several parameters used to assess the efficiency of solar cells with absorption of light and transportation of charge being widely used. A prevailing problem with the structure of organic cells is that molecules in the active organic layer responsible for light absorption and charge transport tend to face both towards the edges of cells, as well as towards the light absorbing substrate. Maximizing the number of molecules facing the substrate, however, is the key to maximising absorption and conductivity of the cell. Scientists have modified the dry processing method to achieve such an orientation, but it has not been possible with the wet method. The research team led by Tetsuya Taima at Kanazawa University, is the first to successfully do so. The premise of their method is the introduction of a copper iodide (CuI) layer between the active molecules and the substrate. In their study, the researchers used a film of active molecules called DRCN5T and coated them onto either CuI/PEDOT: PSS (30 nm)/indium tin oxide (ITO) mixed substrates, or substrates without the CuI layer. The ratio of substrate facing to edge facing DRCN5T molecules was then compared between both. Subsequent high-resolution imaging revealed that the CuI containing cells had active molecules with a ten times higher substrate facing orientation, along with enhanced light absorption. The researchers attributed this altered orientation of the molecules to strong chemical interactions between the DRCN5T and CuI atoms. To further confirm this, DRCN5T molecules with bulky side chains that do not interact with CuI were used, and a higher substrate facing ratio was not seen. This is the first study that effectively demonstrates a method of producing such efficient organic solar cells using the wet processing method. Besides saving time, the wet method also results in larger film areas. “This technique is expected to greatly contribute to the development of organic thin film solar cells fabricated by wet processing in the future”, conclude the authors. Their approach paves the way for producing high-performance solar cells faster.

20.83%! LONGi Solar rewrites the world record of PERC module conversion efficiency again LONGi Solar announced that tests conducted by TÜV-SÜD, an independent third-party test institute, proved the photoelectric conversion efficiency of LONGi Solar’s 60-cell PERC module reached 20.83%, again breaking the monocrystalline PERC module efficiency world record. This is the fourth time in 2018 that LONGi Solar had renewed its world record of module efficiency.

hotoelectric conversion efficiency has gained a lot of attention in the development of photovoltaic technology as it directly corelates to lowering photovoltaic LCOE. Improvements in module conversion efficiency are linked to lower cost. Meeting customers’ satisfaction with optimal module efficiency and system efficiency is a key issue that needs to be addressed in the R&D of high-efficiency cells and modules. LONGi Solar has continuously focused on the improvement of conversion efficiency, strengthened its R&D and leads the industry in strategic layout and technical gains of high-efficiency products. In particular, its high-efficiency cell and module technology flourishes with innovations such as new bifacial, half-cut-cell and shingled-cell technology. In the three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, three generations of Hi-MO products based on PERC technology were launched, leading the trend of PERC efficiency improvements in the industry.

Dr. Lv Jun, Vice President of LONGi Solar, said: LONGi Solar has been exploring the value of PERC products in recent years and keeps pushing the boundaries of PERC technology so as to further improve the cost performance. The new breakthrough of module conversion efficiency this time further proves the development headroom of PERC. We firmly believe PERC will play greater technical possibility in the next three years to effectively improve power generation efficiency and reliability of photovoltaic system, lower LCOE and bring higher benefits for customers. The breakthroughs in high-efficiency modules cannot be separated from efficient cell technology. From April 2017 to February 2018, LONGi Solar had improved its PERC cell efficiency five times, breaking the 23% mass production efficiency. Currently, all cell production lines of LONGi Solar will be upgraded to PERC to fully meet the demand of the global market for next generation high-efficiency PERC products.

Source: Kanazawa University Source: longi-silicon

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

Energy storage

CellCube Energy Storage Provides Independent Report on the Surge in Vanadium Prices CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc. (“CellCube” or the “Company”) (CSE: CUBE) (OTCQB: CECBF) (Frankfurt 01X) is pleased to report the following independent article that has been prepared by Mining.com – a leading digital publication covering the global mining sector.

ellCube owns a 100% interest in the Bisoni Mackay and Bisoni Rio vanadium properties, located in Nye and Eureka Counties, Nevada. The properties are set to spin out November 30, 2018 to a newly formed company V23 Resource Corp. The properties consist of 201 contiguous lode mining claims (approximately 1,680 hectares). With Only 12 per cent of the Bisoni McKay area has been adequately drilled tested to date, and none of the Bisoni Rio. This has already resulted in the estimation of a National Instrument 43-101 indicated resource of 11.9 million tons at an average grade of 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), and an inferred resource of 7.0 million tons at an average grade of 0.42 per cent V2O5 The effective date of the Mineral Resource estimate is August 29, 2016. The estimates were based on data from 15 reverse circulation drill holes and 3 diamond drill holes. A cut-off grade of 0.20% V2O5 was applied. Using Vulcan software, block grades were estimated using the inverse distance squared method applied to 100x100x100 ft blocks, with 10x10x10m sub-blocks. A density factor of 0.077 tons/ft3 was used. There are no known legal, political, environmental, or other risks that could materially affect the potential development of the mineral resources. The indicated resource is contained in a zone approximately 300 metres in strike length, while the inferred resource covers approximately an additional 200 m of strike length extending to the south. The mineralized zone appears to be open at depth, as well as along strike, and is interpreted to extend to the north into the Bisoni-Rio property. In 2017, CellCube staked 162 claims on the Bisoni-Rio property from the Bisoni McKay right up to and abutting the Gibellini vanadium property. Chris M. Healey, P. Geo, geological consultant to CellCube, is the independent Qualified Person who has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical contents of this press release.

Vanadium price leaps to near-record high

While not as exciting as the transformation in the auto market with the shift to electric vehicles, demand growth from batteries used for renewable energy storage has the potential to have a bigger impact on mining. One of the prime technologies that could grab market share from lithium ion for large scale storage systems is so-called vanadium redox flow cells.

www.EQMagPro.com

CellCube’s Bisoni McKay and BisoniRio project is a significant pure play vanadium project totaling 4,115 acres and contiguous to the Gibellini deposit held by Prophecy Development Corp.” says Mike Neylan, CEO of CellCube. “CellCube shareholders of record will be able to participate in the newly formed V23 company during a very strong vanadium market. The rally in vanadium prices is only accelerating with vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) flake used in energy storage systems leaping to $27.50 a pound in China putting it within shouting distance of the all-time high reached in 2005. V2O5 is up more than 550% since September 2016. Vanadium pentoxide is only a fraction of the overall market and the raw material is primarily used to strengthen steel (today it makes up more than 90% of the market). Ferro vanadium prices jumped 10% just over the past week also hitting a 13-year high to $118 a tonne in Europe. In 2005 vanadium prices briefly peaked at $120 a tonne. While the long term story for vanadium may be the battery sector, China’s introduction of new rebar standards next month is creating tightness in the market right now.In a research note BMO Capital Markets, an investment bank, says it anticipates that that Chinese ferrovanadium exports will dwindle over the coming year as domestic demand for the rebar industry continues to rise: Undoubtedly, current pricing will generate a response from marginal supply and through some substitution with niobium, and is thus a spike price, but we anticipate pricing trading at strong levels compared to recent history over the coming years. Going with the flow : Vanadium flow batteries have lifespans of over 20 years without capacity loss and are nonflammable. Another advantage over lithium ion is that this type of battery can be charged and discharged simultaneously making it highly suitable for large-scale storage from renewable sources such as solar and wind when connected to an electricity grid. The amount of V2O5 in a single MWh is just under 10 tonnes. South Africa, China and Russia produce more than 80% of the world’s vanadium, mostly as a byproduct of magnetite mining. Only around 80,000 tonnes of vanadium was produced last year. Glencore, South Africa’s Bushveld Minerals and Canada’s Largo Resources are major listed producers. Denver-based uranium producer Energy Fuels recently announced plans to restart its vanadium processing facility (from pond solutions) and is commencing limited conventional vanadium production at its Utah mines. The company’s White Mesa Mill is expected to go into production in November and Energy Fuels estimates the ponds contain roughly 4 million pounds of recoverable V2O5.” Source: CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc.

November Part-B 2018

energy storAge

Energy Storage Is A $1.2 Trillion Investment Opportunity To 2040 BNEF has significantly increased its forecast for global deployment of behind-the-meter and grid-scale batteries over coming decades BNEF has significantly increased its forecast for global deployment of behind-the-meter and grid-scale batteries over coming decades

ondon and New York: The tumbling cost of batteries is set to drive a boom in the installation of energy storage systems around the world in the years from now to 2040, according to the latest annual forecast from research company BloombergNEF (BNEF). The global energy storage market[1] will grow to a cumulative 942GW/2,857GWh by 2040, attracting $1.2 trillion in investment over the next 22 years. Cheap batteries mean that wind and solar will increasingly be able to run when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. BNEF’s latest Long-Term Energy Storage Outlook sees the capital cost of a utility-scale lithium-ion battery storage system sliding another 52% between 2018 and 2030, on top of the steep declines seen earlier this decade. This will transform the economic case for batteries in both the vehicle and the electricity sector. Behind-the-meter, or BTM, installations will be sited at business and industrial premises, and at millions of residential properties. For their owners, they will perform a variety of tasks, including shifting grid demand in order to reduce electricity costs, storing excess rooftop solar output, improving power quality and reliability, and earning fees for helping to smooth voltage on the grid. China, the U.S., India, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, South Korea and the U.K will be the leading countries. These nine markets will represent two thirds of the installed capacity by 2040. In the near-term, South Korea will dominate the market, the U.S. will take over in the early 2020s, but will be overtaken by China in the 2020s. China will then lead throughout to 2040.

Yayoi Sekine, energy storage analyst for BloombergNEF and co-author of the report, said: “We have become much more bullish about storage deployments since our last forecast a year ago. This is partly due to faster-thanexpected falls in storage system costs, and partly to a greater focus on two emerging applications for the technology – electric vehicle charging, and energy access in remote regions.”

Logan Goldie-Scot, head of energy storage at BNEF, added: “We see energy storage growing to a point where it is equivalent to 7% of the total installed power capacity globally in 2040. The majority of storage capacity will be utilityscale until the mid-2030s, when behind the meter applications overtake.” BNEF analysis estimates energy storage build across multiple applications to meet variable supply and demand and to operate the grid more efficiently, while taking into account customer-sited economics for using storage as well as system-level needs. Aggregating BTM energy storage could be a viable alternative to utility-scale for many applications but it will take years before regulatory frameworks in some countries fully allow this. There is significant opportunity for energy storage to provide flexibility – to help balance variable supply and demand – and systems will undoubtedly be used in complex ways. Energy storage will become a practical alternative to new-build generation or network reinforcement. Behind-the-meter storage will also increasingly be used to provide system services on top of customer applications. Despite the rapid growth from today’s levels, demand for batteries for stationary storage will make up only 7% of total battery demand in 2040. It will be dwarfed by the electrical vehicle market, which will more materially impact the supply-demand balance and prices for metals such as lithium and cobalt.

November Part-B 2018

Especially developing countries in Africa will also see rapid growth in battery storage. Utilities are likely to “recognize increasingly that isolated assets coambining solar, diesel and batteries are cheaper in far flung sites than either an extension of the main grid or a fossil-only generator,” the report says.

www.EQMagPro.com

PV MANUFACTURING

China’s PV Manufacturers after “531”: JA Solar as a Winner in Overseas Market

he Chinese government reduced subsidies for photovoltaic power generation, an event widely known as the “531 Policy”. The move led to the sudden contraction of the country’s PV equipment market andseverely impacted the local PV equipment industry. According to IHS, China’s new photovoltaic installations are expected to decline from 52 GW to 40 GW in 2018. In response, local PV equipment producers are looking overseas to find markets for their products. As China implements strict policies to more closely regulate PV power production, flourishing overseas markets offer Chinese equipment producers new, exciting opportunities. Although the opportunities are immense, taking market share in established and mature foreign countriesis not easy. Especially in markets that are difficult to access, like Japanor India, what sorts of companies and products can capture market share?

High-Requirement MarketsOfferGreat Opportunities

early all foreign markets requirehigh quality, which creates a competitive advantage for the best local manufacturers that are recognized across the industry for their high level of quality. The Japanese market is a high profile market with both opportunities and challenges.After the leaks of radioactive material at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japan halted all nuclear power generation. To compensate for the lost generating capacity, government policy strongly encourages the development of other renewable energy sources. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) enacted a particularly encouraging policyin July, 2012. The policy stipulates that solar power utilities certified by METI can sell electricity at a fixed price of 42Yen per Kwh for twenty years. Japan isa very attractive target market with broad prospectsfor Chinese PV equipment manufacturers facing significant pressure from both the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy policies ofthe US, EU, and India,as well as from subsidy reductionsin the domestic Chinese market.However, 90% of the PV market in Japan is already served by local photovoltaic enterprises, such as Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba.

www.EQMagPro.com

Similar to Japan, Indian market is one with both opportunities and challenges. India’s solar market is mature and stable, which creates the confidence to make significant investments in the country.The development of the solar industry in India is at a critical inflection point, and the government is acting to ensure that the standard of quality remains high as the pace of installation accelerates. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently issued a quality control order that requires sellers and manufacturers of photovoltaic modules to have their products certified that they meetparameters set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Despite the difficulty of entering this market, foreign investors are still attracted to the Indian market. Developers and EPCs often have their own quality assurance plans, including having their production process supervised by a top-rated third party inspection team.

Chinese manufacturers thus face a significant challenge to capture market share. Among those who enter the markets, who is best positioned to take the lead in capturing market share?

Quality Matters

ince 2011, JA Solar has become one of the largest providers of PV products in India with a total shipment of 2.5GW and market share of over 10%. In 2014, JA Solar’s shipment of solar products to Japan reached 1GW, giving JA the top market share in Japan for the first time. Since then, JA Solar has remainedthe market share leader. JASolar’s cumulative shipments to date into Japan are over 3.3GW. Its products are sold in all 47 of the administrative districts in Japan, and are widely used in residential, commercial and industrial rooftop PV systems, as well as large-scale ground-mounted power plants.

So, how does JA Solar stand out inhigh-standard markets?

Solar began its business operations in Japan by cooperating with influential local residential photovoltaic system installers, such as West Energy Solutions, on power plant design, construction, sales,and maintenance.Through the solid business relationships with system installers and partners, JA Solar rapidly expanded its share of market by optimizing the market coverage and client base.In addition, its solar products are well-recognized in Japan, and have won a number of awards, which is critical to the company’s success. China’s photovoltaic industry isat the forefront in product quality, conversion efficiency and technological innovation. Over 80% of the world’s solar equipment is produced in China. Chinese PV manufacturers are in a solid competitive position due to thelowcost of manufacturing driven by the massive scale of the industry. As a world-leading manufacturer of high-performance solar power products, JA Solar stands out amongst itsChinese peers due to its superior product quality, excellent service andcompetitive pricing. In 2012, JA Solar was granted the PERC patent in China, after which the company marketedits mono PERC cell PERCIUM and poly PERC cell RIECIUMin Japan, taking the lead in thishigh-efficiency product category. JA Solar’s moduleconversion efficiency is 1% higher than those of its peers. Importantly, the company provides both mono and poly products to meet specific customerneeds.In 2017, JA Solar started mass production of its bifacial PERC double glass modules and PERC halfcell modules, which was critical in lowering LCOE and increasing system power output. In 2018, JA Solar received patent protection in Japanfor thebifacial PERC technology. The same year, JA Solar already obtained the BIS certificate for its products, enabling access to the market for the next two years. Either in Japan or India, products with good quality and high conversion efficiency are always desirable, regardless of the business environment orpolicy changes. As a leading manufacturer of highperformance products, JA Solar stands out amongst its peers, and is positioned to win in these markets.

November Part-B 2018

INTERVIEW

Interview With Sweety Arya Marketing Manager India Ginlong( Solis) Technologies Co.,Ltd EQ: Please introduce Ginlong( Solis) Technologies Co.,Ltd.

SA : Established in 2005, Ginlong Solis is one of the oldest and largest global string inverter specialists that manufactures string inverters for converting DC to AC power and interacting with utility grid, which help reduce the carbon footprint of human society. Residential, commercial and utility scale solar market include home owners, business owners, utilities, solar developers and investors benefit from a complete product line of ultra-reliable, bankable, cost effective and innovative string inverter technologies, selling under Ginlong Solis brands. These products are installed globally, optimized for local markets and serviced by local experienced teams, to deliver significant long-term return on investment for stakeholders and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future. Ginlong Solis inverter is listed on Approved Vendor Lists of leading banks and financing institutes. Third party inverter qualification testing was completed by DNVGL. Ginlong Solis inverter products have an outstanding field record in the India, since introducing the product line to the India in 2016. Ginlong Solis India is headquartered in Mumbai, warehoused in Mumbai, offers SOLIS training programs and live, local technical support nationwide. Ginlong won the prestige EUPD Top Brand PV Inverter Brand award in 2016&2017&2018. and also RankGlobal Top 5 for both single phase and three phase inverters by GTM; Ginlong Solis inverters are installed at Eiffel Tower in Paris. For more information please visit us at www.ginlong.com

lar of so any d n i p tk com Wha EQ: rs is the ? rte ing inve speoffer lis is ino S ong ring PV Ginl t SA: ed in S 3 years. z ciali ers for 1 vert

November Part-B 2018

EQ: What is the USP of Ginglong’s solar inverters?

SA: Newest 4G technologies for extremely high performance Ginlong (Solis) is the first to release 4G inverter.4G represents the 4th generation technical platform. Solis New 5-20kW three-phase 4G inverter • The innovated main circuit board design greatly improves EMC+EMS performances of the inverter as well.

Efficiency improvement – it has a 0.5% higher efficiency than previous models. This is equivalent to adding 5 watts of panels on a 1 kilowatt string for free.

www.EQMagPro.com

INTERVIEW Wider MPPT voltage range ,the MPPT voltage range of Solis 5-20KW is 160-850V. Ultra-low startup at 180V, which could make the inverter start earlier in the morning and shut down later in the evening, increase the total energy generation.

•

• •

THDi (at rated output power) <1.5% , Our Solis New 5-20kW three-phase 4G inverters utilize the most advanced harmonic suppression technology through a perfect combination ofoptimum topology design in hardware and improved algorithm in software .

Outstanding heat dissipation. Our Solis New 5-20kW three-phase 4G inverters adopt external inductor structure which has independent heat dissipation. This change not only improves the overall performance, but also halve the volume and weight. 2/3 reduction in volume and 50% reduction in weight compared to our last gereration.

Built-in export power control technology. Currently, many customers have the demand for preventing PV power feeding into the grid and balancing the generation and consumption which most of traditional inverters do not support or require extra devices to realize it. We integrate the function into our new inverters which only requires minor modifications to the circuit board. Widerangeof power rating. We offer multiple choices for customers from 5/6/8/9/10/12/15/17/20 kW with decent quality Adopts 100% components from the world’s leading brands toimprove higher reliability for solis inverter.

EQ: What is your outlook on the Indian solar market?

SA : India has a massive need for energy. Its per capita consumption of electricity is less than one third the world averages, To meet its target of generating 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, India has installed solar parks on large tracts of unused land across the country. Now, thanks to a new partnership between the World Bank and the State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest bank, the market for rooftop solar has also begun to take off. That means India transforms market for rooftop solar. And string inverter will be essential for India to meet its massive marketing needs. The basic model is string inverter 20-60kW with three phase. Residential rooftop is increasing rapidly,the trend is very clear.

EQ: What kind of products is the company offering in the Indian market?

SA : At the present stage, Ginlong Solis inverter based on specific functions can be roughly divided into 6. • 700W-3.6kW Mini inverter, • 4-10kW Single-phase inverter, • 5-20kW Three-phase inverter, • 20-40kW Three-phase inverter, • 50-70kW Three-phase inverter • 3-5kW Energy storage inverter. We can supply full series string inverter from 700W to 70kW. Integrated AFCI modules High precision arc fault sensor is used to identify arc-faults through Fourier analysis. Once detected the inverter stops generating and reduces the risk of fire.

www.EQMagPro.com

EQ: Please introduce our readers to your Energy Monitoring System.

SA :Easy visualization of data and other information via Internet. • Ginlong(Solis) monitoring is easy to install, safe and reliable, • helping you achieve better ROI with higher yields and lower maintenance cost. • Solis inverter data monitoring, communication and gateway integration, • Full suite of monitoring capabilities including modbus protocol • RS485 Communication Protocol for Single and three phase data • Wifi, Lan and GPRS supported, user-Convenient, flexible • Fast and reliable active and reactive power compensation control

November Part-B 2018

INTERVIEW

EQ: What kind of innovations or R&D focus can we expect from solar inverters over the next 3-5 years? SA: With high efficiency, highcapacity andhigh density inverters.

Solis Three Phase PV Inverter • Three phase output • Max. efficiency 99%, EU efficiency • • • • • • • •

98.72% High precise, high speed MPPT algorithm Four MPPT input, each rated current is 28.5A, compatible with high power module Compact and light design for two-person easy installation IP65, visually pleasing for domestic environment THDi<2%, low harmonic distortion against grid Anti-resonance, single transformer can connect 6M+ in parallel Perfect commercial site monitoring solution Intelligent redundancy fan

November Part-B 2018

Actis could step up investments in India’s green energy space G

rowth market-focused alternative investment firm Actis said India is one of its core investment markets where it has committed nearly a billion in the past 12 months, betting big on a fresh wave on renewable energy and continued advancement in fintech and consumer businesses compared to other emerging market peers. The UK-based firm, which invests out of its global pool of capital, has invested $450 million in the alternative energy space itself in the past year, and has indicated it will commit more capital to the world’s second most populous nation, where power consumption is expected to outpace growth in GDP. Also, with the government trying to make India the world leader in renewable energy, it makes the country one of the best investment themes among the emerging market economies.

Actis recently raised $2.7 billion to invest in the energy space and is expected to make larger allocation to India, its top official said.

www.EQMagPro.com

RENEWABLE ENERGY

“Whatever the growth in GDP, we believe the growth in electricity consumption will grow much higher than that. India is one of the most attractive markets at this point in time,” he said.

“Over the past 12 months, we have committed $950 million in India and that tells you that India is pretty attractive on a global basis. If you look at the Indian market, and if you look at the shift in the power side — the implosion of power sector from thermal coke and the unavailability of requisite gas to run the power plants — and you combined that with the government’s ambition to be a leader in the renewable space, it’s a fantastic investment opportunity in a space where we are a leader,”said Torbjorn Caesar, senior partner at Actis, told ET in an interview.

Ostro Energy, the renewable energy platform launched by Actis in 2014, was sold to Sumant Sinha-led Renew Power Ventures for an enterprise value of Rs 10,800 crore ($1.66 billion), the biggest M&A deal in the renewables sector, in April this year. From 50MW capacity, Ostro was grown to a producer of $1.1 GW of renewable energy under Actis. Sprng Energy is another renewable energy platform set up in India by Actis, with a total commitment of $450 million of equity from Actis Energy Fund 4. Actis plans to set up 2GW of renewable energy capacity (solar and wind) through the platform in the next 4-5 years, he said. Actis, which manages more than $1 billion in India, has started investing in the country since 2004-05.

“The Indian government did whatever it could, especially to encourage renewable energy production in the country. At the federal level, they supported very much in terms of PPA, and auctions, etc. There’s good support from NTPCNSE 0.28 %, too,” said Sanjiv Aggarwal, partner, Actis. “Challenges remain at the execution level in various states and states like MP does well in execution. Overall, the ease of doing business at renewable space improved very much,” said Aggarwal, who’s also heading Actis’ energy business in Asia.

In February 2017, Solenergi, a 100 per cent Mauritius-based holding company of Sprng Energy Private Limited, participated in the Rewa solar park (Madhya Pradesh) auction and won a 250MW PPA, which is currently under development.

“We have investments in GVK Energy, but we know issues in thermal power are going to continue.” India has been a mixed bag for Actis, where the firm could score some of its best exits, and at the same time, got badly stuck in some others. Actis had made one of the largest exits in India by selling Paras Pharmaceuticals Ltd. In 2010, it sold its controlling stake in Paras to Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc. Actis, which had acquired 63 per cent of Paras Pharma for $150 million, sold the stake for $726 million. However, some of its bets in consumer and healthcare such as Nillgiri’s and Sterling Hospital did not do well. Private equity in India has fallen 6.4 per cent to $14.6 billion in the first nine months of the year, compared with $15.6 billion during the same period last year, according to data compiled by Grant Thoronton.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

tech article

SG3125HV Technical White Paper OVERVIEW

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Thesolar industry is revolving very fast, For the utility scale plant, It faces many challenges. For example, The declining PPA, the pressure of investment costs and the more stringent demand. The new standards require the inverter either to have a wide range ride through capability or special grid support function, those new requirements and standard set a high threshold for the inverter. To follow the market tide, SUNGROW released its grid support utility-interactive inverter SG3125HV. With the application of SG3125HV, the solar plant will have no risk to interact with the utility and it brings much more benefit for the solar plant.

Max DC input voltage

FEATURES The SG3125HVis designed with a 10 feet enclosure and effective cooling system.Based on SUNGROW’s advanced development platform, SG3125HV has an excellent reliability performance and high efficiency. Moreover, the inverter is designed for easy skid integration, convenient for site installation and ultimately reducing the site work and cost. With the application of SG3125HV, the plant construction will move faster and it will finally bring customer a higher ROI.

1500VDC

Max output power MPPT range 875VDC to 1300VDC Rated AC output power

3125kVA

AC output voltage (nominal)

600VAC

Max efficiency

99%

Euro. efficiency

98.7%

HIGH EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY. Sungrow’s SG3125HV was designed to have a power converter platform that was more efficient than previous generations of products. Utilizing 3-level converter bridge, efficient modulation algorithm and latest magnetic and switching devices, the SG3125HV provides an extraordinary efficiency performance, bringing more energy yield and further increasing project ROI. The maximum efficiency of SG3125HV can reach 99% and Euro efficiency 98.7%. Sungrow has been focused on the inverter development and manufacturing for over20 years, the accumulated experience has equipped Sungrow inverter with an excellent reliability performance. In addition to that, the SG3125HV is developed with SUNGROW latest advanced platform and tested with Sungrow world leading testing center.

BY : SUNGROW INDIA

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

tech article

WIDE OPERATING TEMPERATURE RANGE. Sungrow’s SG3125HV has one of the widest operating temperature ranges available in the industry, with full power available from -30°C to 50°C and operation in power de-rate mode available up to 60°C.The temperature sensing variable speed controlledfans are used for SG3125HV to minimize internal temperature rise, which will lead to a reliable operation, long lifetime, low power consumption.

Fig-4: 6.25MW Solution Design

HIGH INTEGRATION LESS INITIAL COST Sungrow’s SG3125HVis highly integrated and cut initial investment and installation cost for customers. The SG3125HV has integrated the re-combiner into the DC side cabinet, so this extra cost can be saved. Sungrow SG3125HV has integrated the power supply panels including 480Vac and 120Vac, which can be used for the tracker motors,control box, communication box, etc. The plant will not need extra power supply panels, transformers and boxes for the tracker, etc. This will save the space for the SKID integration and site installation efforts, meaning the initial investment will be further reduced.

ADVANCED MECHANICAL DESIGN Sungrow’s SG3125HV is designed for easy operation and maintenance. This unit has a touch screen which is located on the front door, all of the inverter running information and settings can be viewed and changed on this touch screen, which is easy for site operation. All of the components inside the inverter are front accessible, which is easy for maintenance. Specially, the SG3125HV use Sungrow patented air filter design, which is effectively resist the dust going into the inverter, and the filter is easy to be maintenance without any tool. The inverter is easily to be integrated to the SKID, Sungrow provide the installation accessories for customer convenience which will bring more values and reduce the initial cost. All of the interface/plate for installation is designed to be removable and easy to be punched, which will be convenient for customer to install the conduit and connect the cables, all of those design lead to less site work and in hence reduce the installation cost.

FLEXIBLE IN 6.25MW OR 12.5MW BLOCK SG3125HVisflexible in 6.25MW or12.5MW. 6.25MW solution uses two SG3125HV inverters to access three winding transformer.It can save initial transformer, cable and MV switchgear investment.50MW plant just needs 8 block.

www.EQMagPro.com

Fig-4: 6.25MW Solution Design

EXCELLENT GRID SUPPORT FUNCTION. SG3125HV has an advanced voltage and frequency ride through capability. The high voltageride through is up to 1.4 Un and It can compensate reactive power during LVRT. With the application of Sungrow SG3125HV, the customer will enjoy the high availability and get satisfied with the flexibility. The inverter also has a good reactive power capability and it can inject active power with power factor 0.8. Moreover, the inverter can supply reactive power to the grid at night to support the grid, this will reduce investment on SVG equipment.

SUMMARY SG3125HV is designed to bring a high ROI for utility scale PV plant, with the application of this containerized inverter, the total system cost will be reduced due to saved integration cost, installation cost, O&M cost, and lowerinitial cost. Moreover, this grid support utility-interactive inverter brings more reliability to the utility and will further reduce the grid interconnection risk. We can expect that Sungrow SG3125HV will bring much more benefit for the solar industry.

November Part-B 2018

Energy storage

Instruments to Accelerate the Advent of Energy Storage in India

ith all the buzz going around energy storage these days, very often than not it is claimed to be the holy grail of renewable energy.Owing to the intermittency and unpredictability in solar and wind generation, high degree of flexibility in Loads and Sources is needed by the electricity grid for absorbing renewable energy beyond a critical proportion in the energy mix. Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) serves both the purposes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; flexible load as well as flexible source.

AUTHOR : Amit Beriya, Deputy General Manager, Storage and New Products Amplus Solar

56Â

November Part-B 2018

his dual flexibility not only can be used at grid generation level applications like in transmission & distribution network operations, but also in multiple end-user level applications like for Commercial & Industrial (C&I) clients. This dual nature of both load & source enables BESS to provide multiple services to C&I users like Peak Load management to reduce the Contract Demand charges, Energy time shift to utilize the benefit of time-of-day tariff structure or to install higher capacity of Solar PV, Diesel abatement for higher reliability at reduced expenses etc. However, mass uptake of any technological solution beyond the demonstration level happens when it brings in commercial advantage either versus an incumbent technology or versus an opportunity lost. This can be seen in the case of advanced energy storage systems, where the uptake has been growing steadily year-onyearwith a major chunk limited to geographies like USA, Australia & Europe driven by suitable grid tariff levels & structures, relatively clearer regulatory policies and fiscal incentives by government which enhances the commercial value proposition of BESS.

n the Indian landscape, although BESS has strong commercial value proposition under certain scenarios, lack of suitable regulatory policies or fiscal incentives for BESS added with significantly high upfront capital

costs diminishes the adoption by prospective users. It is at this point where Opex / BOOT (Build, Own, Operate & Transfer) model will play a significant role in the early adoption of this technology.

owever, BOOT model of BESS comes in with its own set of challenges. Unlike solar PV projects where the evaluation metrics are straight forward withcommercial metric being solar PV tariff pegged against grid tariff, and performance metric being electricity units generated which off-set the grid units; BESS project metrics are complex owing to its innovative and versatile features/ use cases. In addition, due the multitude of applications served with the same BESS asset, structuring the legal contract for BOOT model requires due amount of consideration to bring it to a saleable and scalable point.

ence, building the right Opex/ BOOT Model for BESS with due weightage given totechnical, financial & legal structuring will be the foundation for mass scale deployments of BESS solutions in India & abroad. At this stage and time, Amplus having done early Opex/BOOT projects in BESS,is a step ahead in understanding and framing the Model toplace the bits in place and scale up the Opex/BOOT offering as the infliction point in BESS cost is reached in near future.

www.EQMagPro.com

CSR

Sungrow takes initiative for the first time and launches CSR Program (Corporate Social Responsibility) successfully in India to create awareness of Solar at IIT Patna in the form of open courses Sungrow, the global leading inverter supplier for renewables, announced it recently made a compelling success with an open course held in one of Indian well-known university, Indian Institute of Technology Patna (IITP), under the title solar innovation and contribution. The open course has attracted hundreds of attendees and marked the beginning of Sungrow’s exploration and research into inspiring undergraduates. It brings the views of renewable energy to initiate and nurture interactive and productive engagement with college students.

www.EQMagPro.com

“Solar energy has far-reaching benefits, from developing a better environment to striking a business deal,” said a student who participated in the event. “The solar industry saw the most robust growth with multiple value expanding massively. I am excited to learn fruitful details about PV in particular due to Sungrow’s presentation,”

“Sungrow is committed to double down on efforts to build itself into a responsible and professional team, the main driving force toward this direction was our wish to draw in large crowds to engage in solar industry to realize the dream of ‘clean power for all’,” said Jack Gu, President of Sungrow PV & Storage Division.

The partnership between IIT Patna and the company has more than just being knowledge-sharing. Notably, the operational PV plant in IITP is utilizing Sungrow string inverters, supplying clean power to hundreds of facilities in the campus. The cooperation with Sungrow will strengthen IITP’s role as a major base for standout engineers as well.The company is gearing up to have another two technical workshops in Indian campus in late 2018, remarked the organizer from Sungrow.

November Part-B 2018

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Merchant risk management: The new frontier in renewables If stakeholders move away from subsidizing the renewable-energy market, developers would be exposed to wholesale prices. Renewables players thus need to position themselves strategically in their approach to long-term merchant risk. SUBSIDY-FREE RENEWABLES PROJECTS: A REALITY

n recent decades, renewable electricity generation has been subsidized to encourage investment. This has resulted in the rapid expansion of renewable electricity generation, accompanied by technology advances that have allowed a constant lowering of construction and operating costs. Moreover, energy pioneers willing to take on construction and technology risks could benefit from stable cash flows during operation. In turn, regulators, faced with having to adjust and revise a complex scheme of feed-in tariffs constantly, adopted a more market-driven approach. They introduced auctions whereby the bidder with the lowest electricity price would win the development rights for a certain location. Fierce competition ensued, with prices dropping by as much as 50 to 80 percent from 2015 to 2018. The merchant risk undertaken by developers remained limited—but this is changing rapidly. Auctioning schemes are allowing “zero bids” whereby the developer is no longer guaranteed a minimum electricity price. Several subsidy-free projects, such as the solar photovoltaic and onshore projects in Spain and multiple offshore projects in Germany and the Netherlands, have been announced and are under development. While these projects have benefited from favorable site conditions and economies of scale, this change in the renewables marketplace indicates that the industry is transitioning into the next phase of market integration in which governments will abandon subsidies and developers will be fully exposed to wholesale prices (Exhibit 1).

To manage merchant risk, developers and investors should consider an additional risk buffer. This often takes the form of an increase in the minimum expected rate of return. For example, an increase in the minimum expected rate of return of 150 to 250 basis points translates to an additional risk buffer of approximately 20 to 30 percent of capital expenditure. Managing the merchant price risk could therefore be a key enabler for offering competitive bids. Those players who cannot drive down capital expenditure or operating cost could compete successfully by off-loading their merchant risk and driving down the size of their risk buffer. Investors have so far been attracted by the bondlike nature of renewables investments. Today, however, developers will also need to cope with the fact that the value of their projects depends on expectations of the future electricity-market price. It is unclear whether investors will continue to invest as heavily as in the past or increase return expectations significantly. The new ingredient of merchant risk will therefore have a profound impact on the renewables industry.

LONG-TERM MERCHANT RISK MARKETS: SOLUTIONS NEEDED To date, the most popular transaction type for dealing with long-term merchant risk has been the corporate power-purchase agreement (PPA). Several companies, most notably Google (which has a renewables capacity of more than three gigawatts), have fulfilled their pledges to become carbon neutral by securing numerous long-term PPAs (those lasting more than ten years). Yet there is likely to be a blockage in demand if renewables grow at the pace currently forecast. If we assume, for example, that the bid-winning projects are fully subsidy free in the future, 40 percent of the total B2B consumption in Germany would need to be covered by long-term PPAs. Bearing this in mind, the market pricing of individual projects already reveals the typical characteristics of a buyers’ market, with discounts of 15 to 35 percent compared with calendar-forward prices. In emerging markets, such as Spain, the buyers of PPAs tend to be sophisticated commercial and trading players; this strongly suggests that they see commercial arbitrage opportunities—or, put simply, overpricing of merchant risk. As industrial and B2B counterparties will only be able to absorb a limited amount of the expected long-term merchant risk volume, the participation of traders and intermediaries, financial institutions, and long-term investors is required:

• Power traders and intermediaries (risk takers) can • MANAGEMENT OF MERCHANT RISK: THE NEW INGREDIENT Traditionally, capital overexpenditure and construction delay have been the largest risk factors in renewables projects. In the case of subsidy-free renewables projects, however, the risk from merchant price exposure is significant (for example, up to two to four times greater than the construction risk) and can be as high as 20 to 40 percent of capital expenditure in value at risk.

November Part-B 2018

•

absorb long-term merchant risk. Such players take on risk to benefit from high-risk premiums. Financial hedges offered by banks are quite common in the United States. However, banks demand high-risk premiums, which are overcompensated by the soon-to-be discontinued tax credits. Long-term financial investors, such as pension funds or insurance companies, are always on the lookout for alternative asset classes. So far, they have focused on regulated energy and infrastructure assets. However, they have lately shown a willingness to scale up on long-term investments that are exposed to merchant risk, provided the respective risk premiums are paid.

www.EQMagPro.com

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Renewables players: Strategic positioning needed

n view of the challenges, renewables players need to consider their approaches to long-term merchant risk strategically. There are several archetypes to consider, which can be grouped along two main axes: merchant risk appetite and merchant risk-management sophistication. Regarding merchant risk appetite, players can position themselves as risk averse, risk neutral, or risk taking (Exhibit 2). In other commodity industries, particularly oil and gas, large producers typically keep the longterm merchant risk on the balance sheet (risk taking). The few exemptions include, for example, smaller independent players that require stable returns to secure financing (risk averse). However, as merchant exposure is new to the renewables sector, most players have positioned themselves as risk averse.

Players in merchant risk value chain: Opportunity to create value

part from renewables developers, players with a place in the merchant risk value chain—namely, downstream players, traders, market makers, and financial investors—also need to develop strategies to create value. Downstream players with a strong end-customerfocused business model could create value by taking on long-term merchant risk positions from renewables players and packaging tailored products for their own portfolios of end customers. In turn, they could benefit from the risk premiums while mitigating risk and offering green products. It is vital for players to assess the needs of customers and renewables players, as well as their own ability to absorb risk, when formulating a strategy. Traders and market makers can create value by managing risk for renewables players and by their financial ability to absorb large amounts of risk. To achieve this, however, they require a strong risk framework and an understanding of renewables-merchant risk, as well as riskmitigation (hedging) strategies for the illiquid horizon. To date, financial investors have mainly invested in renewables via direct equity investments and have benefited from stable returns. While the introduction of merchant risk means stable returns are no longer guaranteed, it does offer the opportunity to increase returns. Investors need to develop basic views on whether to take on merchant risk, how merchant risk will impact portfolio risk and return expectations, and how to invest in renewables projects with merchant risk—for example, via new asset classes or riskmitigation requirements.

Regarding merchant risk-management sophistication, players can become highly sophisticated, reach medium sophistication, or decide on low sophistication (not put an emphasis on commercialization and risk management). Given that the long-term renewables-merchant risk market is highly illiquid, and the pricing is nontransparent, players can use commercial capabilities and a sophisticated risk-management setup to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Consequently, players that have sophisticated commercial capabilities but have not previously engaged in asset-development activities are starting to move into renewables development by using their commercial focus to profit from and deal with merchant risk effectively. Experienced asset-development players, on the other hand, are investing in expanding commercial capabilities to increase their options for handling merchant risk exposure. Before making a strategic decision on their own positioning, players should answer the following questions: • What are the likely scenarios of future merchant risk-exposure development, considering the current portfolio and future renewables projects? • What is the player’s ability to absorb risk—in balance-sheet strength, credit rating, and the impact of merchant risk exposure on the company valuation? • What are viable solutions to off-load long-term merchant risk and its costs, and how well developed are the player’s commercial capabilities? • Are there strategic alternatives to avoid risk, such as focusing on regulated markets? What would be the impact on the player’s growth ambitions?

www.EQMagPro.com

A comparison of the volatility of merchant risk with the volatility of equities (German power prices versus DAX 30) indicates that renewables projects with merchant risk could be attractive for investors since the volatility is lower than the volatility of equities (Exhibit 3). This correlation indicates that investors can benefit from the portfolio-diversification effect.

• MERCHANT RISK MANAGEMENT: THE NEW FRONTIER IN RENEWABLES

November Part-B 2018

resco tender

Madhya Pradesh Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV RESCO Tender – A Lot to Learn

AUTHOR : LUCKY AGGARWAL Senior Consultant GSES India Sustainable Energy Pvt Ltd

Issues faced by Bidders or Project Developers: Bidders or Project Developers face issues and challenges at the time of bidding and in many cases after getting LOA (Letter of Award) from the concerned authority/ department. There is always some lack of information from the tendering authorities that are considered as uncertainties and risks by the bidders or project developers. These uncertainties and risks adds up in the tariff calculation and the result is higher quoted tariff. In many cases there are also situations when capacity allocated to the bidder remains unutilised or uninstalled due to various factors and bottlenecks.

ndia is having a huge potential for installation of Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV projects. Plenty of unused rooftop space is available on Government, Institutional, Industrial, Commercial and Residential sector buildings, that can be utilised for installation of Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV projects. Government of India has also set up a target for 40 GW of solar power from rooftop installations by 2022. However as per MNRE’s recent report, only 1.2 GW is the cumulative achieved capacity as on 31st July 2018. Many state governments, SNAs and SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) has floated several tenders in the last few years, with CFA (Central Financial Assistance) available for the developers under RESCO and CAPEX mode. Even after such initiatives and subsidies,Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV projects are not appearinglucrative to project developers and the result is higher quoted tariff and allocated capacities not getting translated into work orders in many cases.

November Part-B 2018

Few of the issues faced by most of the bidders or project developers are discussed below:

www.EQMagPro.com

resco tender

•

LACK OF INFORMATION ABOUT SITE LOCATION

Individual site names and geographical co-ordinates for sites are not provided in most of the tenders. With lack of such information it is difficult for the bidders or project developers to judge the actual site conditions correctly and this causes the addition of various assumptions and risk factors in the financial costing.

•

LACK OF INFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUAL SITE CAPACITIES

Most of the tenders provide aggregated capacity allotted to a particular bidder or project developer. However, individual site capacity or roof capacity is not provided. Such lack of information can cause a wrong estimation of cable lengths and inverter sizing.

Even few of the authorities provide indicative individual site capacity, but information on how that capacity is estimated or the approach or assumptions considered while estimating that capacity is not shared with the bidders or project developers.

•

LACK OF INFORMATION ON EXISTING EVACUATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION

Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV project needs to be connected to the existing grid network and information on connected/sanctioned load, distribution transformer capacity, supply voltage etc need to be known to the bidder or project developer. Also for RESCO bidders or project developers, information on electricity consumption pattern of a particular customer is also required for better tariff estimation. But as of now information on evacuation infrastructure and electricity consumption is not provided to the bidders or project developers.

•

END CUSTOMERS ARE NOT IDENTIFIED

In most of the tenders,end customers are not identified and is the responsibility of bidder or project developer to find them and close the deal. A cost for this Business Development activity is then included by the bidder or project developer in the quoted tariff. This may also lead

to un-utilisation of allocated capacity in case bidder or project developer is unable to convince the customers. •

OPEN MARKET MODE

Usually tenders are open market mode, which means that bidders or project developers are free to approach any customers and vice-versa. Under such a scenario it is difficult for the customer to finalise a particular bidder or developer and situation of uncertainty is created in the market. This leads to a long gestation period for project confirmation.

•

TIME CONSUMING PROCESS FOR GETTING WORK ORDER / LETTER OF AWARD FROM TENDERING AUTHORITY

Every tendering authority or government authority takes its own time for tender evaluation, financial bid opening and allotting letter of award. Such delays may cause financial impact to the bidder or project developer in the form of interest that need to be paid against bank guarantees or EMDs.

•

DIFFICULTIES FACEDDURING PPA SIGNING

In most of the tenders PPA signing is sole responsibility of bidder or project developer. Getting a PPA signed from different customers that may be located at different locations is time consuming and a lot of effort is required from bidder or project developer. In many cases it is very difficult for a bidder to make customer agree on all the points of PPA and there is unnecessary delay in the project timelines.

•

STRINGENT SUBSIDY / CFA RELEASING CONDITIONS

Most of the tenders link subsidy disbursement with the project commissioning and DISCOM’s net metering approval. Currently not all DISCOM’s are in favour of Solar PV projects and hence takes longer time to give a net metering connection approval. In such cases bidders or project developers did not get subsidy on time even after physically the project was completed on time.

MADHYA PRADESH RESCO TENDER In its attempt to eradicate or dilute the uncertainties, risks and challenges faced by bidders or project developers, Madhya Pradesh UrjaVikas Nigam Limited (MPUNVL) floated two back to back tenders (RESCO Tender 1 and RESCO Tender 2) for government colleges, police establishments, private institutions, ITI colleges and many other customer segments. Around 31 bidders or project developers participated in the RESCO Tender 1 floated by MPUVNL. The success of both the tenders can be seen from the achieved lowest tariff of Rs. 1.38 per unit for 1st year for Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV projects in the country for one of the tendered customer category. Lowest tariff can be linked to the double subsidies from Centre and State governments and a yearly tariff escalation of 3%. However, there were other recommendable steps taken by MPUVNL’s team to remove the ambiguity and challenges faced by bidders or project developers and made the process and financial estimation easier.

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

resco tender Few of the features of the RESCO tenders floated and implementation of them are discussed below:

This data room was made available to the interested bidders or project developers as a link to google drive. Features of Data room are listed below:

•

PRE-IDENTIFIED END CUSTOMERS MPUVL’s team pre-identified the customers and sites such as Colleges under Dept. of Higher Education, Govt. Medical colleges, Govt. ITI colleges, Police establishments, Private institutions and many more other categories. This reduced the marketing and business development efforts and activities of the bidders or project developers. Unlike usual tenders, in these MP tenders if a bidder or project developer is allocated a capacity, he need not to run in search of possible customers. This reduced efforts and activities will help in reducing tariff to some extent.

•

INDIA’S 1ST EVER INNOVATIVE DATA ROOM MPUVNL with support of World Bank-SBI Technical Assistance programme “SUPRABHA” created an innovative Data room. The data room was created to dilute the ambiguities and risks faced by bidders or project developers during the computation of bid tariffs. The data room helped bidders or project developers in getting the details like site co-ordinates, estimated site capacity, indicative array layout and electricity bill for each proposed sites. By getting such information bidders or project developers got more clarity on the site and a better tariff estimation was the result.

•

November Part-B 2018

ADVANCE PAYMENT OF UPTO 50% OF SUBSIDY AGAINST BANK GUARANTEE To provide financial support to the bidders or project developers MPUVNL included issuance of advance payment of up to 50% of subsidy against Bank Guarantee, if required by the bidders.

•

PRE-CLEARED AND APPROVED PPAS FROM END CUSTOMERS PPA documents were pre-cleared and approved from the end customers. This reduced the efforts of the bidders or project developers. This will also help in reducing the project time lines.

CREATION OF PROJECT GROUPS AND DEMAND AGGREGATION Unlikeopen market mode tenders, in MP tenders several Project Groups were created. Groups were fashioned in a way that project sites from same departments falls under one group like all the buildings related to police departments were added to a group named as “MP Police Establishments” and so on. Bidder or project developer need to quote for the complete project group. Hence there will be no confusion or second thought in the customers to select between bidders or project developers and a department will get same tariff for all of its buildings irrespective of physical location of sites. From the bidder or project developer prospective now he need to get into touch with only one department for all the activities and approvals. Aggregating the capacities and grouping them will help in reducing the hassle faced by bidders and project developers and will also help in reducing the quoted tariff.

•

A sample report provided in the data room is shown below:

•

RELAXED SUBSIDY / CFA RELEASING CONDITIONS Subsidy / CFA releasing milestone was linked to project commissioning rather than DISCOM net metering approval. However, a self-attested copy of net metering application submitted to the DISCOM is required.

•

SINGLE PLATFORM FOR MASS PPA SIGNING To reduce the efforts and timelines of bidders or project developers in getting PPA sign from different customers, MPUVNL organised an PPA signing event. In this event all the customers and project developers were invited and PPAs were signed on a single day single event.

•

PUBLIC OPENING OF FINANCIAL BID AND ON SPOT ISSUANCE OF LOA (LETTER OF AWARD) To show more transparency and reduce the effective timelines of the project, MPUVNL organised a Public opening of the Financial Bid. On the spot LOA (Letter of Award) was given to the bidders or project developers and PPA was also signed on the same day. Such innovations like clear identification of sites and their potential and procedural aspects like on spot issuance of LOA and pre-cleared PPAs will really help in developing some confidence in the bidders or project developers.

www.EQMagPro.com

Operations & Maintenance

Sneak Peek Preview of EagleSun SCADATM 4.0

s the Solar PV Plants in India are getting older, plant owners have started seeing issues which are affecting the performance of the plant(s). Unearthing these issues manually is a Herculean task and Plant Developers have realized the need for a robust monitoring solution that can detect, and pin point the problem. The EagleSun SCADATM is one simple yet effective monitoring solution for solar PV plants developed by Avi Solar Energy Pvt Ltd. The next generation of thisflagship product will be released inJan 2019. The EagleSun SCADATM 4.0 is a complete end-to-endsolution to remotely monitor and control Solar PV plants and has been indigenously developed. The EagleSun SCADATMproduct comes in three flavours[Refer to Figure 1]:

1. Cloud version: In this version, only APIC

(Avi On-Premise IoT Controller) is installed at the site to collect Realtime data from devices. The complete backend SCADA is deployed in Cloud servers.

2. Local Version: In this version, the com-

plete solution both Hardware and SCADA software are deployed on the local server present in the control room of PV plant. This is also ideal for customers who want to build centralized monitoring solution by deployingEagleSunSCADATMin their data centre.

3. Hybrid version: In this version, SCADA

software is deployed on Local server as well asCloud server.This is ideal for customers who want to monitor and control plant operations on daily basis using Local SCADA without worrying about network connectivity and have access to historical data and reports in the Cloud server.

The primary features included in EagleSun SCADATM 4.0 are:

• New Architecture : Highly scalable archi-

tecture designed to provide operational, historical, and predictive analytics by building Data Lake and Data Pipelines

• Control Device : Customers can not only monitor, but also control inverters and relays in the plant.

• Edge computing : Important and critical

computation happens right at the Edge (APIC)where data lives by taking advantage of more compute resource available in APIC.

• SLD diagram : Single Line Diagrams

(SLDs) are very important features from an Electrical engineer’s point of view to quickly identify and understand operation of equipment(s) in the PV plant

• Communication interface : Provides bi-di-

rectional communication interface between devices and SCADAServer. The communication protocol used between APIC and SCADA software is both MQTT and HTTP

• Security : Provides both In-Transit and

At-Rest encryption. As part of security feature, each device connecting to SCADA is Authenticated using certificates. The requests from devices are Authorised based on polices attached to certificates. Also use custom authorization with JWT (JSON Web Token) for Access control

• Progressive App : To provide experience of both Native and Web Apps, a Progressive App is also included.

www.EQMagPro.com

Switch to EagleSun SCADATM 4.0and you can monitor Real Time Data of your PV plantsfromAnyWhere- AnyTime

November Part-B 2018

Safeguard Duty

Safeguard Duty On Solar Panels Imposed

Where Is The Protection To Domestic Manufacturing Industry Global warming, climate change, increasing carbon footprints, greater dependence on import of fossils leading to adverse balance of payment positions, currency fluctuation and political risks are the few reasons that compelled many countries all over the world to hunt for a sustainable alternate energy option.

S 64Â

November Part-B 2018

olar and Wind once considered costly power have now achieved the grid parity and became affordable energy sources, this added fuel to fire for growth of renewables and led green energy transition indeed inevitable in India. The Government of India has also set an ambitious target to achieve 100GW of solar power by 2022. The promotion of renewable energy by India also helped India to create new jobs, attract foreign investments and gave birth to a new era of energy infrastructure development making India second most attractive renewable energy market in the world. India is emerging as an undisputed leader in terms of solar deployment however its domestic manufacturing industry is bleeding and is unable to grow with the pace to support deployments, currently India is highly dependent on imports of solar mod-

ules to achieve its solar targets. The obvious reason behind imports is the availability of cheaper solar PV cells and modules as compared to indigenously manufactured. Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision to become a world leader in solar energy cannot be complete without building its manufacturing strength in solar sector and thus there is an immediate need to promote domestic manufacturing in solar sector. The imposition of duty on one end did not help generate demand for domestic solar modules, on other hand it put additional burden in the form of increased project cost and significant additional cash outflow to developers. The biggest concern raised by the solar industry on levy of safeguard duty was its impact on the projects already auctioned out before 30 July 2018 as the bidders did not factored in the additional duty at the time of bidding.

www.EQMagPro.com

Safeguard Duty

With the intent to protect domestic manufacturing industry from the injury caused by the sudden surge in import of solar cell and panels, Government of India on the recommendations of Director General of Trade Remedies (“DGTR”) vide its notification dated 30th July, 2018 imposed 25% safeguard duty for a period of 2 years on Import of Solar PV Cells and Modules to be levied in a manner specified in the said notification. Although, the duty was imposed with the intent to provide relief to the manufacturing industry but the imposition of duty with pass through of this duty for already bid out projects under change in law provisions of the power purchase agreements has not only negated its impact but defeated the sole purpose for which it was levied as it failed to generate demand for the domestic solar modules and accord protection as intended.

t is pertinent to note that the Standard Bidding Guidelines for Solar power projects allows solar developers to pass on any new levy under “Change in Law Clause” to the power purchaser under the power purchase agreement. But recovery of new levy under the change in law provisions has to go through the legal and regulatory process making it challenging and time consuming. In order to mitigate this situation, Union Ministry of Power issued a direction to Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) under Section 107 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to determine per unit impact of SGD on power tariff and dispose of the petition seeking pass through of SGD to end Consumer in a time bound manner. Although, Union Government has issued such directions but the State Governments are yet to issue similar instructions under Section 108 of the Electricity Act. Moreover, there should be also be a seamless process in place to pass on the safeguard duty to the contractors under the EPC contracts. It is worth noting that currently the execution time allowed for commissioning of a solar power project is 21 Months. The commissioning date of the projects, which were auctioned out in April- July, 2018 will be around Jan-March, 2020. Since, solar modules are generally procured in the last 3-4 months of commissioning deadlines, the major offtake of solar modules in next two years (during which safeguard duty will be in force) will mostly be for the projects that were auctioned out before the imposition of SGD. It is due to pass through of duty for already bid out projects, Solar Developers in India finds it beneficial to buy Chinese modules over indigenous modules even after imposition of safeguard duty for a simple reason that if imported and indigenous modules are available at same price, it will be beneficial for them to buy imported ones as they will be entitled to claim safeguard duty as pass through under change in law on the imported modules but not on indigenous modules. Thus for already auctioned out projects, procurement of modules is duty neutral as they can claim it as pass through and the projects, which are/will be auctioned out after the imposition of SGD, their commissioning date will fall in the second half of 2020, by that time SGD will be completely phased out. It is evident that the sole purpose of imposition of safeguard duty has been defeated by the manner safeguard duty is implemented and imposition of SGD in the current form clearly fails to accord its intended benefit to the indigenous manufacturers. In the pres-

ent circumstances, it is prudent to exempt procurement of solar modules for already bid out projects from safeguard duty instead of allowing them pass through under change in law to prevent unnecessary litigations. Further, 60% of the domestic industry is located in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and a lot of uncertainty is prevailing on applicability of safeguard duty on DTA clearance of modules from SEZ. The provisions of Section 8B(2A) of Custom Tariff Act provides that any article which is subject to safeguard duty when imported into the SEZ and if used in manufacture of a product, while clearing such product from SEZ to DTA, custom duty including the safeguard duty will be charged on such article so used and not on the manufactured product. However, in the present case, since solar cells and solar modules both are placed in the same HSN code, while clearing the solar modules manufactured from imported solar cells, the competent authorities in SEZ are insisting on safeguard duty on the full value of modules. This has placed units in SEZ in a difficult position to compete with the DTA units, which was never the intention of the legislature. Moreover, in the absence of clarity and matter being sub-judice before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India/ Orissa High Court, different SEZs are employing different mechanism to clear goods to DTA, some are demanding full duty on the value of module irrespective of origin of cells, others are clearing goods on submissions of letter of undertaking on provisional assessment and few of them have halted the assessment. The manufacturers in SEZ being aggrieved have approached Ministry of Finance and DGEP for clarification. The SEZ manufacturers also have big hope of relief from the Supreme Court of India, who is expected to hear the matter during later this October or early November. Ideally, government should have completely exempted the SEZ from the implication of safeguard duty to promote domestic manufacturing under section 25(1) of the Custom Act, 1962. Thus, in order to revive bleeding domestic manufacturing solar industry, it is essential that the Government exempt already auctioned out projects from the implication of safeguard duty, clarify the applicability of safeguard duty/ exempt SEZ units and incentivise the existing manufacturers for backward integration through commercially viable manufacturing linked PPAs and to roll out CPSU scheme for domestically manufactured solar modules and implement Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017. Source: conceptpr

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Drivers and Challenges for Rooftop SolarLoans to Small and Medium Enterprises in India

India needs to accelerate the growth of its rooftop solar sector. Of the 40 GW of rooftop solar installations targeted by 2022, the country has only achieved 2 GW to-date. This slow progress may hinder the country’s ability to reach its overall solar targets and meet its energy demand. Presently in India, there are two dominant business models for rooftop solar: the capital expenditure (CAPEX) model, which has an approximate 75% of market share, and the renewable energy supply company (RESCO) model, which accounts for 22% of rooftop installations. These models work fine for larger commercial and industrial (C&I) players who have access to upfront capital, or can obtain commercial loans. However, rooftop solar remains constrained among smaller C&I players, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), and residential customers due to lack of financial resources and inability to access debt. A CAPEX model with a commercial loan for the off- taker is a potential solution for these categories of customers. This model has proven effective with large scale implementation across Europe and the U.S. This proposed model is similar to the existing the CAPEX model, where the customer makes the upfront payment to finance the solar assets. This payment is, however, financed by a mix of the customer’s own equity and a commercial loan taken directly by the customer. AUTHORS : Jolly Sinha Sagar Srijan Joshi Gireesh Shrimali

November Part-B 2018

Through secondary research and interviews, we draw the following conclusions: 1. There are several factors that could lead to a significant demand for the CAPEX loan model.

The barriers to the CAPEX cash (i.e., lack of capital) and the RESCO model, such as lack of equity with smaller developers and difficulty in raising debt for MSMEs, are some of the factors that can encouragethe uptake of the CAPEX loan model.On the demand side, the model is primarily driven by a cost imperative as the installation cost of solar energy has decreased significantly and has become cheaper than rocuring from the grid in most of Indian states. While developers may find it difficult to raise funds for projects targeting MSMEs and unrated clients, the customers themselves can leverage their existing banking relationships to raise debt for solar installation. This is another major driver.Customers can also take advantage of accelerated depreciation, offsetting their tax liabilities in the initial years.

However, there are barriers and challenges that need to be addressed to expand the possible use of the model. The biggest barrier that the model faces for MSME clients is perceived lack of creditworthi- ness due to lack of credit information/ratings. This barrier is further aggravated by the high transaction cost/ time of MSME rooftop loans due to their small size, decreasing their attractiveness to lenders. Lack of awareness on the part of MSMEs and perceived performance risk of solar generation are other important barriers that can limit the expansion of the model’s use.

In this report, we assess the viability of the CAPEX loan model with a focus on the MSME sector, identify barriers to uptake, and recommended policy solutions to these barriers.

www.EQMagPro.com

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

In 2015, India announced an ambitious goal of increasing its renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, with 100 GW of solar, 60 GW of wind, 10 GW of bioenergy and 5 GW of small hydro. This would require a fivefold

increase in renewable power capacity over the next seven years, making India a clean energy leader. India has also set its year-on-year targets, which charts a roadmap to achieve the 2022 goals. Of the targeted 100 GW of solar installations, 40GW of power is assigned to rooftop solar and the remaining 60GW to large and medium-scale solar power grid projects.This ambitious target would require around $100bn (INR6.5tn) of investment (Cleantechnica, 2015). While India’s large-scale solar installation track record is respectable – with about 20 GW of installations as of March 2018 – the rooftop solar sector has had a slower start. However, in the

past year the rooftop solar sector has added almost 1 GW of capacity, account-

ing for 50 per cent of the entire installed rooftop capacity to date.The growth

According to the lenders, MSMEs are often over-leveraged in terms of their borrowing, which makes it difficult for them to borrow for solar installations. MSMEs themselves may be unwilling to invest a sizeable portion of their capital (through equity or taking additional debt) in a non-core business activity that ties up capital for long periods of time. Market solutions could help overcome these barriers. We identify and prioritize policy solutions for key barriers in Table ES1, based on factors of potential impact and implementation feasibility. These solutions cater specifically to the top two barriers identified in the study. The other barriers, although important, need further research and discourse. CPI, through its future work, intends to continue to work and delve deeper to find potential solutions to these barriers. There are also certain other policy solutions, like increasing the limit for net-metered solar plants and devising clear timelines for benefits, that could help create a more favorable environment for rooftop solar. Coupled with the solutions discussed above, these solutions could open more opportunities for solar uptake in the MSME sector.

www.EQMagPro.com

can be attributed to the cost of rooftop solar power dropping below the cost of commercial and industrial power in most states. These costs have declined

significantly over the past few years, up until mid-2017, leading to lower tariffs in successive auctions for rooftop project allocations. Government incentives and policies to push rooftop solar installations have also contributed to the growth during the past year. Due to increased competition in the solar power market and low solar panel prices, it has become cheaper to set up rooftop systems than before.Currently, a majority of rooftop solar installations in India are in the commercial and industrial segment, but these are mostly with large corporations and high-credit rated entities. This is mainly because the customers in this segment have higher power requirements, have the required space, financial strength, and have achieved economies of scale. While smaller entities offer huge potential for rooftop solar, they typically do not have high enough credit ratings and/or often lack the financial track record to access finance under the two predominant rooftop solar business models in the market. For the market to move forward, and for India to come close to meeting its renewable energy goals, it is essential to find a solution to address these financing barriers faced by MSMEs (CPI, 2018)

Although the business case was strong, financing was difficult to come by in the past. In solar plants, the largest capital investment goes towards the installation of solar panels and must be made upfront. At current prices, this amounts to an investment of about Rs. 50 million per MW (World Bank, 2017)

Dominant business models in rooftop solar: CAPEX and RESCO The Indian rooftop solar market has three key consumer sectors: commercial, industrial, and residential. 74% of current rooftop solar plants are commercial and industrial (C&I) installations, while only 26% are residential installations (Climate olicy Initiative, 2016). This is because the C&I consumers pay higher rates for grid electricity than the residential sector. Due to greater potential savings in cost of electricity, the C&I sectors have adopted rooftop solar power more quickly than the residential sector Figure 1: Rooftop PV share in FY 2017

Source: Bloomberg Energy Finance, industry trends

Within the C&I and residential sector, the Indian rooftop market can be further divided based on two financing mechanisms: The CAPEX and the RESCO models.

November Part-B 2018

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

The CAPEX model is the most common business model for rooftop solar deployment in India with a market share of approximately 75%. In this model, the off-taker is the owner of the rooftop solar system and bears the entire capital expenditure of the project. The gains from tariff savings also accrue to the off-taker. The RESCO model is an alternative to the CAPEX model, and has around 22% market share. In this model, a rooftop solar project developer bears the capital expenditure of the project. The developer also oversees the installation, operation, and undertakes the maintenance of the rooftop solar system. Further, the developer and the roof owner enter into an agreement in which the latter may either consume the electricity generated or receive appropriate monthly rent from the developer for the duration of the project. The roof owner in exchange will allow the developer to access his roof.

Challenges with existing models The key challenges that restrict the attractiveness of the CAPEX model include high upfront capital requirement and the lack of historical performance data about the solar technologies used in the past. Moreover, the 80% accelerated depreciation benefit, which was one of the primary drivers for the CAPEX model, has been reduced to 40%, which further reduces the popularity of the model.

Over the years, the rooftop solar market in India has adopted the RESCO model in response to the barriers faced by the CAPEX cash model. However, the RESCO model also suffers from various limitations. These can potentially be overcome through the adoption of the CAPEX loan model. Whereas, in case of the RESCO model, lack of financing for companies is a key barrier which needs to be addressed. This model also poses several challenges for the developer, as limited legal recourse is available in cases where contracts are dishonored under the extant Indian legal system. The recovery rates of seized rooftop solar systems are also low, resulting in substantial financial losses for the RESCO model in case of a breach in the PPA contracts.

November Part-B 2018

Figure 2: Evolution of business models in India solar industry

CAPEX Most common business model for rooftop solar where a consumer pays 100% of the PV system cost upfront. The borrower sets up rooftop solar project with the intent to reduce his own power costs. Residual power, if any, can be feed to the grid. Driver : Ownership of the asset, can claim depreciation benefit Drawback : High upfront investment

RESCO Develops rooftop solar projects for its clients on mutually agreed terms and conditions and enters into a long-term binding lease, right to use or similar binding agreement for the roof. It also enters into a PPA for the supply of power. Driver: Medium and small enterprises that cannot be serviced by RESCOs due to limited credibility Drawback : Equipment financing remains an issue due to the lack of credit information. Also, MSMEs may not want to take loans for a non-allied service

CAPEX LOAN Consumer pays 100% of the cost upfront by borrowing from the capital market, therefore, financial risks belong to the consumer. Driver: Easy monthly installments, ownership of assets, and depreciation benefits Drawback : RESCOs may not be able to service MSMEs due to PPA bankability issues These barriers are more pressing for smaller C&I and residential customer segments as transaction sizes are low due to fragmented size of projects, lack of financial strength, and technical knowhow. An unbridled growth of the residential and small C&I customers requires further intervention to catalyze uptake of the models. This will require us to look beyond the traditional sources of finance, e.g. cash, and start tapping into the commercial lending sector. To explore the avenues for expanding the rooftop solar market, this report examines the viability of a new model of financing: A CAPEX model with a commercial loan component. We focus application of this model for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within the C&I sector, an historically underserved market segment. We conducted primary interviews with 10 stakeholders to identify and examine the strengths and barriers for the CAPEX loan model and recommend solutions that would allow this model to scale. The interviewees included project developers, financiers, and off-takers.

This report is divided into four parts: •

Section 2 introduces the structure of the CAPEX loan model and the potential drivers for expansion in rooftop solar;

•

Section 3 identifies key barriers faced by the model

•

Section 4 highlights suggested solutions and maps these solutions to the barriers.

•

Section 5 is the conclusion and the way forward CPI is currently conducting a similar analysis for the residential sector, which will feature in a separate report to be published at a later date.

www.EQMagPro.com

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS The CAPEX loan model: A potential solution to scale-up rooftop solar for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India The CAPEX loan model is a potential alternative to the existing business models in the rooftop solar market. THE CAPEX LOAN MODEL The CAPEX loan model is a variant of the existing CAPEX cash model, where the customer makes an upfront payment for the installation of the rooftop solar system. Unlike the existing model, in the CAPEX loan model, a part of the payment is made through customer’s own equity while the remaining is financed through a direct commercial debt on the off-taker’s books. The proposed model is a promising alternative to the aforementioned popular models given that it can enable not only direct access to finance, but also provide cheaper power to MSMEs.

Expanding the use of the loan financing model for rooftop solar power in India is a promising solution to scale up adoption of rooftop solar power in the MSME sector and achieve the government’s rooftop solar target. To facilitate greater use of commercial financing, it is important to understand the drivers that affect this model. The interviewees rated each factor on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being the least significant and 4 being the most significant driver that attracted investment (unscored factors were given a 0). We averaged the stakeholder ratings for each driver to reach a final score. The ranks are shown in the table below. Table 1: Drivers that make the CAPEX loan model more effective than the existing business models

Though the CAPEX model with an upfront payment has become popular in India, the solar loan market is yet to pick up pace. We believe that a large section of the market, currently serviced by upfront cash payments, can be converted in to a potential market for commercial solar loans. This will enable reduction in the overall cost of capital for the off-taker and open previously inaccessible markets to the lenders.

ADVANTAGES IN COMPARISON TO THE EXISTING MODELS Our analysis shows that when compared to the existing CAPEX and RESCO models, the CAPEX loan model has certain drivers that makes the adoption of the model attractive to the MSME sector. For instance, the cost of solar installations is significant for MSMEs, most of whom lack a cash surplus to provide the upfront payment required for a CAPEX cash model. This reduces the attractiveness of the model to MSMEs. We interviewed 10 relevant industry stakeholders, including developers, financers, consultants, and off-takers to identify the drivers that make the CAPEX loan model a more effective business model than the CAPEX cash and the RESCO model for the MSME sector.

Figure 3: The CAPEX loan model mechanics

REDUCED COST OF OWNERSHIP To compare the financial attractiveness of the CAPEX loan and the RESCO model, we analyzed both the models based on the following assumptions: 1. The CAPEX loan model, with commercial debt at 70:30 debt-to-equity (DE) ratio for a 10-year tenor 2. The RESCO model, with a 10-year PPA and project handover at the end of tenor In both the models, we projected the total cash outflows for the off-taker during the project life. This included the actual cost that the off-taker must pay combined with the opportu nity costs/benefits of the solar project. The assumptions used in the model are listed below:

The CAPEX Model: Equity deployed, debt service, and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs were the primary cash outflow. The opportunity cost of the equity invested (at 15% return) was considered the provisional outflow. An accelerated depreciation benefit, at 40% of the written-down-value, was also considered in the model.

The RESCO Model: The PPA tariff was determined with the as-

sumption that the developer would set a tariff targeting a 15% equity return. Using the same equity returns, we projected tariffs at Rs. 7 and calculated annual electricity payments as the cash outflow during PPA tenor. Post PPA tenor, O&M costs were considered the outflow for the remaining project life. The cash outflows from both the models were then discounted at the customer’s opportunity cost (the expected return from business operations) to arrive at the net-present value (NPV) of the cash flows which would represent the actual cost of the solar plant for the off-taker.

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Table 2: Comparative financial analysis of the CAPEX and the RESCO models

EXISTING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE OFF-TAKER AND LENDER Pre-existing relationships with banks is a major factor that can help MSMEs secure debt financing for rooftop solar installations, as financing is otherwise difficult to obtain in the RESCO model. Our analysis shows that over the project’s life the CAPEX loan model can be up to 14% cheaper over the RESCO model in terms of cost to off-taker. The results of the analysis are listed in Table 2.

Further analysis revealed that at the same cost of debt and equity for both, the off-taker and the developer, without accelerated depreciation benefit, both the models would have the same NPV for the off-taker. This suggests that accelerated depreciation is the major reason for financial attractiveness of the CAPEX loan model over the RESCO model. In addition to the accelerated depreciation benefit, the financial attractiveness of the CAPEX model is also contingent on the cost of capital of the off-taker. Our analysis considered a 15% opportunity cost on equity investments for the MSME off-taker. Thus, the attractiveness of the CAPEX model would increase for enterprises with low and stable returns on investment, due to low opportunity loss, compared to enterprises with higher growth rates. In addition, the CAPEX loan model will be more attractive to enterprises that can secure debt at lower rates compared to the developers, due to low debt service costs. (The detailed impact of accelerated depreciation and cost of capital along with list of inputs, key assumptions andmethodology is in Appendix )

Our analysis yields two primary results: • •

The CAPEX loan model with an accelerated depreciation benefit is up to 14% cheaper than the RESCO model over the life of the project. The attractiveness of the CAPEX loan model is further increased with the reduced cost of capital for the off-taker.

November Part-B 2018

Enterprises that have relationships with banks (from previously obtained finance for equipment or term loans) have an im proved ability to borrow additional capital for solar projects. Such relationships may not typically exist for the RESCOs themselves.

LACK OF DEBT FINANCE UNDER THE RESCO MODEL Raising debt for the MSME projects under the RESCO model has been a challenge for the developers. Both lenders and project developers, believe that funding the sector is difficult, expensive, and risky. These factors have resulted in low mobili zation of debt finance for solar projects, servicing the MSME customers. The challenge is further exacerbated by the characteristics of the project developers, as many of them are small companies that have existed for less than five years and have limited assets to offer as collateral. Additionally, these developers may not be able to raise enough equity to back the debt.

ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION BENEFITS Accelerated depreciation is a major incentive that was introduced by the Government of India to increase the attractiveness of the solar project investments. It has also played a significant factor in driving the C&I off-takers to use the CAPEX model. Under Section 32 of the Income-tax Act, accelerated depreciation (AD) accounts for a major relief in the upfront cost of solar by providing a tax break in the first few years of operations. The current policy allows investors, when setting up capacity for captive use, to take advantage of up to 40% of accelerated depreciation that could reduce the customer’s tax liability in the initial years.

www.EQMagPro.com

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

BARRIERS TO SCALE-UP THE CAPEX LOAN MODEL In this section, we identify the key barriers in commercial borrowing to finance solar assets. This type of capital is fre quently used by off-takers to finance solar assets. The CAPEX loan model shows a lot of promise in terms of addressing challenges of the existing models, however, there are still barriers to scale-up. In order to indicate the signifi cance of the various challenges limiting the growth of the model, we have prioritized the barriers according to their severity, using a ranking system of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most severe (Table 3). These rankings are based on the scores provided by the inter viewees. Table 3: Barriers to scale-up the CAPEX loan model for MSMEs

We have not included the policy barriers in our analysis, as these barriers are generic to the rooftop solar sector and are not specific to any business model (policy barriers are sepa rately included as Appendix).

LACK OF INTEREST BY THE LENDERS Lack of interest in lenders is the most significant barrier to commercial borrowing, with a score of 4.29 out of 5. Information is key for the credit decisions made by banks. One of the major challenges include acquiring information about the credit risk of the borrower, as borrowers generally have more information than the lenders about projects. This problem is known as information asymmetry and is a key concern that needs to be addressed. As the absence of a mechanism to bridge the asymmetry between the borrowers and the lenders would lead to a failure of efficient loan alloca tions. This barrier becomes more pronounced for loans to the MSME sector because it is more opaque, especially in the regional bank branches where MSME clusters are lo cated. In these branches, lenders to MSMEs may not be adequately aware of the feasibility of the solar project, which exacerbates the effect of the problem.The lack of interest from lenders is due to three sub-barriers:

www.EQMagPro.com

Concerns regarding a company’s ability to pay without delays/defaults. This may arise from inadequate data on payment track record and credit ratings for the companies. Lenders may become concerned by the risks of long-term project finance (Myers, 1985). Perceived performance risks of solar projects coupled with limited awareness at the lender’s level, leading to unwilling ness to fund the CAPEX solarrooftop projects. This perfor mance risk may arise due to multiple factors along the value chain. These are:

Sub-par quality of the equipment by the EPC In recent years, India has been adding thousands of megawatts of solar power capacity which has led to record-low tariffs. But this boom is riding on an uncomfortable truth: poor quality. According to a study by PI Berlin, a German technical advisory firm, the solar modules or panels that form the industry’s backbone are sub-par, and besides being poorly maintained, many plants mushrooming across India are flawed in their construction. Quality will be an important ingredient to build healthy plants with operation lives of 25 years economically, safely, and reliably. However, owing to short project timeframes, performing quality checks can be challenging. Since there are no alternatives for quality assurance in solar installations, quaility checks need to be effectively implemented. This is not only to avoid relative impacts on cost and time, but also the impacts on the O&M activities and committed plant guarantees at later stage.

Sub-optimal performance of the system due to inadequate operation and maintenance activities Proper maintenance of a PV plant is essential to maximise both energy yield and the plant’s functional life. Optimal operations must strike a balance between maximising production and minimising cost. Hence, in order to arrive at an accurate ROI figure, one needs to address the operations and maintenance issues by assigning accountability to agencies specializing in O&M services.

Box 1: Sub-par quality of the equipment inflates its risk profile PI Berlin, a German technical advisory firm, analyzed six projects in collaboration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the two state-run organizations; the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) and the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). They found that the Indian market is one of the most profitable markets, yet it is risky for project developers and investors in photovoltaics (PV or siliconbased solar panels). While large-scale projects of over 100 megawatts (MW) are now common, the investment risks caused by climate, poor installation, and lack of proper maintenance is on the rise. Take module quality for starters. PI Berlin observed that no specific certificates beyond the basic IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission, a global standards body for solar panels) certification were requested by the owners to the module manufacturers. Neither does SECI insist on many certifications for the companies to apply for projects (Quartz India, 2018).

November Part-B 2018

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Resource risk/generation risks A tropical country like India usually receives about 300 days of sunshine a year. However, weather, characteristically, is extremely erratic. This risk arises due to insufficient amount of sunshine or the unpredictability of the weather. High transaction costs involved in low ticket transactions is yet another reason for the disinterest from lenders. Roof top solar transactions are usually small in size. This barrier is more significant for the CAPEX model where projects cannot be aggregated, unlike the RESCO model.

SOLUTIONS AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS In this section, we will map potential solutions to the barriers identified in Section 3. This is, again, performed based on the feedback received from stakeholder consultations. We have used a combination of primary and secondary research to priori tize the solutions by estimating the overall impact and feasibility of these solutions. The solutions are listed in Table 5, below. Table 4: Proposed solutions to overcome the barriers faced by the CAPEX loan model

LACK OF AWARENESS AMONG THE MSMES Lack of awareness of alternative models among the off-takers is a major factor behind the low uptake of rooftop solar projects in India. This barrier is particularly significant for MSMEs, where lack of knowledge on the technical and economic viability of solar, and capability issues at the enterprise level has resulted in relatively fewer rooftop installations. These enterprises have limited knowledge of the different kinds of business models available for rooftop solar projects, and the terms of funding available from the lenders. The lack of access to this information makes it significantly more difficult for these enterprises to evaluate the benefits of adopting a rooftop solar project. The barrier is exacerbated by lack of educational input from the rooftop solar industry or the government. Educating enterprises and MSME clusters on the financial and technical details of rooftop solar adoption will help correct this issue.

INABILITY OF MSME TO ABSORB ADDITIONALDEBT Highly leveraged existing borrowing structures of MSMEs often limit the enterprise’s ability to absorb additional debt for rooftop solar projects. Most MSMEs in the country have low fixed assets to longterm liability ratios, which limits the lender’s ability to provide additional financing for solar installations. This is a major reason for lack of financing in the MSME sector which curtails the uptake of solar projects.

OPPORTUNITY COST OF THE INVESTMENT The opportunity cost of the investment is a significant barrier to adopting a CAPEX model for MSMEs. Most MSMEs, particularly high growth enterprises, are unwilling to dedicate capital or block their borrowing limit to invest in a solar plant installation because they don’t consider it a core activity. There is a preference to use these features to fund core business operations that could increase sales/boost profits and can in turn generate more returns. The impact of this barrier is already discussed in the financial analysis section above.

November Part-B 2018

These solutions are designed to be accessible to developers, lenders, and off-takers in the rooftop solar sector and range from operational and process changes to exploring new financing mechanisms and better use of public funds. To measure the impact and feasibility of each recommendation, we categorized them as low, medium, and high on each metric and combined them to create a measure of overall attractiveness. For the impact metric, we considered the ability of the proposed recommendation to address the challenge, and the verall potential it can unlock. For the feasibility metric, we considered the likelihood of implementation of the proposed recommendation. If all recommendations are implemented together, their impact would be much higher than implementation of individual recommendations. We have presented a one on one barrier-to-solution mapping in Table 6. While the two major challenges seem to have direct and implementable solutions, the last two barriers relating to the inability of MSMEs to absorb additional debt and its opportunity cost remain to be further examined. Although most of these measures can be used to mitigate the risks, further research is warranted to assess its feasibility and impact.

4.1

Challenge 1: Lack of interest by the lenders

4.1.1 Challenge 1A: Delay/Default On Payments And Risk Of Existence Recommendation: Partial risk guarantee fund In general, lenders are averse to lending to developers targeting MSMEs and unrated C&I players due to the high degree of credit risk associated with funding their projects. Our discussion with lenders allude that a partial risk guarantee fund, using public funds, can be a potential solution to address the credit risks in MSME projects. It would also cover the private lenders against the risk of delay/default in payment, and cover any business operation risks.

www.EQMagPro.com

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Box 2: Partial Risk Guarantee Fund for Energy Efficiency (PRGFEE) PRGFEE is a risk-sharing mechanism that provides commercial banks with a partial coverage of risks involved in extending loans for energy efficiency projects. The Government of India has approved around Rs. 312 crore for PRGFEE. The fund encourages lending in the energy efficiency space by covering up to 300 lakhs or 50% of the loan amount for an initial period of 5 years. It has attracted special interest from leading banks and financial institutions across the country. A risk guarantee fund can improve the overall risk profile of solar projects, which in turn can reduce the interest rates for rooftop solar loans in the MSME sector. This improves the attractiveness of the sector and increases solar uptake. Table 5: Key policy recommendations to overcome challenges faced by the CAPEX loan model

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

73Â

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

This solution has a medium impact, as per the conversations with our stakeholders. This is because such instruments exist in the market in various capacities, such as Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd. (MUDRA) scheme by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Unfortunately, these schemes have had limited impact so far. Another example of a partial risk guarantee fund is the credit guarantee fund by SIDBI. As a major policy overhaul, the corpus of the credit guarantee fund was raised substantially from Rs. 2,500 crore, at the request of the Indian Government. The government also raised its guarantee level to 75% of such loans, which is an increase of 50%. More information on the credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs is included in Section 7.2 (Appendix 2).

CHALLENGE 1B : PERCEIVED PERFORMANCE RISK LEADING TO UNWILLINGNESS TO FUND Sub-optimal performance of the system

Recommendation: Mandatory O&M contract

Operation & maintenance (“O&M”) activities play an important role in determining the performance of the solar generation asset. Subsequently, an optimized O&M contract is important for the success of a solar power plant. Currently, O&M contracts are either outsourced or managed by Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractors (EPCs), who can further outsource to local vendors. In some cases, activities like cleaning and monitoring are performed by the off-takers themselves. Some of the lenders and developers we interviewed stressed that the service-level agreements and contractual frameworks for O&M are not well-defined. When combined with capability issues at the local vendor level, this results in inadequate operation and management of a plant. The up-shot of this is that solar plants often perform at suboptimal levels. An O&M contract can include the following contractor services and obligations (Medium.com):

• • • • • •

Plant monitoring requirements, Scheduled maintenance requirements, Unscheduled maintenance requirements, Agreed targets and/or guarantees (for example, response time or system availability figure), Contractual obligation for the contractor to optimize plant performance, And, all maintenance tasks could be performed in such a way that it minimizes their impact on the productivity of the system.

These contracts can have other key provisions such as performance ratios and yield guarantees, uptime guarantees, and performance incentives that could establish clear accountability for the O&M contractor

Having a strong and well-defined contract with the EPCs or a specialized O&M vendor can ensure adequate O&M practices. This ensures that the warranties are maintained, plant reliability remains optimum, and the overall plant performance is sustained.

November Part-B 2018

Quality of the equipment/ Technological risks Quality of the equipment/ Technological risks A ‘performance guarantee’ by the EPC player is another potential solution that can cover the technological risks of a rooftop solar plant.

In such a guarantee, the EPC contractor based on certain preset conditions, will provide a minimum generation guarantee for a defined period in the PPA. Such a guarantee can give both the lender and the off-taker an assurance on the project’s performance and superior quality of the equipment for the off-takers. This measure, as mentioned in Table 6, ranks medium on impact as it would partially reduce performance risk, and ranks high on feasibility. This is because the EPC contractors are better placed to absorb the performance risks compared to the off-takers.

Resource/ Generation risk due to inadequate sunshin Recommendation: Standalone solar insurance A standalone solar insurance product is a mechanism that could cover the risks associated with the unpredictability of the weather, like in case of storms or hurricanes, and the loss of power generation when the sun is not shining. An insurance product can cover the resource risks of a solar project. Existing insurance companies can provide insurance that shields both the off-taker and the EPC contractor against such risks, making the transaction more secure. Such an arrangement can provide the lenders with an additional layer of security that lowers the chance of default due to performance issues. ICICI Lombard and HDFC Ergo General Insurance companies have brought similar insurance products to market, although their effectiveness and uptake is yet to be ascertained.

www.EQMagPro.com

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Box 5: Solar Energy Awareness Campaign: CaptureMySun

Box 4: HDFC ERGO solar insurance HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company has announced the launch of the Solar Energy Shortfall Insurance Policy, designed to account for the non-traditional and non-physical damage-related risks that solar projects regularly face. The policy will cover anything from utility-scale solar farms and green fields across India, to portfolios of rooftop installations for commercial and residential buildings. Under the policy, the company will cover risks related to non-physical damage, such as insufficient hours of sunshine and the related impact on the performance of the project. It also protects against the incorrect installation of a system and the subsequent impact that would have on the revenue models. Additionally, the policy covers errors in the calculations of projected yields. CHALLENGE 1 (C): THE HIGH TRANSACTION COST/TIME INVOLVED IN LOW TICKET TRANSACTIONS Recommendation: Standardized solar loan product A standardized solar loan product, created by banks/ lenders, can help address the high transaction costs and time linked to funding the CAPEX loan rooftop projects.

A solar loan – like a home loan – can have clearly defined assessment processes, standard templates for information, and well-defined risk categories for different types of projects. This would standardize the entire process of lending and would provide clarity for the borrower. A common and well-defined assessment process can improve the ability of the lenders to assess a project and reduce the turnaround time. This reduces the associated transaction costs for individual solar projects.

CHALLENGE 2: LACK OF AWARENESS AMONG THE MSMES Recommendation: Awareness creation for MSMEs A significant barrier to the uptake of the CAPEX loan model is lack of awareness in the MSME sector.

These enterprises lack knowledge of the technical and economic viability of solar, the available business models, and the types of funding available. There have been limited efforts from the rooftop solar industry or the government to address this issue.

www.EQMagPro.com

To spread awareness of the potential of solar energy in India, MYSUN organized the fourth photo-walk under the #Capture- MySun campaign. A nationwide initiative, #CaptureMySun plans to cover more than 20 cities across India and winners from each city would compete against each other for a grand prize of Rs. 50,000. The first three photowalks were organized in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, and were met with a great response. To attract customers, it is important to consider pre-existing awareness and coordinate marketing efforts. Above-the-line marketing1 efforts such as roadshows and events that specifically target MSME clusters can help these enterprises understand and evaluate the viability of solar energy.

Encouraging the positive perception of solar and retail solar loans are essential to ensure adequate demand for the CAPEX loan model. CHALLENGE 3 AND 4: INABILITY TO ABSORB ADDITIONAL DEBT AND OPPORTUNITY COST OF THE INVESTMENT Our analysis shows that the following barriers - opportunity cost of the investment and inability of MSMEs to absorb additional debt due to over leveraged balance sheets of the company - apply specifically to the financial heath and decisions of an enterprise.

Both these barriers are pressing, though neither have complete solutions at present. In our current scope of study, we have been able to identify certain fixes that can partially address these issues; debt restructuring at the MSME level can solve over-leveraged balance sheets by increasing capacity for additional borrowing. To address the opportunity cost of investment, our analysis shows that with accelerated depreciation benefit, the CAPEX model is attractive even for organizations with higher growth. Any further improvements in the competitiveness of solar projects can make investments in solar more attractive for these enterprises. However, these solutions would have limited impact. Additional research and discourse is required to create more concrete solutions.

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS In addition to the suggested solutions, several other factors can catalyze the involvement of lending institutions. These factors include the education of loan disbursement agencies, establishing norms for quality control of products, pilot studies to measure the technical and commercial impact of the high penetration of rooftop solar on host power distribution companies, creating intermediation platforms to raise awareness, and timebound clearance of subsidy applications. Secondary solar modules and equipment markets encourage the re-use and re-deployment of stranded project assets for the remainder of their life. These assets could be assessed, and assurance could be provided to off-takers by attaching limited period warranties. Smart grids are an advanced type of infrastructure that allow the two-way flow of power. Along with upgraded transformers that can take the added rooftop capacity, they could create a conducive environment for rooftop solar uptake.

November Part-B 2018

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS APPENDICES Appendix 1: Policy barriers SIZE RESTRICTION ON THE ROOF Locations with spacious roofs – automobile manufacturing plants, for instance - may have enough area for a plant with a 20 MW capacity, but the government policies allow only 1 MW of installed capacity for grid-connected rooftop plants. If these restrictions are lifted, the additional capacities would create a significant cost benefit for those who have already adopted rooftop solar.

UNCERTAIN TIMELINES Another issue with most state-level policies is that they don’t have set timelines for any of the benefits or subsidies they offer solar plants. Once a customer installs a solar plant and begins receiving the subsidies or benefits associated with the plant, the timeline that outlines the provision of these benefits is often unclear. The uncertainty surrounding the timeline can potentially reduce the confidence a given customer has when entering a long-term contract. Improving the transparency of contracts would greatly improve the confidence of potential consumers, which would subsequently increase the attractiveness of installing a solar plant.

NBFCs that seek guarantees to offer loans to MSMEs must lower their interest rates to a level that meets the criteria set for government-backed loans. Meeting these interest rate levels are incentivized by the increased security recieved from governmentbacked loans. While in the past these loans were collateral-free, the government has now asserted that it will allow banks to seek collateral from the borrowers, provided they prove it necessary for the security of the loan. However, since 85% of these loans are already secured by a government guarantee and margin money (75% and 10% respectively), the need for such collateral is minimal. Further, the government has decided to make structural anges to this crucial guarantee fund. Earlier, guarantee for credit flow of around Rs. 19,000-Rs. 20,000 crore a year was given under it. Now that the guarantee corpus is raised substantially, the credit flow may go beyond Rs.40,000-50,000 crore.The Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises will operationalize this scheme. The total loans extended under such guarantees so far have touched Rs. 1,40,000 crore, of which the outstanding amount is around Rs. 72,000-Rs. 75,000 crore.2

Appendix 3: Financial analysis Appendix Table 1: Key inputs for financial analysis

Appendix Box 1: Stable policies and timelines In 2015, the state of Karnataka issued a policy specifying that the benefits associated with government subsidies must continue for 10 years after the commission of the solar plant. The state of Maharashtra enforces a net-metering policy when solar plant owners sign a 20 year contract with the distribution company. This freezes contractual obligations for the duration of the signed period. The states of Karnataka and Maharashtra have both successfully implemented timelines for the various policies they have introduced. These have significantly helped in accelerating the adoption of rooftop solar plants.

Appendix 2: Credit Guarantee Mechanism CGM- Enhancement in Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) corpus from Rs. 2,500 cr to Rs. 8,000 cr: The government has majorly overhauled its credit guarantee scheme to increase the number of adequate loans available to MSMEs. Mainly by tripling its corpus to Rs. 8,000 crore and by

allowing non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and banks to take advantage of the official guarantees and extend credit to solar developers at greater units. The corpus of the credit guarantee fund has been raised substantially from Rs. 2,500 crore at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government has also decided to raise its guarantee level to 75% of such loans, which was 50% earlier, as it intends to enable smoother credit flow at greater units, keeping in mind their financial constraints and massive employment generation potential.

November Part-B 2018

Financial model approach and assumptions : The following models were compared: • CAPEX Model: At 70:30 debt/equity ratio with a 10-year loan tenor • RESCO Model: With a 10-year PPA (and project handover to the off-taker at the end of PPA tenor)

www.EQMagPro.com

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS CAPEX Model:

For the base model assumptions we considered a debt/ equity ratio of 70:30 for a tenor of 10 years. Rate of debt and equity are considered 12% and 15% respectively. Equity deployed, debt service and O&M costs were considered as primary cash outflows. The opportunity cost of the equity invested (at 15%) was considered as the provisional outflow while an accelerated depreciation benefit (at 40% WDV) was also considered in the model.

Appendix Table 4: Impact of opportunity cost on attractiveness of the CAPEX and the RESCO model

RESCO Model: For RESCO model we determined the PPA tariff for a

tenor of 10 years. The basic assumption for identifying the tariff was that the developer would set a tariff to target at least 15% return on equity. Using the same equity internal rate-of-return, we estimated the tariff at Rs. 7 and projected the annual electricity payments as the cash outflow for the PPA tenor. For the post-PPA tenor, we considered O&M costs as the outflow for the remainder of the project life. The projected cash outflows from both the models were then discounted at the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opportunity cost (expectation of return from business operations) to arrive at the NPV of the cash flows which would represent the actual cost of the solar plant for the off-taker.

Our analysis, as shown above, has revealed that the RESCO model could be up to 14% more expensive than CAPEX model for its project life.

Cost of debt: Cost of debt is another factor that could impact the attractiveness of the CAPEX model for the enterprises.

As shown in Table 5, the CAPEX model is more attractive for enterprises that can secure debt at levels lower than the developer, and vice versa. Table 5 displays the NPV for CAPEX model at different rates of debt: Appendix Table 5: Impact of cost of debt on attractiveness of the CAPEX model

Appendix Table 2: Comparative financial analysis of CAPEX and RESCO model.

Why is the CAPEX model better than the RESCO model? Since we used a similar rate of debt and equity for both the off-taker and the developer (12% and 15% respectively) and to determine the tariff, the entire 14% cost difference between the models is due to the accelerated Appendix Table 3: Comparative financial analysis of the CAPEX and the RESCO model.

Based on the above analysis, we can conclude that when the cost of debt and equity for the developer and the off-taker is identical, the CAPEX loan model is financially more attractive, due to accelerated depreciation benefit. The model is even better suited for adoption by organizations which have stable (lower than 15%) return on investments or can secure debt at lower interest rates compared to the developer.

depreciation (AD). The NPV without AD benefit (as shown

below) demonstrates that both the models are equally attractive for the off-taker.

However, there are factors other than AD that can impact the attractiveness of an AD model. Opportunity cost of an off-taker:

For our analysis we considered a 15% return from business for the MSME sector. The CAPEX model is more financially

attractive for enterprises which have lower but stable returns on investment than it would be for organizations with higher growth trajectory. The table below compares the different models by opportunity cost:

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

77Â

WORLD’S FIRST 2 MM HIGH PERFORMANCE FULLY TEMPERED SOLAR GLASS BY BOROSIL

OROSIL has expertise of over half a century in the manufacturing of speciality glass including rolled glass. BOROSIL is the World’s first and only producer of fully tempered 2 mm textured solar glass using air flotation technology from Lisec, Austria, lowest iron content glass of 60 ppm and Antimony-free textured solar glass. Manufacturing facility in India is best in class catering to solar PV, solar thermal and green house industry segments across the globe.

November Part-B 2018

Production capacity is 180 MT/ day, equivalent to glass panes required for 1 GW of PV modules. Manufacturing facility is ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and BS OHSAS 18001:2007 accredited from TUV Rheinland. In-house laboratory is fully equipped with the latest and most advanced testing equipment to ensure top quality end product to the customer. Glass-to-glass bi-facial modules made with 2 mm fully tempered GBL solar glass generate 30% more power, have higher reliability with reduced rate of module failure, increased module

life up to 40 years and are easy to install. Glass is also the most technically advanced solar glass in the world, having unique features of long term performance durability, high hydrolytic resistance, lowest sodium content & outstanding performance durability of AR coating.Glass has the highest glass efficiency of 0.952 as certified by SPF Switzerland, which puts it above products from leading solar glass manufacturers from around the world. Modules made with GBL SOLAR GLASS are proven to give over 7.5% more field output.

www.EQMagPro.com

Jolywood Unveils New Transparent Mesh Backsheet to Reduce LCOE of Bifacial System Jolywood (Suzhou) Sunwatt Co. Ltd. (SZ: 300393) (Joly wood), the world’s leading supplier of solar backsheet and N-type high efficiency bifacial solar cells, has releas ed its new Transparent Mesh Backsheet, which was developed together with DuPont China Ltd. and certified by TUV Rheinland.

n a bid to create leading solar products, Jolywood’s research and development team has developed a transparent mesh backsheet that features additional reflective mesh on the blank areas between the solar cells in the modules. This allows the mesh to increase the power of the module by 5-6W, and better protect the inner layer of the backsheet. Also, the product is lightweight,breathable and with high light transmittance. These features make the product a good fit as a component for bifacial modules. Compared with double glass, glass plus transparent backsheet has more cost advantages in product yield, crushing rate of transportation and installation, clamp cost, O&M, etc

Lin Jianwei, Chairman of Jolywood, said, “We are proud of the great work that our world-leading team has done to develop this latest advancement in backsheet technology. Jolywood has 10 years of experience providing highquality backsheets for the encapsulating of modules. We’ve been making efforts to develop innovative products for the PV industry, and will continue to roll out more products to promote fast application of bifacial modules.”

www.EQMagPro.com

In addition, DuPont China has teamed up with Jolywood to jointly develop PV products. Wang Wei, Global Commercial Director of DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions, said that Jolywood has been an important strategic partner, and both companies have worked closely together to develop valuable transparent backsheet products and will continue their efforts. In addition to transparent mesh backsheets, Jolywood also provides the most efficient N-type mono bifacial solar cells. The conversion efficiency of their N-type TOPcon bifacial cells exceeds 22.5%. With their newly-launched backsheets, Jolywood will be able to offer the most wellrounded and carefully-designed solutions to customers like SPIC Xi’an Solar Power Co., Ltd.,,which has been cooperating with Jolywood on N-type IBC cells, who plans to further their collaboration in the development of cells and backsheets.

November Part-B 2018

80Â

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

November Part-B 2018

81Â

ADVERTISERS INDEX

SUBSCRIBE Subscribe “EQ International” at www.EQMagPro.com or fill your complete address and Email to :gazalakhan.eq@gmail.com or Call 0731 4222268

avi solar ...............................................................................27

Yes! I would like to Subscribe to EQ International Magazine

borosil...................................................................................09

For 1 Issue:

o Indian citizens Rs. 200

o International $ 25 / € 20

allied......................................................................................37

dupont.....................................................................................19 Goldi green ...................................................................popup

For 1 Year (12 issues):

o Indian citizens Rs. 2400

o International $ 300 / € 240

Growatt........................................................front Gate Fold guangdong yihua..................................................................27

Please Mail the coupon to:

huawei.................................................................FRONT COVER

Name:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

insolation..............................................................................11

Job Title:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingeatam.................................................................................21

Department: --------------------------------------------------------------------------Company:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ja solar................................................................back COVER

Description of the Company: ----------------------------------------------------

lubi..........................................................................................29

Adress:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

photon....................................................................................23

City/State/Zip Code:-----------------------------------------------------------------

risen........................................................................................13

Country:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Phone:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

renewex..................................................................................39

Fax:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

redington...............................................................................15

E-Mail. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Web site:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

suryacon........................................................................popup

PAYMENT

solis.............................................................INSIDE FRONT Left

1.- My Cheque/DD in favour of “FirstSource Energy India Private Limited”

Sofarsolar ..........................................................................17

for Rs……………………………………………………………………

Drawn on………………………………………is enclosed herewith.

Shanghai Liangxin.................................................................25 snec.............................................................INSIDE BACK RIGHT

Date/Signature:

sova solar.............................................................................33

2.- I will pay by Credit Card

sunsure eng..........................................................................31

Type:...........................................................................

Name on Card:..............................................................

tepsol.......................................................INSIDE FRONT RIGHT

Number:.......................................................................

Security Code: ..............................................................

Expiration Date:.............................................................

trinity.....................................................................................35

Mail this coup on to: FirstSource Energy India Pvt. Ltd. Subscription Department. 95 C, Sampat Farms, Bicholi Mardana Distt-Indore 452016 Tel. + 91 96441 22268 9

November Part-B 2018

www.EQMagPro.com

R.N.I. NO. MPBIL/2013/50966 I DT OF PUBLICATION: NOVEMBER 20 I POSTAL REGD.NO.MP/IDC/1435/2016-2018

84Â

November Part-B 2018