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42 INTERVIEW Amit barve, Head - Business development and marketing, Enerparc India

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48 BUSINESS & FINANACE

ROOFTOP Making 40,000 MW of solar power happen on Indian rooftop

46

Australia, Canadian funds to invest up to USD 2 bn through NIIF

Electric Vehicles Musk says high import duties will make Tesla electric cars unaffordable in India

55 CLEAN ENERGY Evolving Risk Perceptions for India’s GridConnected Renewable Power Projects

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40 38 INTERNATIONAL Global Energy Transition at Risk From US-China Trade War

INTERNATIONAL German Chancellor Merkel Stick to "BLACK ZERO" BUDGET

72 TECHNOLOGY Neutrinovoltaic Technology: Solar Cells That Don’t Need Light

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RESEARCH & ANALYSIS WoodMac: Smart Meter Installations to Surge Globally Over Next 5 Years

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47 66

interview K. r. Harinarayan Founder and CEO, U-Solar Clean Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Mono vs Poly– An introspective simulation study! (Part 2)

Balance of system

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RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

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WoodMac: Europe’s Home Storage Market Set to Double by 2024

LIGHTNING PROTECTION OF SOLAR PLANTS AS PER IEC 62305 Standards

49 36

PV CONNECTORS STÄUBLI : SMALL COMPONENTS, BIG IMPACT

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Tata Power-DDL & CEEW collaborate to accelerate renewable power integration and microgrids in Delhi

EQ NEWS Pg. 08-35

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS Big Money Starts to Dump Stocks That Pose Climate Risks

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SEPTEMBER 2019-C

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INDIA

India’s renewable energy cost is lowest in Asia Pacific: WoodMac report India’s levelised cost of electricity using solar photovoltaic has fallen to $38 per megawatt hour this year, 14% cheaper than coalfired power

MNRE amends bidding guidelines for wind power projects

Timeline for land acquisition for wind power projects extended from seven months to 18 months

I

ndia’s renewable energy cost is the lowest in the Asia Pacific, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said recently.

India’s levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) using solar photovoltaic has fallen to $38 per megawatt hour (MWh) this year, 14% cheaper than coal-fired power that has traditionally been the cheapest source of power generation, WoodMac said. LCOE comprises the cost of generating a megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity, the upfront capital and development cost and the cost of equity and debt finance and operating and maintenance fees.

“India is the second-largest power market in Asia Pacific with installed power capacity of 421 gigawatts (GW). Solar capacity is expected to reach 38 GW this year.

High-quality solar resources, market scale and competition have pushed solar costs down to half the level seen in many other Asia Pacific countries.”

T 1

2

- Alex Whitworth,

WoodMac Research Director

India wants to have 175 GW of renewable-based installed power capacity by 2022.

Australia, which ranks second in terms of low renewable costs, will see solar power to be cost-competitive against coal next year, the consultancy said.

Solar LCOE has fallen 42% in the past three years and will reach $48/MWh in 2020, beating out all fossil fuel competitors, WoodMac added.

3

he Guidelines for Tariff Based Competitive Bidding Process for Procurement of Power from Grid Connected Wind Power Projects was notified on 8th December, 2017. Based on experience of bidding and after consultation with stakeholders, following amendment to these standard bidding guidelines for wind power projects, is carried out:

The timeline for land acquisition for wind power projects has been extended from seven months to scheduled commissioning date, i.e. 18 months.

This will help wind power project developers in states where land acquisition takes longer time.

The window for revision of declared Capacity Utilisation Factor (CUF) of wind power project has been increased to three years. The declared CUF is now allowed to revise once within three year of commercial operation date, which was earlier allowed within one year only.

The penalty on shortfall in energy corresponding to the minimum CUF, has now been fixed @ 50% (fifty percent) of the PPA tariff for the shortfall in energy terms liable to be paid by the Wind Power Generator to the Procurer. Further, the penalty shall be passed on by the Intermediary Procurer to the End Procurer after deducting the losses of Intermediary procurer.

4 5

In cases of early part commissioning, the Procurer may purchase the generation, at full PPA tariff.

Commissioning Schedule of wind power project has been defined as 18 (eighteen) months from the date of execution of the PPA or PSA, whichever is later.

The amendments intended not only to reduce the investment risks related to the land acquisition and CUF but also to provide incentives for early part commissioning of project.

The subjectivity in penalty provisions has been removed and the penalty rate has been fixed. The risk of wind power developers in case of delay in signing of PSA has been mitigated by starting timeline of execution of project from date of signing of PPA or PSA, whichever is later.

Source: pib.nic.ins

Source: business-standard

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INDIA

Uttarakhand CM allocates solar energy projects to local entrepreneurs

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Maharashtra govt mulling new policy for solar power projects

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ttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat recently allocated solar energy projects worth Rs 600 crore to local entrepreneurs Together, these projects will generate 148.85 mw power.

On the occasion, the chief minister said another lot of solar power projects worth Rs 200 crore will also be distributed soon among local entrepreneurs.

Rawat described the projects as a significant step towards economic development of hill areas.

Each entrepreneur will earn on an average Rs 66.50 lakh per annum from these environment friendly projects, he said.

he Maharashtra government is contemplating to prepare a policy wherein vacant plots and agriculture land will be taken on lease to set up solar energy projects.An Energy Department official said that many people have evinced interest in leasing out their land for a period of 30 years to set up solar projects.The land can be leased on rent at 8 per cent as per the ready reckoner rates, he said.

The state’s capacity for solar power generation is 1,500 MW, of which the current production is about 700-800 MW, the official added.

The state has set a target of generating 14,400 MW power through non-conventional means. For this, apart from the vacant lands, water bodies will be used to set up floating solar panels through private partnership.

Source: PTI

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SEPTEMBER 2019-C

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INDIA

No new power pur- Free electricity decision the result chase agreement of BJP’s effort: Manoj Tiwari Recently the Arvind Kejriwal government announced free electricity to those consuming up till 2022: UPPCL to 200 units and 50 per cent subsidy for those consuming between 201-400 units a month.

U D ttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) and its four subsidiaries power distribution companies (Discoms) will not sign any new Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with thermal power generating companies till December 2022.The PSU has taken the decision in compliance with the directive issued by the power regulator UP state electricity regulatory commission.The regulator has directed that the discoms will not sign any new PPA with thermal power generating companies till December 2022 as the UPPCL has failed to achieve its renewable purchase obligations instead it has directed the UPPCL to signs new PPAs with renewable energy-based power sources, including hydro. The discoms were also suggested to invest in power storage technologies to meet the spurts of peak demand which lasts only for Source : UNI short durations.

elhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on recently claimed that the Delhi government’s decision to give free electricity to those consuming up to 200 units was a result of the BJP’s efforts.

“We welcome the move for free electricity, it is the result of BJP’s efforts. However, the more important question is that when will Chief Minister Kejriwal return Rs 8,500 crore looted in the name of fixed charges,” Tiwari told reporters.

Recently the Arvind Kejriwal government announced free electricity to those consuming up to 200 units and 50 per cent subsidy for those consuming between 201-400 units a month.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Vijender Gupta accused the AAP government of announcing free electricity in view of the upcoming assembly elections.

“AAP government is doing this because the elections are close.

They are in a sinking ship. That is why they are announcing freebies like free metro rides for women and free electricity.”

- Vijender Gupta, BJP leader

Making the announcement at a press conference here, Kejriwal said the Delhi government will give full subsidy to those consuming up to 200 units of electricity and an almost 50 per cent to those using between 201 to 400 units

It's a lie that Delhi has the cheapest rates of electricity.

Even when the Congress was in power in Delhi, power tariff in Delhi was the lowest in the country," Yusuf told reporters.

- Haroon Yusuf,

Delhi Congress President

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- Manoj tiwari,

Member of Loksabha, BJP

Source : ANI

Kejriwal's free power announcement an election 'gimmick': Congress

T

“This will barely cost Rs 100 crore to the treasury.

On one hand, they have announced free electricity to those consuming up to 200 units but they have also increased the electricity rates for others.”

he Congress recently termed an election "gimmick" Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's announcement that up to 200 units of electricity will be free for people of Delhi. The party demanded the Kejriwal government rollback the hike effected in 2017 in fixed charges, and provide free electricity to compensate for them.

Making the announcement at a press conference here, Kejriwal said the Delhi government will give full subsidy to those consuming up to 200 units of electricity and an almost 50 per cent to those using between 201 to 400 units. Delhi Congress working president Haroon Yusuf said the announcement was Kejriwal's "gimmick" in view of the Assembly polls in Delhi scheduled early next year. He also alleged that Kejriwal's claim that

power tariff in Delhi were cheapest in the country was a "lie". The Congress leaders including late Sheila Dikshit met Arvind Kejriwal in June, demanding him to rollback the hike in fixed charges.

"In the last 16 months, Rs 7,400 crore have been realised from people thanks to hike in fixed charges," he claimed.

Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission slashed fixed charges up to 84 percent in its tariff order announced on Wednesday.

However, Yusuf demanded that the fixed charges be brought back at the levels from which they were "steeply" hiked in 2017. "One can learn how to make big announcement concerning a small thing from Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi people were being looted for past 16 months in the name of fixed charges," he claimed.

The AAP government should provide free power to the people of Delhi for at least one year for "fleecing" them in the name of fixed charges and pension trust fund in the past 16 months, said a joint statement from Delhi Congress spokespersons Ramakant Goswami, Jitender Kumar Kochar and Harnam Singh.

Source : PTI

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INDIA

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enior bureaucrat and former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Friday took over as the new Power Secretary.

The senior most officer in the Ministry of Finance, Garg was shifted to the Power Ministry on Wednesday. Thereafter he announced that he had applied for voluntary retirement from service recently.

Subhash Chandra Garg takes over as new power secretary

“Handed over charge of Economic Affairs. Learnt so much in the Finance Ministry and Economic Affairs Dept. Will take charge in Power Ministry tomorrow (Friday). Have also applied for Voluntary Retirement from the IAS with effect from 31st October”, Garg had tweeted.

The senior most officer in the Ministry of Finance, Garg was shifted to the Power Ministry on Wednesday

An interaction of Garg with media is scheduled later on Friday.

Garg was in charge of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), and was designated the Finance Secretary. However, in a surprise move, he was named Power Secretary in an order issued late on Wednesday.

As DEA Secretary, he was in charge of fiscal policy, RBIrelated matters, and was closely involved in the preparation of union budget.

The shift came just a day after Parliamentary procedure for approval of Modi 2.0 government’s maiden union budget for 2019-20 was completed.

The 1983 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, Garg came to the centre in 2014, and was appointed Executive Director in the World Bank where he stayed till 2017, when he was appointed DEA Secretary in June 2017. In March 2019 (rpt) March 2019, he was elevated as the Finance Secretary following retirement of A N Jha (rpt) A N Jha. Source : PTI

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INDIA

DERC announces reduced tariff for power consumers in Delhi Delhi Electricity Regularity Commission (DERC) chairman Justice (retired) S S Chauhan said the new rates would be applicable from August 1.

D “Little changes have been made in fixed charges and energy charges. Tariff has been balanced in such a manner to fulfill needs of each and every member of the society.”

- S S Chauhan, Justice (retired) & DERC chairman

elhi’s power regulator announced on Wednesday the new electricity tariff for 2019-20, significantly bringing down fixed charges while raising energy charges. As per the new rates, the fixed charges up to 2 kilowatts (kW) has been reduced from Rs 125 to Rs 20, while the charges above 2 kW but less than 5 kW has been slashed from RS 140 to Rs 50. The fixed charges for more than 5 kW and less than 15 kW has been reduced from RS 175 to RS 100, Chauhan said.

The energy charges in the domestic category for those who are consuming above 1,200 units have been raised from the existing Rs 7.75 per unit to Rs 8 per unit. All domestic category consumers will have savings from Rs 105 up to Rs 750 per month after the implementation of the new rates, DERC officials said. In the non-domestic category, which is above 3 kilo volts-amperes(kVA), the existing rate of Rs 8 per unit has been raised to Rs 8.50 per unit.

For low-end shopkeepers consuming up to 3 KVA, a new sub-category has been created and they will be charged at rate of Rs 6 per kW instead of Rs 8.50 kW. In order to promote pollution-free transportation, tariff for charging stations of e-rickshaws and other electric vehicles has also been reduced, the DERC chairman added.

Source : PTI

Will make Rajasthan hub of solar energy: Ashok GehloT Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot recently said his government will bring in a policy to make the state a hub of solar energy.

G

ehlot said efforts are being made to generate 10,000 megawatts of additional power in the state in the next five years. "The government is going to introduce a new solar and wind energy to make the state a hub of solar power," Gehlot said. The chief minister said a 1,000 MW solar park is being developed in Nokh, Jaisalmer, by the Rajasthan Solar Park Development Company Limited.About Rs 3,450 will be invested in it, he added.

The people of the state will greatly benefit from the solar park, the chief minister said.

Presently, Rajasthan is on the third position in the field of solar power and efforts are on to bring it to number one, Gehlot said.

Source : PTI

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NTPC chief for setting up of clean power projects without PPAs In the current scenario, bankers and financial institutions insist for long-term PPAs before financial closure or fund tie-up of a project.

A

mid a row between discoms and clean energy developers over renegotiation of tariff, NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Gurdeep Singh on Friday suggested setting up of renewable projects without power purchase agreements (PPAs).

In the current scenario, bankers and financial institutions insist for long-term PPAs before financial closure or fund tie-up of a project.Participating in a panel discussion here, Singh said buyers can either purchase power on capacity contracts (PPAs) or from market. “There could be longterm contracts but energy can be purchased on a day-to-day basis or monthly basis.” Recently, an Andhra Pradesh discom asked the state-run power giant NTPC and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to revise tariff downwards for some solar projects for which PPAs were already concluded.

Asked about feasibility The discom had asked of this idea, Singh said, to lower the tariff to an “10 years back, no one all-time low tariff of Rs was believing the solar 2.44 per unit. But, SECI energy prices will come and NTPC refused to do down. Let’s not underso saying the lowest tariff estimate the power of was discovered in a difthe development of ferent auction in different technology…solar cells would be more efficient circumstances.

There has been and there is offshore wind power.” instances where states insisted for renegotiating tariffs even after conclusion of the PPAs, as clean energy prices have dropped sharply during the past few years. Solar power tariff, which was once Rs 17 per unit, has dropped to as low as Rs 2.44 per unit.

About stranded gas-based power projects and those running at suboptimal levels, he said, “Invariably, you will find that most of the time, the gas-based capacity on power grid is 4 gigawatt (GW) to 5 GW and rarely goes to 6 GW 7 GW. That is because of the the pricing part. There is a need for some kind of correction on gas pricing.”

He further said, “Gas can be available at a USD 6 per mmBtu (million metric British thermal unit).

You can have some more flexibility. You have a huge bridge and we have a lot benefit.”

Source : PTI

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EQ

SEPTEMBER 2019-C

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INDIA

10 coal-fired power plants in GUjarat kept shut due to less demand

'BJP should offer 200 units of free power in Haryana, Maharashtra' Refuting the claims of the opposition, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said he has not announced 200 units of free electricity for residents of the national capital with an eye on the Assembly polls even as he dared the BJP to do the same in Haryana and Maharashtra where elections are due.

Ten of the 15 coal-fired power generation plants of the Gujarat State Electricity Company Ltd (GSECL) have been kept shut since the last three days owing to the reduced power demand in the wake of heavy rains in parts of the state, an official said recently.

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arts of Gujarat have been witnessing heavy rains since the last few days. In Vadodara, normal life was badly hit for at least two days starting Wednesday, after the city received nearly 500 mm rainfall in 24 hours till Thursday morning, creating a floodlike situation. "Following heavy rains in parts of Gujarat, the power demand, especially from the farm sector, has gone down considerably.

The household consumption also decreased due to less heat," an official of the Vadodara-headquartered GSECL said. The per-day power demand declined to 11,000 MW from 15,000 MW ever since heavy rains started lashing the state, he added.

"Due to the reduced demand, we have shut 10 of the 15 power generation plants. The total installed capacity of these 10 power plants is 2,300 MW," the official said.

When all the 15 plants are functional, they consume 45,000 tonnes of coal per day to generate power. Now, as only five of them are operational, they consume only about 15,000 tonnes coal everyday, he added.

The GSECL power plants are located in Gandhinagar in North Gujarat, Wanakbori in Central Gujarat, Ukai in South Gujarat and Sikka near Jamnagar in the Saurshatra region.

This is second time in the last two months that the GSECL has shut its power plants temporarily. Power generation from over a dozen of its plants of was shut for two days- on June 11 and 12- due to a drastic drop in demand due to cyclonic storm 'Vayu', the official said.

Source: PTI

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"Congress and BJP are confused if they should support the announcement or oppose it. While a few of them are saying it is a good step, others are saying it is Kejriwal's election stunt. I want to say there will be elections soon in Haryana and Maharashtra, they (BJP governments in the states) can also do the same."

- Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister Source: IANS

S

peaking to people who went to his house to thank him for making 200 units of electricity free of charge in Delhi, Kejriwal also said that if the BJP adopts similar steps in the states where it is ruling, he himself will ask people to vote for the saffron party.

The Chief Minister said the electricity has been made free as he believes that water and electricity are one of the basic needs for the poor living in the city. "It is important for survival. The decision of making 200 units of electricity free has been taken as the poor who cannot afford the electricity can also use some power for basic needs like lights and fans."

Praising his own government and steps taken by it, he said Delhi has been able to take such a step as the people elected "an honest government that is saving money and using it for people".

Last week, Kejriwal announced that people in the national capital will not have to pay anything for consuming up to 200 units of power per month. Addressing the people on Sunday, Kejriwal said the BJP should make it clear if they are supporting or opposing the free electricity announcement. "If they support it, their governments in states where they are in power should also take a similar step. If they do this, I will ask you to vote for them," he said.

While the tenure of Kejriwal is ending in February, 2020, Haryana and Maharashtra will go to the polls later this year.

TN power consumers hail ‘must run status’ of energy projects

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amil Nadu Electricity Consumers Association (TECA) Friday welcomed the communication of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to the state governments to honour ‘must-run status’ of wind and solar projects.Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers Association (TECA) Friday welcomed the communication of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to the state governments to honour ‘must-run status’ of wind and solar projects. In a press release here, TECA secretary N Pradeep said the decision was hailed as curtailing of wind and solar power by state load despatch centres (SLDCs) would be discouraging generators. Most of the discoms were running on heavy loss and with Tamil Nadu having a generating capacity of

8,300 MW wind power, the order gives a boost to generators, he said. Also, he demanded that the governments speed up the process of a green energy corridor to evacuate the power produced through renewable energy. The ministry, in its communication to all the state energy secretaries, reiterated that the ‘must run’ status of wind a nd solar projects be honoured in letter and spirit.The Ministry further said curtailment of such power can be done only for grid safety and security and that too after communicating instructions detailing reasons for curtailment to the generators in writing. It further reiterated that if any SLDC curtails wind or solar power for any reason other than grid safety or security or as prescribed in respective grid code or regulation, they shall be liable for making good the loss incurred by the wind or solar power generator(s) towards deemed generation, Source: thehansindia Pradeep said.

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INDIA “In most of the solar which is bid out, buyers are discoms and hence it is important that the discoms are commericially strong.

Payments must be made on time and the contractual agreements must be fulfilled in a systematic manner which remains a huge task for the administration and the political system.”

- AMitabh kant, CEO, Niti Ayog

India will have 330 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030: Kant kant also added that there is a need for transformational reforms in the power sector including privitisation, proper utilisation of renewables and strengthening of grid management and transmission system

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ITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that India will have 175 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy generation capacity by 2022 and 330 GW by 2030 provided power discoms become commercially-viable entities. He was

speaking at the Bloomberg NEF Summit here recently.

He also added that there is a need for transformational reforms in the power sector including privitisation, proper utilisation of renewables and strengthening of grid management and transmission system.

Kant also said that the government’s strategy is to focus on two-wheelers and three-wheelers for electrification and it has taken a series of measures such as waiver of registration fees and tax concessions for electric vehicles.

Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes

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Electricity generation up 6% in June quarter amid uptick in demand

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Pan-India installed capacity at the end of June 2019 stood at 357.87 Gw

an-India electricity generation rose by 6.32 per cent during April-June of 2019-2020 (FY20), denoting an uptick in power demand from both, commercial and residential users.

Data collated by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) shows that between April and June of FY20, overall electricity production stood at 339.14 billion units (BU) across all sources compared to 318.98 BU in the correspondng period of FY19. Growth in generation happened across all segmentsthermal, nuclear and hydro.

Hydro power generation registered the highest growth of 25.25 per cent.

Thermal and nuclear power generation spiked by 4.02 per cent and 9.73 per cent, respectively. Power imports from Bhutan, too, moved up 9.78 per cent in the period under review.

For the month of June alone, power

India Asks States to Rethink Decision on Redrawing Contracts India’s federal government is asking provinces that are renegotiating contracts to reconsider their decision, as states backtrack from existing renewable power purchase pacts.

generation from conventional sources increased by 8.47 per cent. Growth in renewable power generation in June 2019 was 5.84 per cent over the same month last year. June also witnessed fresh capacity additions of 45 megawatt (Mw) of thermal power.

Pan-India installed capacity at the end of June 2019 stood at 357.87 Gw, data showed. Private producers account for 47 per cent share of the pie. State based utilities account for 29 per cent, followed by central generating stations at 24 per cent.

While producers were able to meet the average energy requirement, peak power deficit of 0.4 per cent was experienced during the April-June quarter of the current fiscal.

The nameplate capacity in power has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7 per cent between 2011-12 and 2018-19, outstripping the demand growth rate of 4.5 per cent. According to projections of the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX),

the present installed capacity and planned additions will be sufficient to meet the demand growth of six per cent over the next seven to eight years. According to IEX’s presentation, Centre’s initiatives like Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana and Saubhagya scheme, as well as the thrust towards 24×7 power supply and rural electrification, gave a boost to power demand across the country.

Another notable initiative — Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana or UDAY — is helping ailing electricity distribution companies (discoms) achieve financial stability and enhance their capability of procuring power. As a combined impact of these initiatives, overall electricity demand and energy requirement rose by 8 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively, in 2018-19.

Source: business-standard

“We are mindful of the difficulties being faced by investors in some instances where the state government is trying to renegotiate some of the executed contracts. Our government has requested state governments to reconsider their decision, as this will jeopardize future investment in not only the concerned state but also the country as a whole.”

- Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Federal Oil Minister

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(He said this recently at a BloombergNEF Summit in New Delhi)

ndia’s Andhra Pradesh state has asked renewable power producers to cut tariffs and disregard existing contracts, people with knowledge of the matter said last month. That resulted in ratings downgrades for renewable energy companies with projects in the southern state.

Renegotiating prices could adversely impact Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of installing 175 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2022 in the South Asian nation, which has awarded some of the world’s lowest green energy tariffs.

Pradhan said the country is seeking investments for its growing energy sector including in exploration, city gas projects and renewables, as it aims to become a $5 trillion economy that extends affordable energy to its 1.3 billion people. That would require foreign investment, he said.

Source: Bloomberg L.P.

”Investments are not for charity, investments are for profit,” he said at the summit. Investors “should come to my market. It’s a huge market and their investment should be respected and secured.”

- Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s Federal Oil Minister

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INDIA

Dhaka: Seeks 2000MW Solar Power from India Bangladeshis trying to buy at least 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from solar plants being set up in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

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ndia is currently supplying 660 MW of electricity to powerstarved Bangladesh to create a new energy security architecture for its neighbour.

The official spoke at the 16th International Energy Forum Ministerial (IEF—16) held in New Delhi last week. On the sidelines of the event, he said, “We could take up to 2,000MW of solar power if they can provide.”

Talking about transmission of power from India to Bangladesh, he said, “It’s a bit of a technical challenge for transmitting it over great distance but the

engineers must be able to solve it.”

The interest of Bangladesh seems to come on the backdrop of India’s record low solar power tariff of Rs 2.44 per unit registered in May 2017.

Also, India and Bangladesh signed two lines of credit worth $5 billion during Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India last year.

During the visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted energy security as an important dimension of ties between India and Bangladesh, and promised to add another 500MW under an existing transmission link.Chowdhury also spoke of Adani Group’s Jharkhand thermal power project. A model on the lines of Adani’s plant can be explored in solar energy, where the entire electricity generated would be provided to Bangladesh, Source: centralchronicle.in he said.

“Electricity being generated [in India] from sunshine and there is darkness out there (in Bangladesh).”

- Bir Bikram Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury,

Adviser for Power, Energy And Mineral Resources Affairs to PM Sheikh Hasina

Power ministry brings mechanism for stressed projects for servicing debt in first place

According to the order, all the revenues generated shall be deposited to the TRA. Generally, the lead banker would act as a TRA agent.

Illustration: Ankit Pandey

(He said in a Mint report)

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik launcheD 22 projects including Rs 150.90 cr Hindalco Solar plant

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The projects are expected to create employment opportunities for 9451 people

disha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently launched 22 new projects, involving a total investment of Rs 4,461.42 crore.

The projects are expected to create employment opportunities for 9451 people.

He said these projects will usher in the next era of industrial growth in the state and will contribute towards the vision of an industrially prosperous Odisha.

Patnaik inaugurated 10 industrial units and performed groundbreaking of 12 other facilities across nine different sectors such as metal and metal downstream, cement, power and renewable energy, plastics, food processing, tourism, textile and apparels, infrastructure and paper.

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“I congratulate all the companies concerned on this achievement and assure everyone for complete facilitation support from the state government.”

- Naveen Patnaik, Odisha Chief Minister

He inaugurated and laid foundation stones for these projects through a video conferencce from Lok Seva Bhawan here.

Some key projects include Rs 250 crore Arati Steel expansion in Cuttack, Rs 150.90 crore Hindalco Solar plant at Lapang, JK Lakshmi Cement unit of Rs 155 crore in Cuttack, JSW Cement facility worth Rs 318 crore at Kalinga Nagar and Shyam Metalics and Energy’s unit with Rs 870 crore investment in Sambalpur.

During past 20 months, the state witnessed groundbreaking and inauguration of over 120 projects with a total investment of Rs 92,686 crore and these would create employment opportunities for over 1.2 lakh people, he said.

On the occasion, Patnaik also released a coffee table book “Make-inOdisha, 2018”.

Source: PTI

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INDIA

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he power ministry recently introduced mechanism ‘Trust Retention Account’ for certain stressed power plants to utilise their surplus after meeting operating expense, for servicing debt in the first place. In case the developers using coal linkage of amended SHAKTI policy, a Trust Retention Account (TRA) must be put in place, if it is not there already, a Ministry of Power order said.

According to the order, all the revenues generated shall be deposited to the TRA. Generally, the lead banker would act as a TRA agent.

However, it said that in case of a nonbanking financial company, such as PFC or REC, which is a lead financier, any bank, which is one of the lenders, can be appointed as the TRA agent.

The companies will first pay statutory payment (taxes) followed by fuel cost, transmission expenses, operation and maintenance expenses and then pay interest on loan and principal payments.

The high-level committee on stressed power projects in its report had suggested in November last year that the net surplus after meeting operating expenses generated shall be used for servicing debt in the first place.

The recommendations were implemented in earlier in March this year. Now, the Ministry of Power has brought out the mechanism for that.

UNIDO and National Institute of Solar Energy to partner for skill development program

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n agreement was signed recently between the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to initiate a skill development programme for different levels of beneficiaries in the solar thermal energy sector. NISE and UNIDO will engage national and international experts to bring the best practices by developing specialized training material. The agreement is part of the ongoing MNRE-GEF-UNIDOproject implemented jointly by UNIDO and to support capacity building and skill development of technical manpower in the Concentrated Solar Thermal Energy Technologies (CST) which are being used to replace conventional fossil fuels e.g. coal, diesel, furnace oil etc. and save costs and emissions in the industrial process heat applications. Mr René van Berkel, UNIDO Representative in India and Dr AK Tripathi, Director General of NISE signing the agreement in UNIDO Office on 7th August, 2019.

Source: PIB

Source: PTI

Booth NO. 1.122

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Solar Projects

SHELL USES SOLAR ENERGY TO HELP POWER LUBRICANT PLANTS IN EUROPE AND ASIA

Shri Rajnath Singh inaugurates 5 MW Solar plant, Execution of the plant done by Vikram Solar

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Inauguration of Bharat Dynamics Limited’s 5 MW Solar plant by Shri Rajnath Singh, Execution of the plant done by Vikram Solar

5 MW Solar Power Project by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) was inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister of Defence, Shri Rajnath Singh at Hyderabad. The solar project, executed by Vikram Solar, India’s leading solar energy solutions provider, is expected to generate 79,00,000 units of energy annually and would be used for captive consumption by BDL, at their Kanchanbag Unit.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) was the consultant for this project and the plant was showcased in BDL’s 50-year celebration as well.

The 5 MW plant project has 20,928 nos. of 265 wp and 270 wp modules powering the whole unit.

Vikram Solar has a prestigious over 1040 MW (commissioned + under execution) EPC capacity.

With proven capacity to handle utility-scale projects (200 MW for APGENCO in Andhra Pradesh, 130 MW for NTPC at Bhadla-Rajasthan, 80 MW for GIPCL at Charanka- Gujarat, 40 MW for IL&FS at Kachaliya- Madhya Pradesh), innovative projects (India’s first floating solar), and airport installations (Calicut, Kolkata, Kochi), Vikram Solar is contributing to the growth of Indian Source: conceptpr solar revolution.

“Commissioning of the plant was a part of our continued effort to contribute to our country’s greener future. The Solar Power Plant was perceived under ‘300 MW Ministry of Defence Scheme’ with Viability Gap Funding. We depended upon our robust planning and exercised superior operational practices in the field while focusing on client requirements and preferences to successfully complete the project in time.

We congratulate Bharat Dynamics Limited for their step towards a sustainable future and hope to be a part of BDL’s further ventures towards greenification.”

- Mr. Kuldeep Kumar Jain, BU Head-EPC, Vikram Solar

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hell is installing solar photovoltaic panels on the roofs of seven lubricant plants in India, China, Italy, Singapore and Switzerland. Combined, the panels are expected to generate over 7,500 MWh of electricity annually and can result in the avoidance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of approximately 4,500 tonnes on a CO2-equivalent basis per year, equivalent to taking about 2,600 cars off the road for one year.In India, the panels will be installed at the company’s lubricants plant in Taloja, Maharashtra. Shell will be working with Cleantech Solar for the installation of approximately 1,700 panels, which is expected to generate 683 MWh of electricity annually, and can result in the avoidance of 500 tonnes of annual GHG emissions. As for the funding model for the Taloja solar panels, Shell has signed a subsidy free purchase power agreement with Cleantech Solar. As part of the agreement, Cleantech Solar will design, build, finance, own, operate, and maintain the solar facility for the Taloja plant in India. Shell acquired a 49% equity stake in Cleantech Solar, a developer, owner, and operator of commercial and industrial solar energy systems in Southeast Asia and India.

“Using solar energy to help power our lubricant plants enables us to reduce the carbon intensity in our lubricants supply chain,” said Richard Jory, Shell’s Vice President, Lubricants Supply Chain. “Every industry has to do its part in developing cleaner ways of working and this is part of our commitment to run a safe, efficient, responsible and profitable business.”

The solar energy generated will be used to help power operations at these lubricant plants, lowering operating costs in the long-run and reducing reliance on the grid. All panels will be installed by end-2019. Shell is looking to expand the use of solar panels in other lubricant plants around the world. Other examples of Shell’s work to make its lubricants business less carbon intensive include improving the energy efficiency of its lubricant plants, and working to reduce, reuse and recycle packaging across the lubricant supply chain.

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Solar Projects

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Azure Power Wins 300 MW ISTS SECI Solar Project . Azure now has 1.5 GWs of Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) sovereign credit offtake projects, the largest such portfolio in India

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Over 1.5 GWs ISTS interconnection approvals in place lowers development risk

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zure Power, a leading solar power producer in India, announced it has received a letter of award (LOA) for a 300 MW solar power ISTS project through a 1.2 GW auction conducted by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a Government of India enterprise and a company with an AA+ domestic debt rating by ICRA, a Moody’s Company. With this win, Azure Power has 1.5 GWs of ISTS projects with sovereign counterparties, which is the largest such portfolio in India.

Azure Power expects to sign a 25year power purchase agreement with SECI to supply power at a tariff of INR 2.54 (~US 3.7 cents) per kWh. The project can be developed outside a solar park anywhere in India and is expected to be commissioned by 2021. The company has over 1.5 GWs of ISTS interconnection approvals in place which reduces development risk for its ISTS portfolio.

Source: Azure Power

“Our long history of superior solar power operations with SECI has contributed to our success in winning this 300 MW project. Azure has a strong track record of winning projects in every ISTS auction conducted by SECI till date. This is a direct result of our strong project development and execution capabilities. We have secured ISTS interconnection approvals for over 1.5 GWs well ahead of schedule in some of the best sites in the highest solar irradiation locations, thus minimizing execution risk and maximizing returns.”

- Ranjit Gupta,

Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power

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Indian Railways Will Become World’s 1st 100% ‘Green Railways’; Rs 18,000 Crore Will Be Spent On Solar Panels We cannot stress enough on Modi’s commitment to turn India and its peripheral power systems towards a greener switch. Two months back, we informed you of how for the first time, India is known to have invested more into greener initiatives than coal, the heart and soul of the production sectors.

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ast year, we also brought to you the Indian Railway Organization for Alternate Fuels (IROAF)’ task of fitting train coaches with solar panels, which will power lights and fans inside coaches, in short for Indian Railways to shift to a greener area. Aspiring to become the world’s first ‘green railways’, Indian Railways has started to work for this initiative.Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal spoke about the Modi government’s ambitious plan to make the national transporter environment friendly, which means the Indian Railways is planning to expand the use of solar energy.

Indian Railways To Turn ‘Completely Green’ By 2029

Speaking of the details surrounding this idea of turning fully green in the coming 10 years, Piyush Goyal kept forth the government’s proposal in Rajya Sabha.

According to him the Railway is beginning to set up solar panels on unused railway lands.

This will not only protect the unused lands from being encroached but will

Illustration: Ankit Pandey

also lead to power generations on these lands, which would be fed to the power grid. In a way, setting up of this initiative shall server dual purpose. Of course, all of these processes aren’t two-day work and will surely take time.

Piyush Goyal had earlier reported that Indian Railways plans to invest Rs 18,000 crore on solar power units along tracks. Goyal also said, that the Indian Railways was planning on electrification of tracks and using biodiesel to justify the ‘Green Railways’ project.

Shift to Electrification of Tracks by 2022

The Railway Ministry believes that the whole transport system wouldn’t be 100% ‘green’ until tracks aren’t electrified completely and the use of bio-diesel. Goyal assures that the government is working towards achieving 100% electrification of tracks by 2022.

According to records, in the year 2017-18, Indian Railways electrified 4,000 plus km of train tracks and in

2018-19 the distance went above 5200 km. The government is reducing the diesel cost inputs by fast electrifying its tracks on a large scale. He also revealed that the Indian Railways is planning to have every train come through electric traction that comes to Delhi. This might happen in the near future.

Greener Shifts in the Absolute Recent Past

A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) assured that renewable power investments in India exceeded those of fossil fuel-based power for the third year in a row and that spending on solar energy surpassed spending on coal-fired power generation for the first time in 2018, a greener feat could not have been achieved.

India is looking forward to investing $500 billion in creating renewable energy generation of 500GW by 2028, along with $250 billion investment in grid expansion and modernisation of green energy capacity.

Source: trak.in

60,000 houses to get Rooftop solar plants in first phase

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he Kerala State Electricity Board has approved the rooftop solar power plant project. In the first phase, solar panels will be installed on 60,000 buildings to generate power. Tender for this project will be KSEB has prepared the project to generate 1000 MW solar power in the state. Applications are also invited from beneficiaries.

KSEB chairman NS Pillai informed that solar panels will be installed on 60,000 buildings including houses, shops and offices.Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the consultant for the project. Union

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Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will dispense subsidy to establish the solar power plants. Final approval was given to two tenders submitted by companies namely Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) and Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO). As per EPC’s tender either KSEB or the beneficiary should make a payment for installing the solar plant. The solar power plants will be established by the company which qualifies the tender procedure. As per the project, the company should generate power to the beneficiary at the least amount for a period of 5 years.

RESCO proposed a different plan compared to EPC. The beneficiary should allot a space on rooftop of his house to install the plant. The company will establish the power plant at their own expense. 200 MW power will be generated with the two projects. EPC will produce 50 MW and RESCO will generate 150 MW. KSEB member and Finance Department head expressed doubt that whether EPC model which demands payment from KSEB will be applicable or not. But the project was approved after KSEB has given an explanation on it. Plants established under EPC model is very few compared to Source: english.mathrubhumi RESCO.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

Appellate Tribunal stalls Axis Energy's PPA withdrawal

Low price coupled with greater certainty and predictability in procurement continue to make compelling proposition for the power discoms as well as open access consumers to step up their procurement through the IEX, it added

Average spot power price falls 2 per cent to Rs 3.38 a unit in July

Axis had signed 21 contracts with Andhra’s discom for procuring 776 MW of wind capacity.

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APTEL will hear the matter on August 26. Axis could not be reached for a comment.

Just a few days ago, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had also stayed, until August 22, the state’s attempt to slash wind and solar tariffs. A committee has been formed by chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy to renegotiate tariffs with developers. The court also stayed all proceedings of the committee.

As a fallout, discoms had for a few days begun curtailing wind and solar power following which developers petitioned the high court once again. The court said the ‘must run’ status of renewable energy plants should be respected and directed the concerned discoms to justify their reasons for backing down renewable power.

verage spot power price dipped 2 per cent to Rs 3.38 per unit in July at the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) as compared with Rs 3.46 per unit a year ago.

Low price coupled with greater certainty and predictability in procurement continue to make compelling proposition for the power distribution companies (discoms) as well as open access consumers to step up their procurement through the IEX, it added. The company added that the day-ahead market alone saw an increase of 19 per cent y-o-y in volumes, while the term-ahead market (TAM), which is leveraged by the discoms to manage demand-supply variability close especially in the scenario of high renewable energy concentration in the grid, increased 290 per cent on the yearly basis.

On an all-India basis, peak demand met touched 175 gigawatt (GW) registering a four per cent increase on a y-o-y basis, while all-India “The average market energy supply stood at clearing price (MCP) 117 billion units increased in the day-ahead 6 per cent y-o-y, acmarket was Rs 3.38 cording to data from the per unit – it recorded National Load Dispatch decrease of 2 per cent Centre. on y-o-y (year-onThe overall electricity year) basis from Rs market at the IEX record3.46 per unit in July ed a 27 per cent increase 2018,” the IEX said in on a y-o-y basis and a 15 a statement. per cent increase on a month-on-month basis in July 2019. The increase in volume corroborated well with increase in demand for electricity in the select eastern, western and southern states. The discoms across these states preferred the day-ahead and the term-ahead electricity market on exchange to leverage the competitive price discovery, coupled with the benefit of flexible and predictable procurement since ‘One Nation and One Price’ prevailed on all 31 days during the month of July, it added.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Source: PTI

he Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) has restrained Andhra Pradesh's power regulator from withdrawing approval for power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed with renewable energy developer Axis Energy.

Axis had signed 21 contracts with Andhra’s discom for procuring 776 MW of wind capacity.

Following the new state government's decision to review all PPAs signed by the previous regime with wind and solar developers, the Andhra discom had asked the state power regulator, Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC), to withdraw its consent for Axis contracts as a start to renegotiating all such contracts. Power regulator’s approval is mandatory before any PPA takes effect.

But before APERC could take a decision on this, Axis on Wednesday approached APTEL fearing that the PPAs would be withdrawn as per the discom’s wishes.

“APTEL has granted a stay on all further proceedings of the commission,” said a source close to the development. “It wants to hear the matter. It wants to know why the PPAs are to be taken back. It said this wasn’t justified; the PPAs cannot be withdrawn unilaterally,” the source said, requesting anonymity.

APTEL also maintained that since tariffs for the power to be supplied by Axis had not been fixed for the 21 PPAs, the discom could not claim that they were a burden on their financials, the source said.

“Where else will 776 MW of wind power be procured from," APTEL said at the hearing Wednesday. “It will have to be bought from outside, which will only end up burdening distribution companies financially—an outcome they don’t want.”

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INTERNATIONAL

Kenya approves issuance of first green bond

Spain Moves to Prevent a Second Solar Bubble

Kenya has approved its first ever issuance of a green bond, which will raise 5 billion shillings ($48.45 million) for student accommodation, the capital markets regulator CMA said Recently.

Grid-connection applications for solar projects are rising by 15 gigawatts a month in a country with 40 gigawatts of total peak power demand.

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o-called green bonds are fixed income securities that raise capital for projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, green transport and waste-water treatment. The bond, to be issued by a Nairobi-based property developer called Acorn, comes after authorities unveiled new rules in February designed to guide the issuance of green bonds.

“The issuance is a critical step in advancing the development of an effective ecosystem to support the establishment of green capital markets in Kenya,” the CMA said in a statement.

Acorn’s issue, which will not be listed, will finance the construction of “sustainable and climate-resilient student” hostels, CMA said.

It will be structured as “restricted public offer”, meaning the issuers will target sophisticated investors who will get a 50% guarantee from credit guarantees provider Guarantco on both their investments and the interest, CMA added. Acorn was not immediately available for comment.

In January, HSBC said global green bond issuance is seen at $140-$180 billion this year, from $149.2 billion in 2019.

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pain’s energy regulator is moving to tighten PV plant grid connection rules as the country heads toward a second solar development bubble.

The National Commission on Markets and Competition (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia, or CNMC) hopes the rule changes, planned for January, will stem a rush of grid connection applications that is already five times Spain’s total electricity demand.

CNMC President José María Marín Quemada recently told the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (Unión Española Fotovoltaica or UNEF) that by June the regulator had received grid connection applications for 196 gigawatts of capacity. This level is going up by around 15 gigawatts a month, he said.

There is no chance that all of this capacity will get built. This year, Spain’s electricity demand peaked on January 22 at 40.5 gigawatts. The highest level ever registered, in December 2007, was 45.5 gigawatts.

The influx of applications also far outstrips Spain’s predictions for future energy demand. The country’s National Energy and Climate Plan allows for 55 gigawatts of renewable energy development up to 2030, which equates to around four months’ worth of solar applications at the current rate.

Fragility of a revived market The rush to file applications follows changes in government that have restored investor confidence in the market, along with a growing appetite for corporate power-purchase agreements (PPAs) and merchant plants.

The changes have helped push Spain to the top of the European rankings for solar installations in 2019. Industry body SolarPower Europe expects the country to install more than 4 gigawatts this year, up from 288 megawatts in 2018, pushing it ahead of Germany.

But the rush for grid applications is beginning to echo Spain’s first solar bubble, which started with an overly generous feed-in tariff in 2007 and ended up almost bankrupting the country in 2010, lead-

China solar can compete without subsidy in 334 cities: Study The a new study looked at project costs, power output and prices in 344 cities in China and found that they could achieve subsidy-free solar prices that were lower than supplied by grid

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olar power plants in hundreds of Chinese cities can now generate electricity at prices lower than those on the grid, which means they are able to compete subsidyfree with other energy sources, according to a new study. With manufacturing costs falling rapidly, China is trying to wind down the amount of subsidies it offers to its renewable power producers

in order to achieve “grid price parity” with conventional power suppliers.

It has already announced that a special surcharge paid to onshore wind power projects for each kilowatt-hour they supply to the grid will be cancelled by 2021.

The new study, conducted by scholars in China and Sweden and published on Monday by the Nature Energy journal, looked at project costs, power output and prices in 344 prefecture-level cities in China.

The study showed all the 344 cities

Source : reuters

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INTERNATIONAL Interest in building solar in Spain was being bolstered by favorable levelized cost of energy (LCOE) economics in the country. The Iberian market as a whole has spot market prices for power that are above solar LCOE.

WTO to rule on China’s complaint on U.S. duties on solar cells

- Jenny Chase,

Head of Solar Analysis at BNEF

ing to retroactive cuts that paralyzed the renewables industry for almost a decade. For now, the risk is still contained because most investors have not got beyond the grid-connection application process, which is relatively easy.

Applicants are not even required to have a viable plant plan.

This is thought to have led many speculative investors to seek a grid connection approval so they can sell it to a developer later on.

According to press reports, a grid connection authorization could change hands for up to around 100,000 euros ($112,000) per megawatt for utility-scale plants in some of Spain’s autonomous communities.

The CNMC wants to put a halt to such practices by imposing stricter requirements and time limits on the application process. For example, developers will have just 12 months to present an environmental impact assessment and 48 months to get authorization. Similarly, developers that are unable to meet the strict schedule requirements would have up to six months to forfeit their projects and will get their deposits back.

Alongside these measures to make

sure applications are backed by viable projects, the CNMC is aiming to cut red tape. This is prompting developers to eschew government auctions and take a chance on the spot market as a source of income for plants, said Chase.

“There are a couple of gigawatts of projects that are going to be built in the next couple of years without being part of the auction program,” Chase observed. “Very few of them have longterm PPAs.” In line with SolarPower Europe’s estimations, Bloomberg New Energy Finance expects to see between 4.1 gigawatts and 4.9 gigawatts of solar installed in Spain this year, dropping to between 1.6 gigawatts and 2.5 gigawatts in 2020, and then rising slightly to between 1.7 gigawatts and 3 gigawatts in 2021.

“Spain has recovered remarkably well from a disastrous feed-in tariff followed by retroactive cuts,” Chase said. “It’s now perceived as being a bankable market.”

The question now is how long the regulator can keep it that way.

Source : greentechmedia

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he World Trade Organization (WTO) set up a dispute panel requested recently by China to rule on U.S. safeguard duties imposed on imports of solar cells, a Geneva trade official said.

The decision, automatic upon its second request at a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), came as the two countries seek a major trade deal to calm simmering tensions.

China charges that the U.S. measure, in the form of a tariff-rate quota on imports of solar cells and an increase in duties on imports of modules, violates Source : reuters WTO rules.

could achieve subsidy-free solar prices that were lower than those supplied by the grid.

Solar producers in 22% of the cities surveyed could even compete with benchmark desulphurised coal electricity prices.

China has sought to restrain the number of new solar projects and give priority to plants that can operate without government support, after a surge in new capacity created a subsidy payment backlog of more than 100 billion yuan ($14.23 billion).

It has also been drawing up more guidelines to ensure renewable energy producers have full access to local markets and encourage grid firms to maximise power purchases from wind and solar plants.

A study published by the China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute last month said China was expected to achieve full “grid price parity” for solar and wind by next year.

It said China’s total renewable energy capacity reached 729 gigawatts by the end of last year, up 11.7% on the year and amounting to around 38% of the national total power generation capacity.

Source : reuters

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A study published by the China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute last month said China was expected to achieve full “grid price parity” for solar and wind by next year.

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INTERNATIONAL

India offers $100 mn aid to Benin to meet sustainable development goals “Our partnership under the International Solar Alliance can help us light a million homes in a sustainable manner and provide access to energy.”

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- Ram nath kovind, President India

ndia recently offered concessional financial assistance of USD 100 million to Benin with an aim to help the West African country meet its Sustainable Development Goals.

President Ram Nath Kovind is currently on the first leg of his three-nation visit to Africa, having reached the port city of Cotonou in Benin on Sunday. He was accorded a ceremonial welcome by his Beninese counterpart Patrice Talon on Monday, following which the two sides held a meeting on bilateral relations.

The two sides signed four agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoU). The four documents include a Cultural Exchange Programme between India and Benin for the years 2019-2023. It also includes an agreement on mutual exemption from visa requirement for holders of diplomatic, official/service passports. Two MoUs were also signed, including an MoU in the field of export credit and investment insurance, and another on the e-VBAB network project, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.Addressing the National Assembly of Benin today, President Kovind said: “We are honoured that we have been able to share our expertise and resources, in whatever manner possible, to support food, energy, water and health security in Benin. We hope to soon complete the up-gradation of Water Supply Schemes in 103 villages in your country through a financing arrangement of USD 42 million.”

“Our partnership under the International Solar Alliance can help us light a million homes in a sustainable manner and provide access to energy to people in the remotest corners. To further enhance our development cooperation, today I offered President Talon concessional financial assistance of USD 100 million to help Benin meet its Sustain-

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able Development Goals,” he added.

The President stressed that technology has been at the centre of India’s development partnership with the African countries. “Following the success of our Pan-African e-network initiative, we now look forward to the implementation of the E-Vidya Bharati and E-Arogya Bharati initiatives with Benin. Under it, we are offering free tele-education to 15,000 students and free telemedicine courses to 1000 doctors and paramedics in various African countries,” he said.

The President further thanked the West African country for joining hands with India as stakeholders in the International Solar Alliance and strengthening the global fight against climate change and terrorism.

The International Solar Alliance is a group of 121 solar resource-rich countries with headquarters in Gurugram, India. The organisation aims to deploy over 1,000 gigawatts of solar energy and mobilise more than USD 1,000 billion into solar power by 2030, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).“We value Benin’s anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Guinea and stand ready to enhance our defence and security partnership with you,” Kovind said.

“In our quest for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, we also fully support due African representation in an expanded UN Security Council,” the President said.

He also said that Benin was the eighth African country that he has visited since taking over as the President of India two years ago.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, President Kovind will be attending a banquet hosted by his Beninese counterpart in his honour.vind will meet members of the Indian community at a reception in Cotonou on July 30 before Source : ANI leaving for The Gambia.

Japan: Asia’s Biggest Energy Market Opportunity in 2019?

One of the largest economies in the world and the fourth largest consumer of electricity, Japan has long been a recognised leader in energy technology development. The 2011 earthquake and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear accident triggered a major rehaul of the energy market in Japan.

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s a result, local and foreign innovators are now looking to capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Start-ups and players with established customer bases are entering the market, seeing the opportunity to capture new value. Over the past seven months, Global Cleantech 100 companies Moixa Technology, Autogrid Systems and LO3 Energy have had new market interactions in Japan. The accelerating adoption of retail competition, deregulation, renewable energy and behind-the-meter solar and energy storage is creating opportunities for energy innovators. While 2011 was a low-point, today Japan is widely considered as the biggest market opportunity for new energy innovation.

Why is Japan so Interesting?

After the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster, Japan’s nuclear fleet was shut down and replaced with more expensive fossil fuels, leading to higher electricity prices.

These consequences drove momentum to deregulate markets and introduce efficiencies via new technologies and business models. Japan’s deregulation commenced in April 2016 and around the same time, imbalance settlement based on the market price wasenacted, meaning that from 2017, procurement of balancing power could begin. This in turn, saw hundreds of new deregulated energy retailers entering the market. Japan’s government has also mandated a near doubling of renewable energy generation by 2030, reducing greenhouse gases by 26% compared to the 2013 totals.

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INTERNATIONAL

This, as well as a prioritization on energy security signalled for decreasing energy imports and increasing renewables utilization supported via subsidies for deployment.Lastly, Japan’s feed-in tariff, initiated in November 2009 is coming to an end.

Households with a combined generating capacity of 6.7 million kilowatts will stop qualifying for this program by 2023, creating the opportunity for new entrants and technologies including behind-the-meter battery storage providers.These factors combined have resulted in around 600 players entering the Japanese energy market in the past three years, including both new Japanese companies and foreign companies.

“Japan’s government has also mandated a near doubling of renewable energy generation by 2030, reducing greenhouse gases by 26% compared to the 2013 totals.”

How are the Japanese Corporates Responding?

Since 2016 the ten electric utilities have broken up their core businesses into separate groups within generation, transmission/distribution and retail. The past three years have proven tough; a reported 6 million retail customers have moved to alternative providers. As a result, the utilities are focusing time and resources on exploring new ways to win back customers.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has been one of the most progressive corporates, engaging with global innovation via funds, accelerators and venture investment. The group set up a corporate venture capital arm in 2018 with capital of YEN 5 billion to engage with local and oversea innovation, and has since made seven cleantech investments including start-ups such as battery virtual power plant provider, Moixa, Peer-to-peer energy trading player, Electron and vehicle-tobuilding innovator, Fermata Energy. The group has also backed several cleantech energy funds in 2019, including the Southeast Asia fund managed by Cleangrid Partners. These strategic engagements are helping TEPCO keep pace with the rate of technological innovation in their home market and enabling them to extend out and explore new markets.

Other Japanese corporates have also been actively engaging with external innovation. Since February we’ve seen:

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l US-based LO3 Energy has partnered with Japanese general trading company Marubeni; using blockchain to connect Marubeni’s power production facilities into in a virtual marketplace. l Kyocera, a ceramics and electronics manufacturer, is testing the feasibility of a blockchain-managed virtual power plant (VPP) and received an equity investment from Sumitomo Corp and Shell to accelerate international role out.

UK – the Proven Model for Japan’s Future

Noticeably, UK-based innovators are actively piloting and partnering with Japanese companies. This is no coincidence.

Given that the country was deregulated back in the 1990s, start-ups have had time to understand the challenges of market reform, and as a result Japan is keen to learn as much as possible. The UK’s progressive regulator has created opportunities that have enabled grid market stakeholders to utilise centralized energy in flexibility auctions, providing an alternative to network upgrades. In June, GreenSync, Smarter Grid Solutions and Nexant announced plans to enable 500MW of flexibility for UK power networks. Japanese players are looking to the UK to see how the flexibility capacity markets operate. Furthermore, UK innovators such as Moixa have established a new foothold in Japan, entering the Japanese market last year in partnership with Itochu. The company has integrated its GridShare software into the Japanese company’s Smart Star batteries and manages 60 MWh of battery capacity across 6,000 homes throughout Japan.

What Kind of Innovation is Succeeding?

In line with Silicon Valley’s blitz scaling software approach, Japanese players are looking at software-based business models and are keen to invest in commercially developed solutions which make use of AI and machine learning. Technologies which can be quickly be deployed into the home market are attractive compared to hardware solutions where the need for channel partners, certification and regulation create deployment constraints. A range of technologies are seeing increasing demand: 1) VIRTUAL POWER PLANT (VPP) Japan has some of the biggest VPP markets potential in the Asia Pacific region. It’s renewable goals, over capacity and robust grid infrastructure mean that additional value already exists. Much of the rest of

the region suffers from intermittency, regulation and lack of infrastructure.

This July, software innovator AutoGrid established a subsidiary in Japan, Autogrid KK, to serve utilities and retailers Looking to deploy flexibility management solutions. The company offers a SaaS product which helps Japanese energy players leverage proven VPP capabilities. The news came on the heels of the company’s announcement that they will develop the largest energy storage VPP globally, aggregating over 10,000 assets between 2020 and 2021 with Japanese energy services and trading company ENERES. 2) VEHICLE-TO-X (V2X) Vehicle-to-X technology is an area which we visited in more detail in a previous blog, and has become increasingly popular in countries with a relatively high and growing percentage of renewables, with utilities becoming interested in V2X as an option to balance the impact of electric vehicles and renewables on the grid.

In January of this year TEPCO, Ventures invested $2.5 million in Fermata Energy, a vehicle-to-building software company which allows customers to reduce their peak electricity demand occurring in their buildings by using the on-board batteries of the customer’s electric fleet vehicles, earning money while they are parked. TEPCO see car batteries as another DER asset which can be used to help balance the grid, and a way to attract new customers.

3) DISTRIBUTED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (DERMS) Given Japan’s geography, some areas have an abundance of high capacity solar and wind renewables.

Combined with low demand, has opened the energy markets to pricing vulnerabilities. As result, the use of DERMS will become vital to maintaining system balance. Whilst there are fewer active participants in this area due to the regulatory hurdles in the space, grid operators will need to aim to control power on the localized level in the coming years. There are growing opportunities for leading DERMS providers such as Enbala and Opus One Solutions, whose CEO, Joshua Wong, in a recent interview disclosed to CTG they are closely monitoring the Japanese market.

Source : Cleantech

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Portugal’s solar energy auction breaks world record says new state secretary minister João Galamba Portugal’s huge auction of solar energy broke a world record, with one of the 24 licences on offer selling for 14.76 euros per megawatt hour (Mwh), the secretary of state for energy Joao Galamba said recently.

O “This auction shows that the energy transition, to which the government is committed, not only can strongly accelerate investment and the penetration of renewables in Portugal, but it can be done at very low prices.”

- João Galamba,

New State Secretary for Energy, Portugal

f the entities initially competing for the 1,150 megawatt (MW) auction, there were 13 winners, Galamba said, without giving any names. A source familiar with the matter said there were various European players among the winners but Portugal’s EDP and Galp did not make it.

Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negocios reported that Spain’s Iberdrola won seven of the 24 licences available and France’s Akuo won 370 megawatts (MW).

Based on the locations where solar

plants will be installed, auctions were held where the winners would be those offering the highest discounts to the bidding tariff of 45 euros MWh. “This first auction in Portugal was a success,” Galamba told Reuters. “There were brutal discounts and, in addition to getting the lowest prices in Europe, we hit new world lows.”

Last year, Solar Power Europe said in a report that the lowest bids on solar energy auctions worldwide took place in India at a rate of 16.7 euros MWh. It is the largest licensing auction of any kind of energy launched in Portugal and represents more than double the current installed capacity of solar energy in the country.

Source: Reuters

Market Plunge Wipes Out Solar’s Biggest Rally in Four Months Recently, solar stocks capped their biggest rally in four months, bolstered by bullish earnings reports from U.S. equipment manufacturers Enphase Energy Inc. and SunPower Corp.

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ecently those gains were largely gone — wiped out by an escalating trade war between U.S. and China that has American stocks careening toward the biggest drop of the year. As good as last week’s earnings were, the solar industry remains a high-risk bet in Wall Street’s eyes, leaving it vulnerable to big swings when the broader market turns, said Kit Konolige, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The MAC Global Solar Energy Index, which tracks solar companies globally, was down as much as 5.9% recently. That’s after it gained 6% last week, capping the biggest rally since April.

Panel maker SunPower sank 13%, just four days after a better-than-expected earnings outlook sent its shares rallying by the most in more than six years.

Inverter manufacturer Enphase, which surged to a record last week after posting its highest-ever quarterly revenue, also slid, falling 8.3%. First Solar Inc. was down 8.1%.

“The rally was excessive. We’re now seeing some appropriate profit-taking.”

- Pavel Molchanov, Analyst Raymond James

“They’re vulnerable to China tariffs, as well as policies on taxes and renewable energy.”

- Kit Konolige,

Analyst Bloomberg Intelligence

Source: Bloomberg L.P.

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INTERNATIONAL

“We are pleased to collaborate with GPIF on this important initiative that promotes environment-related investments in Asia and the Pacific and is closely aligned with ADB’s development mandate.”

- Mr. Takehiko Nakao, ADB President

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund to Support ADB’s Green Projects The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) recently formed a partnership to support green project financing through investments in ADB’s green bonds.

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DB issues green bonds to finance projects in the Asia and Pacific region that help its developing member countries mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the consequences of climate change. ADB issued its first green bond in 2015. It has since issued more than $6 billion equivalent green bonds in various currencies. ADB green bonds provide opportunities for institutional investors, including pension funds and asset managers, to achieve their green mandate.

The green bond investment will help GPIF fulfill its stewardship responsibilities for environment, social, and governance (ESG) investments. GPIF, the largest pension fund in the world in terms of assets under management, can support ADB’s green bond program in a substantial way.

“GPIF requires all asset managers to integrate ESG into their investment analysis and decisionmaking. We regard the purchase of Green, Social, and Sustainability Bonds as one of the direct methods of ESG integration in the fixed income investment. GPIF is committed to promote ESG integration through our investment chain in order to ensure the sustainable performance of the pension reserve fund for all generations.”

- Mr. Hiro Mizuno,

GPIF Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer

“Driven by continuous economic growth, accelerating urbanization, and expanding middle classes, Asia accounts for the majority of rising energy needs worldwide. It is, therefore, essential that the region plays a proactive part in global efforts to reduce emissions from houses and offices, industry, and transport.”

- Ms. Ingrid van Wees,

ADB Vice-President for Finance and Risk Management ADB will scale up its support for climate change adaptation and maintain its assistance for mitigation through clean energy and energy efficiency projects and sustainable transport. Under Strategy 2030, ADB will ensure that 75% of the number of its committed operations will be supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation by 2030. Climate finance from ADB’s own resources will reach $80 billion for 2019–2030.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Source: adb.org

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Meyer Burger receives initial order for HJT production line from Oxford PV for about CHF 20 million

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eyer Burger Technology Ltd (SIX Swiss Exchange: MBTN) today announced that it has received its first order from its strategic partner, Oxford Photovoltaics Limited (Oxford PV), for a heterojunction (HJT) manufacturing line including necessary adaptions enabling the upgrade to perovskite-on-HJT tandem technology. The order for the upgrade itself will follow later this year.The current contract volume is about CHF 20 million and provides Oxford PV with an initial manufacturing capacity of 100 MW with plans to expand tandem solar cell production capacity to 250 MW by the end of 2020.

Frank Averdung, CEO of Oxford PV, commented: “With our first order placed, we are well on our journey to becoming the world’s first perovskite-onHJT tandem solar cell manufacturer.

We are delighted to be working with Meyer Burger – a world leading photovoltaic equipment and technology supplier. Building on Meyer Burger’s expertise, we are accelerating the time to market for our perovskite-on-HJT tandem solar cells.”

Hans Brändle, CEO of Meyer Burger, stated: “With Oxford PV’s leading edge tandem cell technology and our capabilities to industrialize highefficiency PV processes, we have formed the ideal partnership to accelerate its industrialization and set the pace for this next generation PV technology.”

Source : meyerburger

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Jagan Mohan Reddy briefs PM Modi on corruption in PPAs, reiterates SCS request Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan offers prasadam to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi recently. The CM also reiterated his request that the Centre grant Special Category status to AP.

C 23,000 Crore Reddy asked the Centre to release Rs 23,300 crore for backward districts in KBK model.

hief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

The meeting assumed significance in the wake of state government going ahead with its decision to review the Power Purchase Agreements signed by the previous TD government and terminate the contract with Navayuga to execute Polavaram project works. The Centre has not been enthusiastic about these decisions, while the local BJP leaders too have been opposing the YSRC government’s moves on PPAs and Polavaram project works.

In the 50-minute one-on-one meeting, Mr Reddy appraised the PM about the irregularities that took place in various projects during TD regime especially in signing PPAs, Polavaram project works and also in capital city construction.

The CM also reiterated his request that the Centre grant Special Category status to AP. Mr Reddy told the Prime Minister that the previous TD government was irrational and outlandish in signing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy that he said caused huge burden on the state exchequer. The Chief Minister said that the exercise was taken up only to benefit a select few with ulterior motives.

Though there is a purchase limit of 5 to 10 per cent, the TD government purchased 23.6 per cent of renewable energy causing Rs 2,654 crore loss to the electricity department, he said, adding that due to previous government “chaotic mechanisms, a total of Rs 20, 000 crore debt was laid on manufacturers”.

Mr Reddy said that the debts of the state for 2014-15 financial year stood at Rs 97,000 crore and had shot up to Rs 2.58 lakh-crore by 2018-19. The Central government should have released Rs 2,100 crore over six years for seven backward district. Of this, only Rs 1,050 crore has been released,” the CM is learnt to have told Modi.

Mr Reddy asked the PM to grant Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh for industrial development and overall state growth. He also sought incentives for establishment of industries in the state, exemption in GST, Income Tax and 100 per cent insurance premium for 10 years to industries in the state.

Mr Reddy asked the PM to fulfil the promises made to the state in the AP Reorganisation Act by establishing a steel plant in Kadapa and constructing Ramayapatnam port as construction of Dugarajupatnam port was not feasible.

During his two days trip to New Delhi, Mr Reddy is expected to meet several Union ministers including home minister Amit Shah. He will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Source: deccanchronicle

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PV MANUFACTURING

India should focus on full value chain of solar manufacturing: TERI

In the first phase, about 15 GW capacity could be targeted over a period of two to three years for manufacturing of cells and modules with full value addition and with an overlapping backward integration plan, the report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) said.

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he report’s main recommendations are that the government should consider prioritising PV manufacturing value chain as a strategic industry, and local manufacturing capacity of 15 GW of full value chain Silicon Ingot to solar modules’ should be operational at competitive prices by 2024.

For this, it suggests initiating a Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP), under the Make in India plan.

TERI is an independent, multi-dimensional organisation, with capabilities in research, policy, consultancy and implementation.It has pioneered conversations and action in the energy, environment, climate change, and sustainability space for over four decades. The report by TERI was titled Solar PV Manufacturing in India: Silicon Ingot & Wafer – PV Cell – PV Module’.

Source: dailykiran

India to hike import duty on solar power equipment in coming years Mr. Singh assured that the rise in import duty will not impact solar energy bidding process in India.

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ndia will increase import duty on solar equipment to encourage domestic industry in the coming years, Power Minister R K Singh said recently. He also announced that a storage policy will be unveiled soon which would provide tax incentives, especially for solar equipment manufacturing in India.

“Right now safeguard duty is imposed on solar equipment which will be diluted in few years. We will increase tariff on solar equipment down the value chain in coming years,” the minister said.

“ The challenge is to match demand and indigenous manufacturing capacity with international manufacturing capacity. “It is possible to have an indigenous solar manufacturing facility that delivers on the three points of reliable energy access, cost of supply, and local manufacturing that can meet demand.”

- Ajay Mathur, TERI Director General Stressing that India should make every effort to develop indigenous manufacturing. The government should invite bids for manufacturing of solar panels with full value addition in India, along with ensured sales for four years. “It should also provide land, power supply and environmental clearance and develop solar manufacturing plants along the lines of SEZ. - Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow, TERI The size of the solar market across the world is very big. India should develop manufacturing capacity not just for the domestic market, but also for terawatt market. He added that this will lead to an enormous possibility of generating employment in India.

- Shekhar Dutt,

Director General, Solar Power Developers Association (SPDA) The rationale for the decision to go for manufacturing is selfreliance with an aim to sustain our own national solar programme without any hiccups under circumstances of international issues.

- Ashvini Kumar,

Senior Director, Renewable Energy, TERI

Asserting that it is a good starting point, Mathur added, further steps of inviting a group of financial experts to assess the costs and incentives (for solar manufacturing) need to be carried out.

He assured that the rise in import duty will not impact solar energy bidding process in India.

On Jammu and Kashmir, he said: “We will utilise all of India’s share of water to develop hydro projects and also push solar projects in Ladakh.”

On the recent row over tariff negotiations with Andhra Pradesh, he said, “Power Purchase Agreements are sacrosanct. No concluded agreement can be opened.”

Recently, Andhra Pradesh discom had demanded lowering of tariff on some renewable energy projects.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India and NTPC, however, have refused to lower tariff of green energy.

India had imposed safeguards duty of up to 25 per cent on solar cell imports from China and Malaysia in July last year.

Source: PTI

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BUSINESS AND FINANCE

Loss of Adani Green Energy for Q1 widens to Rs 97.44 cr Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) recently reported widening of consolidated net loss to Rs 97.44 crore in June quarter from Rs 74.26 crore a year ago, mainly due to higher finance cost and an exceptional adjustment.

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he consolidated loss in June quarter after cash profit was at Rs 77 crore, the company said in a BSE filing According to the statement, cash profit for June quarter was Rs 257 crore. Since the group follows accelerated depreciation, it reported a net loss. Management uses cash profit as an important metric of intrinsic performance. The interest and other borrowing costs during the quarter stood at Rs 250 crore, up by Rs 57 crore primarily on account of charging of interest to profit and loss account as compared to capitalization of interest in previous quarters being in project phases and additional debt on account of ramp up of capacity.

“The last (June) quarter has seen significant growth for the business with solar and wind.

AGEL is among the largest renewable energy generation companies in India, and with our focus on new technology evaluation, we plan to commission a total of 800 MW of new capacity of wind and solar projects in 20192020. As a corporate, we aspire to be among the leading global players in renewables.”

About exceptional adjustment, the company said that during the quarter, the group refinanced its earlier borrowing of Rs 5,844 crore through issuance of secured senior notes (USD denominated bonds) and rupee term loans from a bank and financial institutions.

On account of such refinancing activities, the group incurred a onetime expense aggregating to Rs 98.41 crore which comprises of prepayment charges, unamortised portion of other borrowing cost related to earlier borrowings and cost of premature termination of derivative contracts, it said.

The company’s total income rose to Rs 675.23 crore in June quarter from Rs 482.42 crore a year ago. The company’s activities revolve around renewable power generation and other ancillary activities.

Source: PTI

“Our business focus is aligned with government’s vision to raise renewables based power generation capacity and make our nation a world leader in the renewables space.

Adani Green Energy continues to invest in developing capabilities to provide reliable, sustainable, round the clock green power for India’s growing power needs.”

- Gautam Adani,

- Jayant Parimal,

Chairman, Adani Green Energy Chairman

CEO, Adani Green Energy

Moody’s assigns first-time Ba2 rating to ReNew Power Moody’s expects ReNew’s financial metrics to gradually improve over time Moody’s has kept the rating outlook stable

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lobal credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a first-time Ba2 corporate family rating to ReNew Power Ltd (RPL), one of India’s largest private renewable energy companies. The Ba ratings grade is judged to have speculative elements and subject to substantial credit risk.

Moody’s has kept the rating outlook stable.

In its ratings rationale, Moody’s said the group has predictable cash flow backed by long term power purchase agreements, supported by its large and diversified portfolio of wind and solar generation projects, an experienced management team and a track record of support that it receives from

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“Around 95% of ReNew’s revenue is derived from long-term power purchase agreements with central and state government off-takers, all of which have predefined tariffs.”

- Spencer Ng,

Moody’s Vice-President and Senior Analyst (He said this in the note)

its cornerstone shareholders through capital infusions. ReNew is supported by substantive shareholders, which include Goldman Sachs, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

However, this is weighed down by ReNew’s high financial leverage, primarily driven by the need for additional debt to fund its commitment to develop another 3GW of generation capacity by March 2021, and counterparty exposure to financially weak off-takers.

Stability in RPL’s operating cash flow also benefits from the geographic diversification in its generation fleet, which reduces its exposure to potential fluctuations in availability of wind and

solar resources. During the fiscal year ended March 2019, output from RPL’s portfolio of generation assets has – on an average — performed broadly in line with Moody’s base case expectations, the note said.

Moody’s expects ReNew’s financial metrics to gradually improve over time, because projects currently in development will commence operations and start to contribute to group earnings.

The extent and timing of such improvements will depend on the company’s growth plans and the incremental debt that will be required for new projects added to the development pipeline.

Source: livemint

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BUSINESS AND FINANCE

S & W Solar IPO not fully subscribed despite trimming the IPO Size Overall, the issue was subscribed 92 per cent, including anchor investors.

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hapoorji Pallonji-backed Sterling & Wilson Solar recently said it has successfully closed its initial public offer (IPO), backed by global institutional investors The solar EPC company saw its institutional portion oversubscribed with participation FPIs such as Nomura, Schroeder, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Fidelity. Overall, the issue was subscribed 92 per cent, including anchor investors.

The company said that due to recent market conditions and changes in the application process, the retail portion was not fully subscribed.

“As the issue was entirely an offer for sale and the QIB portion was 75 per cent, the basic requirement for the success of the same according to the Sebi regulations, is that the QIB portion should be fully subscribed.

Hence, this OFS was successfully subscribed,” the company said in a release.

The issue comprises offer for sale by promoters Shapoorji Pallonji and the company aggregating up to Rs 2,083.33 crore and Khurshed Yazdi Daruvala totalling Rs 1,041.67 crore. The company on Monday said it has raised Rs 1,406 crore from 18 anchor investors by allotting 1,80,28,846 equity shares at the upper band price of Rs 780.

Among the anchors, leading investors include Nomura India Investment Fund, Schroder International, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority who have been allocated 16 per cent, 12.24 per cent and 8.82 per cent, respectively, of the total anchor book size, the firm said in a statement.

Net proceeds from the public offer will be utilised towards funding full repayment of the loans ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, Credit Suisse Securities India, Deutsche Equities India, IIFL Securities, SBI Capital Markets, IndusInd BankNSE -0.86 % and YES Securities India will manage the offer.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes

PFS Q1 net profit slumps 72 pc to Rs 16 cr

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on-banking financial company PTC India Financial Services (PFS) reported a slump of 72 per cent in its net profit at Rs 15.64 crore in the first

quarter ended June.

Company’s net profit was at Rs 55.93 crore in the corresponding April-June quarter of the previous fiscal.

Total income increased to Rs 352.19 crore in the June quarter of 2019-20, as against Rs 325.19 crore in the same period of 2018-19.

The net interest margin (NIM) for the quarter stood at 2.76 per cent, it said in a release.

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The main business of PFS is to provide finance for energy value chain through investment and lending into such projects PFS said it made additional provisioning of Rs 62.70 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Fresh loans of Rs 717 crore were sanctioned and Rs 457 crore were disbursed during the quarter, it added.

The company said that it has to overcome the liquidity challenges and its strategy is diversification of borrowing at lower cost including enhanced borrowing from international and financial institutions taking full advantage of the relaxations provided by the government in ECB guidelines.

Stock of PFS traded 9.01 per cent Source: PTI down at Rs 12.32 on BSE.

“Though there are continuous sectorial issues for the NBFC sector, we continue to focus on improving our yields, structured finance to corporate of good credit standings, rotate our existing assets towards higher yields and to explore new areas for generation of fee based income and advisory services which is being strengthened in the company. The company will continue to grow in renewable sector and sustainable financing.”

- Pawan Singh,

Managing Director & CEO, PFS

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IL&FS proposes to NCLT sale of wind energy assets to ORIX of Japan

Green bond issuance has expanded rapidly in both China and India after national green bond guidelines came into effect.

The proposal has been filed before the Tribunal after completing binding Share Purchase Agreement with ORIX Corporation and obtaining “in-principle” approval from all lenders for completing this transaction, subject to NCLT approval.

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mbattled IL&FS group has proposed to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) the sale of its wind energy business to Japan’s Orix Corporation which will help reduce the debt of the company by Rs 4,800 crore.

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) said in a statement it has filed the proposal to complete the sale of its wind energy business, held under IL&FS Wind Energy Limited (IWEL) to ORIX Corporation of Japan, with NCLT for final approval.

The proposal has been filed before the Tribunal after completing binding Share Purchase Agreement with ORIX Corporation and obtaining “in-principle” approval from all lenders for completing this transaction, subject to NCLT approval.

IL&FS said it had already received approval for the sale of its wind energy business from Justice (Retd) D K Jain, appointed by the NCLAT to supervise the operation of Resolution Process of IL&FS group companies, earlier last month.

Justice Jain had approved the sale on the conditions that the proposal will be placed before the NCLT for its approval and the bid amount realised from the sale be kept in an escrow account.

This amount in escrow account will only to be disbursed in accordance with

the directions in the proceedings, pending before NCLT/NCLAT, as applicable.

ORIX Corporation of Japan, owner of 49 per cent stake in each of seven operating wind power plants of the IL&FS Group, had expressed its intent to buy out the remaining 51 per cent stake held

by IL&FS Wind Energy Limited (IWEL).

This intent to buy 51 per cent stake was in exercise of ORIX’s right under the terms of an existing MoU wherein ORIX can match the price offered by the highest bidder for purchasing IWEL’s stake in the wind Special Purpose Vehicle (SPVs).

ORIX Corporation decided to match the offer of the highest bidder, of approximately Rs 4,800 crore for 100 per cent of enterprise value, contemplating no haircut to the debt of the SPVs aggregating to around Rs 3,700 crore.

Some of the major lenders in the SPVs include: Power Finance Corporation, Bank of Baroda (for working capital and project financing), and India Infra Debt Limited – with debt aggregating to approximately Rs 3,700 crore (without interest).

The sale to ORIX will lead to resolution of the following seven companies of the IL&FS Group – Lalpur Wind Energy Private Limited, Etesian Urja Limited, Khandke Wind Energy Private Limited, Retadi Wind Power Limited, Wind Urja India Private Limited, Tadas Wind Energy Private Limited and Kaze Energy Limited.

The board of IL&FS has already approved the sale of these entities to ORIX Corporation in its board meeting held on Source: PTI June 28.

Green bonds issuance to cross a record $200 bN this year: Moody’s

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he global green bond market hit a new all-time quarterly high in the second quarter of 2019 as issuers brought $66.6 billion of green bonds to market globally, propelling the first half of 2019 issuance to a record $117 billion, credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said.

“Following its strong performance so far this year, the green bond market remains on course to eclipse our 2019 forecast of $200 billion of total issuance,” the agency, an arm of the financial services firm Moody’s Corporation, said in its latest report.

It added the first-half issuance was 47 per cent higher than issuance in the same period of 2018, after issuance grew just 11 per cent year-on-year between the first six months of 2017 and 2018.

This growth came despite a 1.9 per cent decline in overall global bond issuance during the same period. Corporates were the strongest contributors to overall issuance, with $14.9 billion of non-financial corporate issuance and $13.6 billion of financial corporate issuance accounting for 22 per cent and 20 per cent of total volumes, respectively.

“European issuers had a leading 54 per cent market share, supported by a large debut $6.7 billion sovereign green bond from the Government of the Netherlands,” the report said. It added that green bond issuance has expanded rapidly in both China and India after national green bond guidelines came into effect.

Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes

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BUSINESS AND FINANCE

Greenko raises $350 million via overseas bonds

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ndia’s leading clean-energy company Greenko raised $350 million in unsecured dollar bonds, tapping the overseas credit market to refinance its existing debt, said three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The bond sale obtained bids for about $900 million despite adverse investor sentiment on emerging market papers. This is a three and a half-year bond series, which yielded 6.25% for global investors. The pricing was a quarter-point lower than the initial guidance. These bonds are known as 144A, allowing US-based investors to buy them.

“Part of the proceeds could also be used for general business purposes,” one of the persons cited above told ET. Oppenheimer and Blackstone are said to be two of the top investors that bought Greenko papers. They could not reached immediately for comments.

The pricing was a quarter-point lower than the initial guidance. These bonds are known as 144A, allowing US-based investors to buy them. than investment grade, marking the Greenko issuance as high yield.

“GEH’s standalone credit quality reflects its diverse portfolio of operating renewable energy assets backed by long-term contracts;” the rating company said in a note on August 7.

GIC Private Limited, a sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Singapore, is a majority shareholder of the company. Greenko Energy Holdings (GEH), a Mauritius-based company, is the holding company of a major energy group in India, with renewable energy capacity totaling 4 gigawatt (GW), as of March. That includes 2,199 MW of wind, 380 MW of hydro, 1,358 MW of solar, and 78 MW of biomass capacity.

Earlier in July, the secured bonds were priced at 5.1% with five and seven-year maturities. Securities worth $650 million will mature in seven years while the rest of the liability must be retired in five years.

The company sold the overseas bonds for the second time within a month having raised nearly $1 billion about a month ago.

“A lot of US-based emerging market funds have come under pressure due to the Argentina crisis. This has weighed on investor sentiment,” said another executive involved in the exercise.

JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank were among global lenders that helped the company raise the money. Greenko has refinanced over 1.4 billion of debt from Indian banks, NBFC and MF’s in this difficult market, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The bonds are guaranteed

by Greenko Mauritius’ holding company, Greenko Energy Holdings (GEH), which has a corporate family rating (CFR) of Ba1, Moody’s said. The rating outlook is stable. The grade is one notch lower

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Source: energy. economictimes. indiatimes

NTPC net profit up 6 per cent at Rs 2,840 crore in June quarter Total income on a consolidated basis rose to Rs 26,272.24 crore in the said quarter from Rs 24,148.50 crore a year ago.

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tate-owned power giant NTPC recently posted a 5.63 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 2,840.28 crore in the June 2019 quarter.

Its net profit was Rs 2,688.96 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, the company said in a BSE filing.

Total income on a consolidated basis rose to Rs 26,272.24 crore in the said quarter from Rs 24,148.50 crore a year ago.

Gross power generation of the NTPC Group for the April-June 2019 was 76.63 billion units (BUs) as against 76.92 BUs in the same period of 2018. The average power tariff of the firm was Rs 3.63 per unit in the quarter under review.

The company’s plant load factor or capacity utilisation (PLF) of coal-based projects dropped to 73.91 per cent in the June 2019 quarter from 77.98 per cent a year earlier.

Its domestic coal supply dipped to 42.28 million tonne in the April-June period from 43.04 million tonne a year ago.

Coal imports by the company went up slightly to 0.89 million tonne in the said quarter from 0.09 million tonne a year ago.

NTPC Group’s total installed capacity increased to 55,126 MW as on June 30, 2019, from 53,156 MW as on June 30 of the previous year.

Source: PTI

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BUSINESS & FINANCE After years of meetings and shareholder resolutions, some funds are starting to simply divest from coal and oil stocks.

Big Money Starts to Dump Stocks That Pose Climate Risks

E “You cannot have the same conversation for 15 years with no results,” Omi, LGIM’s Head of sustainability and responsible investment strategy (Exxon responded to LGIM’s announcement by saying that it publishes an annual tally of emissions from its operations and is on track to meet targets for reducing methane emissions.)

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arlier this year, one of Meryam Omi’s deputies at Legal & General Investment Management sat down with board members and managers from Exxon Mobil Corp. to discuss how the oil giant could address climate change. LGIM, which manages about $1.3 trillion, is one of Exxon’s top 20 shareholders.

The Exxon delegation listened, but it didn’t accept the suggestions, says Omi, LGIM’s head of sustainability and responsible investment strategy.

Around the same time, Exxon persuaded the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to block a shareholder resolution that pushed the oil giant to do more to address climate risks.

So, in June, London-based LGIM announced that it had dumped about $300 million worth of its Exxon shares and would use its remaining stake to vote against the reappointment of Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods. “There’s got to be an escalation,” Omi says.

As the risks of climate change have become more pronounced, so have efforts by major investment firms to push companies in greener directions. They tried talking. Then they started backing shareholder resolutions.

Now, LGIM is at the forefront of a more aggressive, and controversial, tactic: divesting.

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$1.1 billion

Actively managed funds would exit almost €1 billion ($1.1 billion) of coal stocks

$1.3 trillion

LGIM, which manages about $1.3 trillion, is one of Exxon’s top 20 shareholders.

Momentum is gathering.

He likens it to the divestment campaign that forced companies participating in apartheidera South Africa to change course, and he invokes the spirit of Gandhi: “They’ve ignored us and laughed at us. I think now they’re fighting us. So next we win.”

Mark Lewis, who leads climate change investment research for Parisbased BNP Paribas Asset Management

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BUSINESS & FINANCE But he knows it won’t be easy. In March, as he helped the BNP Paribas press team put the finishing touches on an announcement that its actively managed funds would exit almost €1 billion ($1.1 billion) of coal stocks as early as next year, he thought the news might cause a few “ripples” and not much more. In fact, Lewis was bombarded with emails and calls, not all of them polite. “It surprised me how big the reaction was,” he says.

QuickTake: Divestment Hurt Apartheid. Can It Save the Planet?

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ewis, who earlier in his career was a utilities analyst at Deutsche Bank AG and deputy head of investor relations for German power company EON SE, had formed close business relationships, even friendships, with coal executives. He says the decision to cut coal was painful, but ultimately he had to face the economics.

Demand for thermal coal, the kind used to generate electricity, is declining in much of the world as governments seek to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Some asset managers are deciding it’s risky—for their clients and the planet— to keep shoveling capital into companies with environmentally unsustainable business strategies. This year almost every major public oil company faced at least one shareholder resolution about climate change. Those proposals won record support. (Michael R. Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, in

June launched an effort to phase out every U.S. coal-fired power plant by 2030.)

Most money managers prefer engagement to divestment, and funds designed to track indexes have no choice. ClimateAction 100+, a group of money managers overseeing more than $33 trillion, works to influence the largest corporate emitters of greenhouse gases. So far the organization has persuaded Royal Dutch Shell Plc to set short-term climate targets and publish a report on its lobbying of governments. Members backed a shareholder resolution that asked BP Plc to detail how each new capital investment aligns with the Paris Agreement adopted at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2015. That resolution, supported by BP’s management, won the approval of 99% of shareholders in May. Mining company Glencore Plc has agreed to limit coal production.

He spent a year analyzing different parts of the energy market to try to draw some conclusions.

But he knew his clients wanted more. On an airplane from Oslo to London in early 2018, staring at a blank piece of paper, he pondered how to build a comprehensive financial model.

He’d need data (lots of it), a team of analysts, and months to work on it. He got what he needed. When the model ran for the first time in October, it took hours to go through its paces.

The results confirmed his fears: Tiny tweaks to government policies could cause oil demand to halve or to almost double by 2050. The crude market could become exceptionally volatile, and investors would probably start fleeing within the next five years. The model helped LGIM rank companies most at risk to climate change.

“Uncertainty around the level of demand growth creates massive instability in the way oil markets work, and that has all sorts of implications for investors,” says Stansbury, who’s now head of commodities research.

Climate Action 100+ members “use this engagement, both the process and the outcomes, to inform their own voting and investment decisions,” says Stephanie Maier, the director of responsible investment at HSBC Global Asset Management, who also serves as chairman of Climate Action 100+’s steering committee. “For certain investors this may ultimately include divestment, but that would only be when all other options have failed.”

Climate activists say the awakening of the world’s money to the perils of global warming is too little, too late. But for some people inside money management, the speed of change is hard to believe.

At LGIM, Nick Stansbury says he remembers the day in December 2016 when he was called into a meeting with about 25 of his fellow portfolio managers. Understanding the implications of climate change was going to become a priority, they were told.

Stansbury says he already had deep misgivings about the future of the oil market. Oil companies’ value depends on investors believing that demand for crude will always grow. For 100 years, that belief had been justified. But if renewable-energy sources gain market share and crude demand stutters, the market would go haywire, he says.

That could trigger a huge re-rating of major oil companies—of which LGIM holds more than $12 billion in shares. “It was a lightbulb moment,” he says.

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LGIM’s Omi says this kind of rigorous analysis has persuaded big companies, typically resistant to change, to begin making serious strategic shifts. When LGIM divested some oil company stocks last year, she says, some of the fund managers protested, “These are really good stocks!” She replied, “I know they might be good stocks for you, but these are the rationales. This makes sense for our clients.”

Gilblom covers European oil companies for Bloomberg News in London.

Source: bloomberg

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INTERNATIONAL

Slowing down: The energy demands of a growing population make lowering emissions a difficult task.

Cooperation on the world stage is critical for minimizing climate change, but it’s in short supply right now, says Wood Mackenzie’s 2019 Energy Transition Outlook.

Global Energy Transition at Risk From US-China Trade War

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ising economic nationalism in the U.S. and China is dominating news headlines and making waves across the global economy.

Less appreciated is the threat it poses to the energy transition.

Already a dim prospect, the odds of keeping global warming to 2 degrees Celsius are getting darker as a result of the deepening trade war, according to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The consultancy’s latest Energy Transition Outlook (ETO) holds to 3 degrees Celsius of global warming as its baseline outcome.

Rapid and transformational change is in store for the global energy system over the next two decades, particularly in the electricity sector. But with 2 billion people lacking reliable electricity access, and the population still growing, total energy demand will continue rising to at least 2040, WoodMac expects.

Global emissions look set to plateau — though not yet fall — in the 2030s. The ETO stands behind its previous prediction of a peak in oil demand in 2036, despite growth in the electric vehicle market. On that front, however, things have not been going well. At the time the Paris Agreement was negotiated in 2015, there was a feeling of momentum toward global cooperation on climate change.

“There were certainly still hurdles, but everyone had the sense that the two largest emitters would fight through some of those roadblocks, do more on sharing ideas on how to decarbonize, and potentially support investments in lowercarbon fuels,” Brown said in an interview.

Among various factors that could put the brakes on a warming planet, few are as critical as a cooperative relationship between the U.S. and China.

- David Brown, Wood Mackenzie’s Head of Markets and Transitions for the Americas

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INTERNATIONAL “The cooperation sentiment has really eased off as a result of the trade war,” he added, with the U.S. and China now “deprioritizing decarbonization” at the strategic level.

Global Power Capacity : net change by generation type, 2020 to 2040

For the energy transition, the risk from the trade war comes on several fronts. First is the negative impact on global economic growth, which in turn makes it more difficult for political leaders to push aggressive decarbonization agendas. Despite a booming stock market, the U.S. Federal Reserve this week lowered interest rates for the first time since the Great Recession. China’s economic growth has slowed to a multi-decade low, and both countries increasingly appear to be digging in for a protracted trade war. “The major priority in China is continued economic growth and stability,” Brown said. “If the trade war continues, and it drags on economic growth, it could impact their decision making.”

Meanwhile, the rise of protectionism, exemplified by the Trump administration’s “America First” approach to foreign policy, is making lower-carbon options more difficult or expensive for some countries.

On the renewables front, the U.S. has imposed tariffs on most types of imported solar modules, and newly proposed tariffs on wind turbine towers could undermine project economics just as the wind market enters what is expected to be a historic boom period.

By the end of 2019, WoodMac expects the overall U.S. tariff rate to be near 4 percent, a level not seen since the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, China is showing less interest in buying U.S. liquefied natural gas exports to meet demand in its power-hungry eastern provinces on a lower-carbon basis. “China is one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon producers,” Brown said. “It has some of the world’s largest supplies of coal. They have that supply option — to switch back to coal — should they want to. Things that could spur that include less bilateral trade with other markets or weaker economic growth.” While it’s unlikely China would reverse direction on coal, “what’s maybe more realistic is China slows down its coal-to-gas switching,” Brown said.The impact of protectionism on decarbonization reverberates far beyond the energy industry. Take steel production, which is intensely competitive, inherently difficult to decarbonize, and has “national champions” in many countries. Steel accounts for 9 percent of global emissions. “Who will be willing to create ‘green steel’ first when the returns are not visible?” the ETO asks.

Predictions

The 100-page ETO digs deep into a range of industries and commodities, from renewables and fossil fuels to automobiles and mining.

Among Wood Mackenzie’s predictions

Wind and solar will account for a quarter of the world’s power supply by 2040, up from 7 percent today, and the share will be closer to 50 percent in many affluent countries. The world will add 3,000 gigawatts of wind and solar over the next two decades, six times more than new gas-fired capacity.

Solar energy will be the world’s fastest-growing power-generation technology for decades to come, and the market will rapidly diversify into new countries.

WoodMac believes utility-scale solar will be cheaper than gas-fired power just about everywhere by 2023 on a levelized-cost basis. Sales of off-grid home solar

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Credit: Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables’ Energy Transition Outlook 2019

A taxing war

energy systems will notch an 80 percent compound annual growth rate during the 2017-2022 period, bringing zero-carbon power to hundreds of millions more people in places like sub-Saharan Africa. The global wind market will grow from 44 gigawatts in 2018 to 63 gigawatts in 2028, despite a mid-decade slowdown as subsidies fade away in key markets like the U.S. Offshore wind will grow from 16 percent of the total wind market this year to 30 percent by 2028.Installed energy storage capacity will grow from 4 gigawatts currently to 600 gigawatts by 2040.

The report also highlights the reasons why keeping global warming to 2 degrees will be so difficult.

Decarbonization is moving slowly outside the power sector, with “little to no progress” made in carbonheavy industries like aviation, shipping, housing and agriculture.Coal’s share of the world’s electricity output peaked at 41 percent in 2014, but amid persistent demand in places like India it will still stand at 25 percent in 2040, Wood Mackenzie predicts.Put together, coal, gas and oil will account for 85 percent of the world’s primary energy supply in 2040, down only modestly from 90 percent today.

Later this year, WoodMac will update its alternative energy outlook for a “carbon-constrained” future, which looks at what it would mean to hold global warming to 2.5 degrees Celsius.

Is there money to be made in the energy transition?

Another factor that could speed the energy transition is an embrace of low-carbon technologies by the world’s most sophisticated hydrocarbon companies. Aside from a few European players, however, there is little evidence of that happening in a meaningful way.

The ETO delves into the obvious problem: There’s not as much money to be made in renewables as in oil and gas, at least not right now. The difference in returns on investment into various types of energy projects tracked by Wood Mackenzie is striking — running from around 5 percent for solar projects up to 30 percent or more for North American onshore oil.

The reality, WoodMac’s Brown noted, is that building and operating wind and solar farms is quite different than the oil business — “totally different assets with different monetization strategies.”

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“The market is kind of forcing them together, in the sense that some investors are asking oil and gas companies about their lowcarbon business strategies. But it’s a real challenge because the core obligation for these companies is to their shareholders. They want robust and healthy returns, and those come from oil and gas right now.”

- David Brown Source : greentechmedia

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INTERNATIONAL

‘black zero’ BUDGET German Chancellor Angela Merkel will stick to the principle of black zero in the federal budget that avoided creating new debts for more climate protection measures, government spokesperson Steffen Seibert has announced.

Seibert said recently that Merkel had never left any doubt that she was “committed” to the goal of a balanced budget and this would continue to be the goal, Xinhua reported. “That, too, is sustainability,” stressed Seibert, adding that a wideranging discussion about individual climate protection proposals was currently ongoing in the German ministries.

Members of the German Social Democrats (SPD) including Karl Lauterbach and Michael Roth had recently called for new debts to be incurred in order to finance Germany’s climate protection targets.

“We need a massive state expansion of renewable energies. The black zero is therefore economically and ecologically nonsensical,” Lauterbach told the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

The chairman of the German Greens, Robert Habeck, also pleaded for new debts, telling Deutschlandfunk that investing more in climate protection while increasing other expenditures “would not work”.

In contrast, German Minister for Finance Olaf Scholz (SPD) said recently that the black zero was not “in danger” despite spending on climate protection and the partial abolition of the solidarity surcharge. We can perform the tasks we have set ourselves without incurring new debts.

The leader of Merkel’s conservative CDU Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on German broadcaster n-tv that “we want sustainability”. But there is no reason to start by saying we are giving up sound fiscal policy,” stressed Kramp-Karrenbauer.Recently, Kramp-Karrenbauer and Andreas Jung, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group had called for a “comprehensive tax reform” in the energy sector as a means for more climate protection in Germany. We do not have too few taxes, we have too little control. If a CO2 cap were to be put in traffic and buildings, there would also have to be relief for citizens and businesses,” KrampKarrenbauer and Jung told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

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Business AND FINANCE

Energy Vault Closes Series B Funding With $110 Million Investment From Softbank Vision Fund New Financing Will Accelerate Growth and Rapid Global Deployment of Company’s Transformative Utility-Scale Energy Storage Technology

“Energy Vault solves a long-standing and complex problem of how to store renewable energy at scale.

The company’s integration of proven technologies with 21st century material science and machine vision software provides a solution that reshapes the unit economics of renewable energy while being restorative to the environment. Energy Vault is highly complementary to SoftBank’s existing energy portfolio and we are pleased to further the company’s global development.”

Other members of the German conservative CDU, however, spoke out against tax increases or new debts to finance climate protection. “I do not understand the Berlin politicians at all who think that if there is so much money, they can take more money from somewhere, from tax increases or through debt,” said Mike Mohring, leader of the CDU in the federal state of Thuringia.

Saxony’s Minister-President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) underlined that “with me, there will be no CO2 tax which would burden German consumers and endanger German jobs,” cautioned Kretschmer.

Akshay Naheta,

Managing Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers

“As we pursue our mission to enable renewable energy to replace fossil fuels 24 hours a day, we’re thrilled to partner with SoftBank Vision Fund as we expand our global presence.

The Vision Fund shares our passion to combat climate change through innovation in energy storage technologies and, with its support as a strategic partner, Energy Vault is well positioned to meet the large and currently unmet demand for sustainable and economical energy storage worldwide.”

Robert Piconi,

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Energy Vault

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nergy Vault, the creator of renewable energy storage products that are transforming the world’s approach to long duration, utilityscale energy storage, today announced it has completed a $110 million Series B funding round. The investment for the round was made

by SoftBank Vision Fund (Vision Fund) in its first investment in energy storage technology. Energy Vault will use the funds to accelerate global deployment of its technology, which – for the first time – enables renewables to deliver baseload power for less than the cost of fossil fuels 24 hours a day. As part of the investment, Andreas Hansson, Partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, will join the Energy Vault board of directors.

Renewables have struggled historically to fully replace fossil fuel power as a result of production unpredictability and intermittency from reliance on variable factors such as wind and sunlight. In the absence of more efficient and cost-effective storage, the amount of electricity that can be delivered to the grid from renewable energy sources, even though now widely affordable, has been limited.

Energy Vault’s breakthrough technology was inspired by pumped hydro plants that rely on the power of gravity and the movement of water to store and discharge electricity. The company’s solution is based on the same well-understood fundamentals of physics and mechanical engineering used in those plants, but replaces water with custom made composite bricks through an innovative use of low-cost materials and material science. The bricks, each weighing 35 metric tons, are combined with Energy Vault’s proprietary system design and machine vision software to operate a newly designed crane. The software autonomously orchestrates the energy storage tower and electricity charge/discharge utilizing predictive intelligence and a unique stack of proprietary algorithms that account for a variety of factors, including energy supply and demand volatility, grid stability, weather elements and other variables. As a result, the Energy Vault tower can deliver all the benefits of a large scale pumped hydro storage system, but at a much lower levelized cost, higher roundtrip efficiency and without the requirement for specific land topography and negative environmental impacts.

Energy Vault has experienced significant growth since its launch in November 2018. In addition to the previously announced agreement with The Tata Power Company Limited, India’s largest integrated power company, Energy Vault will be demonstrating the first 35MWh storage tower in the north of Italy in 2019. The company has also developed an extensive relationship with CEMEX (NYSE: CX) that includes a technology collaboration and development agreement with CEMEX Research Group AG (Switzerland) as well as an investment from CEMEX Ventures announced in May 2019.

As a further measure of the unprecedented market demand and upcoming adoption of the technology, Energy Vault has agreements with customers on four continents.

Source : IANS

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Amit barve

Head - Business development and marketing, Enerparc India

EQ: Government of India has ambitious target of installing 40GW of solar rooftops by 2022, Can the industry achieve this target?

AB: We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Government of India for setting up very ambitious target of setting up 40GW of solar rooftops and subsequently come out with various policy as well as regulatory support mechanism to help boost installation. Adoption of solar energy in Commercial and Industrial sector has picked up in last few years and growing at very high CAGR and would continue to do so. However with cross subsidization of tariffs for residential consumers across all states, sector is lagging hugely in adoption of solar energy. And with domestic consumers growing slowly for adoption of solar energy would make reaching this ambitious plan and big challenge.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

EQ: Can you detail out any specific case study to showcase real benefits of solar in terms of distributed decentralized generation and modularity?

AB: We have been working extensively with premium mattress manufacturer KURLON, till now we have completed 6 projects with them in four manufacturing plants. First project we did with them was for their Gwalior plant more than 3 years back, the size of project was restricted to 400KWp due to non-availability of net metering policy in state of Madhya Pradesh. However as net metering policy got announced we enhanced the capacity by adding another 200KWp as well as getting approval for net metering so that off-day consumption on Sunday gets offset and they can use more energy for rest of 6 days in week generated through solar.

As Gwalior factory went for next expansion and their electrical loads increased, we helped them evaluate possibility of additional capacity of solar and installed 400Kwp and enhanced capacity for net metering to 1MWp. Today major portion of their daily energy consumption is thru solar energy and have huge savings making project financially very attractive. This is real story of modularity of solar energy along with benefits of negating energy at the place of consumption.

EQ: Kindly enlighten on “Energy storage as Game Changer� and future trends expected in the sector AB: Even though there are multiple advantages one inherent disadvantage is that, its infirm source of generation. However battery technologies undergoing rapid changes with innovations and costs coming down with enhancement in scales we do not see days too far away when solar energy along with battery storage would be a game changer and competing against conventional energy or even becoming main source of energy supply. With storage becoming affordable energy would become dispatch able and can be used at a place and at time of day as required. This would also bring huge disruption in distribution business of energy and future would be open self-generation for own consumption.

EQ: What are your unique selling features and differentiator from rest of your competition?

AB: We believe every stakeholder in Industry is doing what best they can do. What we doing are focusing on few basics to be done

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right and the outcome will always be good likeHaving very detailed discussions with customers and make them aware of pros as well as limitations of solar energy, so that we set right expectations l We do detailed site analysis before making proposal not only in terms of capacity analysis but also in terms of safety aspects during construction as well as during O&M l Put lot of emphasis on Design/Engineering and choosing right components l High quality of workmanship l Follow highest standards of Safety while completing installation and l Where ever applicable make very dedicated O&M l

EQ: What the opportunities in this space and challenges in upscaling distributed solar market AB: Sky is the limit as far as opportunities are concerned, if perused properly we can easily exceed GOI target of reaching 40GW in this space. However need of the time is spreading awareness amongst masses and requisite regulatory framework to enhance pace of its adoption.

EQ: What are benefits or subsidies given by SECI, Central, State or local Governments and how are policies helping solar sector AB: Barring residential consumers in few states there are no subsidies on solar energy.

Also commercial and industrial tariffs almost in all industrialized states are so high that Levelized cost of electricity from solar is anyway lesser than grid energy cost and it makes huge financial sense to invest in solar energy. On set no subsidies are required to make solar energy attractive anymore. As storage of energy is still not financially viable option hence possibility of banking this generated energy with DISCOM when it is not required by Industry like on weekly off / National holiday helps utilizing potential of solar generation to extent. Policy of net metering which is now functional in almost all states helps / allows generator to bank excess energy generated than required and allows to offset in monthly billing cycle. This policy has been implemented in variety of flavours in different states and making it unified and consistent is the biggest challenge for stake

holders in solar energy.

EQ: What are various metering options and explain their pros and cons AB: There are basically two types of metering options availablel Net metering and l Gross metering Net metering basically allows energy generated from solar to be banked and used in same tariff zone on any day within monthly billing cycle allowing to offset energy exported or banked DISCOM. The net difference between energy imported and energy exported is billed to consumer. While in gross metering consumer gets billed for energy he is drawing from the gird and he gets paid for energy that gets exported from his solar energy plant. However energy gets billed in both directions and the rate at which DISCOM pays to consumer is negligible as compared to rate as charged by DISCOM the effect it there is no real incentive for consumer to go for gross metering. Today more and more states and their DISCOMs are looking at converting net metering policy to gross metering which would be huge disincentive for consumers.

EQ: Kindly rank the states in its attractiveness for distributed solar energy AB: Currently Levelized cost of electricity generation from solar energy has dropped below INR5/KWh and hence grid parity has been achieved in almost all the industrialized states at least for Commercial, Industrial and high consuming residential customers. Onset all the industrialized states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, NCR are attractive destinations for solar adoptions.

EQ: What are financing options if someone wants to avail benefits of solar energy?

AB: Today various flexible business models exist for consumers including opting for OPEX where in developers would invest on installing solar power plants and consumer would pay them tariff like they pay to DISCOM, however at discounted rates. Also on CAPEX model if someone wants to install solar energy then they can get debt finance thru SBI/PNB who have in-turn line of credits thru World Bank and ADB for especially funding solar rooftop.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Smart meter penetration is poised to grow in developed and developing economies.

WoodMac: Smart Meter Installations to Surge Globally Over Next 5 Years The rise of advanced metering infrastructure is granting utilities and customers unprecedented insight into power consumption.

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he total number of smart meters around the world is expected to almost double over 2017 levels by 2024, opening up new opportunities for customer-side control and analytics.

The global smart meter total will rise from 665.1 million in 2017 to more than 1.2 billion by the end of 2024, according to a new Wood Mackenzie report. Accordingly, the cumulative global expenditure on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) will almost double over the same period, rising from $73 billion in 2017 to $145.8 billion in 2024 (all values USD).

The growth of AMI globally is an important factor in the rise of customer-side flexibility, defined by WoodMac as the orchestrated impact of distributed generation and energy management tools on customer load shapes.

Where AMI is prevalent, utilities gain better visibility into power supply and demand. In areas with high distributed energy resource penetrations, AMI can support better integration of solar power and distributed energy resources into the energy mix, including the orchestration of DERs as an aggregate flexible resource.

AMI can allow renewable penetration to climb higher than would otherwise be possible, because the additional data made available can serve as the foundation for more advanced analytics and provide guidance on optimization of behind-themeter resources. At the same time, customers can also rely on smart meters for useful insights into their own power consumption and generation.

AMI penetration is poised to rise significantly over the coming years in both developed and

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Asia to drive AMI market growth through 2024 and beyond

Source: Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables developing markets. Some countries have taken the lead in smart meter penetration, while others are moving more slowly.

Asia will be the biggest market for smart meters over the next five years, accounting for approximately two-thirds of the global AMI installed base through 2024.

China is the key market driver in the region. The country already accounts for more than half of all smart meters installed globally. The State Grid Corporation of China — the country’s main power distribution and transmission utility — deployed 476 million smart meters between 2011 and 2017.

India will emerge as an increasingly significant actor in the Asian market, thanks to the recent introduction of a centralized AMI procurement and financing process. As a result, India is projected to surpass Japan as the second largest AMI market in Asia by as early as 2023.

Wood Mackenzie also expects significant AMI growth in the United States and Europe

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over its forecast period, with smart meter penetration reaching 82 percent and 74 percent, respectively, by 2024.

When looking beyond the aggregate data, however, both the U.S. and the European Union are a mixed bag for AMI deployment, with penetration advancing at different speeds.

Many U.S. utilities have developed plans to deploy AMI, but regulators’ reactions have been mixed across the country.

One example: In January of this year, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission rejected a section of Dominion’s grid modernization plan that included the installation of approximately 2.1 million smart meters. The commission deemed the cost of deploying smart meters too high given the projected benefits, but also gave the utility an opportunity to present a new plan with a revised cost-benefit balance.

Meanwhile, other large utilities like Duke Energy and Long Island Power Authority

are implementing plans to install millions of AMI meters over the coming years.

Similarly, AMI deployment is uneven across Europe, even though the European Union has set goals for smart meter implementation by 2020 for many countries. As of 2019, Italy and Sweden have already started to deploy second-generation meters, while countries like Germany and Poland have only recently begun to roll out AMI meters for the first time.

Latin America and Oceania will remain comparatively small markets over the next five years, though WoodMac expects a notable uptick in countries including Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.

Based on current data, Wood Mackenzie expects the African AMI market to remain small relative to the continent’s population, with only modest smart meter implementation through 2024.

Source : greentechmedia

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES

1

2 In March, Musk had said that Tesla would definitely arrive in India by 2020, if not this year.

Several years back, the CEO had talked about his plans to enter the country with Model 3.

HIGH

LIGH

TS

Tesla electric vehicle (EV) range currently comprises of Model 3, Model S and Model X.

3

Musk says high import duties will make Tesla electric cars unaffordable in India Responding to a question on when Tesla will enter India, Elon Musk in said a tweet: “I’m told import duties are extremely high (up to 100 per cent), even for electric cars.

This would make our cars unaffordable.”

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E

lon Musk has been frequently talking about Tesla’s plans to arrive in India. In a recent interaction with the students of Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the Tesla CEO had made public his plans to enter the country by 2020. Now Musk has said that the high import duties will make Tesla electric cars unaffordable in India. The Tesla CEO regularly takes to Twitter to divulge important details about his company. Responding to a question on when Tesla will enter India, Elon Musk in said a tweet: “I’m told import duties are extremely high (up to 100 per cent), even for electric cars. This would make our cars unaffordable.”

Tesla electric vehicle (EV) range currently comprisIn another es of Model 3, Model S and Model X. The entry-level tweet, Musk Tesla Model 3 is available in three trims — Standard said: “For other Plus, Long Range and Performance. The Standard Plus is priced at USD 38,990, Long Range at USD 47,990 countries, we and Performance at USD 54,990. pay in part for Tesla Model 3 had recently achieved five stars in the local factory the ANCAP safety ratings, which are published for by selling cars a range of new passenger, sports utility and light there ahead commercial vehicles entering the Australian and New of time. Also, Zealand markets. The electric car has scored five stars gives a sense in the Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment of demand. Programme) crash tests as well.

In March, Musk had said that Tesla would definitely Current rules in India prevent arrive in India by 2020, if not this year. Several years back, the CEO had talked about his plans to enter the that, but recent country with Model 3. changes in The Government of India is aiming at making the sales tax give country a global EV manufacturing hub. A tax benefit hope for future of Rs 1.5 lakh on the interest paid on the loans taken changes.” for the purchase of the EVs has been announced. The GST rate on EVs has been reduced to 5 per cent from 12 per cent. Besides, the tax rate on chargers or charging stations for EVs has been lowered to 5 per cent from 18 per cent.

In July, Hyundai launched Kona electric SUV in India for a starting price of Rs 25.30 lakh (ex-showroom) and received 120 confirmed bookings within 10 days of the launch. Towards the end of 2019, Audi will also introduce e-tron in the country and we are expecting it to be priced around Rs 1.15 crore (ex-showroom, India). In December, MG will drive in EZS electric SUV in India.

Source : indiatoday

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EXCLUIVE INTERVIEW

K. r. Harinarayan Founder and CEO

U-Solar Clean Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

EQ: 100GW by 2022..Is this Really Achievable? What are the Opportunities & Road Blocks KRH: The 100GW goal is for the total solar capacity to be installed by 2022, out of which 40GW is projected to come from rooftop solar. This goal is definitely achievable, the opportunity is huge as there are still many commercial and industrial rooftops that don’t have solar. There is a capacity of several Giga-Watts in terms of available roofs. Our contribution to reaching the goal would be installing 100MW of rooftop solar by 2022. We are in the process of raising money to achieve this target. We have successfully raised equity investment to get this started.

We see the primary roadblocks as the government regulations. As different states are coming up with contrary measures that sometimes discourage rooftop installations.

Disallowing net-metering in many states for instance is a good example of a regulatory roadblock.

EQ:Module Tech & Pricing Road Map as forecasted by you? Developers in India are majorly buying Poly while the global supply chain is shifting to Mono PERC or BiFacial….What are the Problems in this shift and when the shift will happen in India KRH: The shift is happening gradually. In India we are far more price conscious. As long as the generation is fine, whatever works in terms of quality passes; higher efficiency per-se is not seen as an advantage, which is needed only in the case of space constraint.

There is a trade-off between space constraint and efficiency, which is to say if there is lesser space higher efficiency matters. This is however not a major driver of the shift, which is still mostly cost driven.

EQ: Challenges in Adoption of Mono-Perc, Bifacial etc

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KRH:With respect to Mono-Perc and BiFacial, the price is the major challenge for adoption in the Indian market. As long as the differential cost between the two is still large, say about 2-3 cents, the shift will remain small. Personally, I am not a big fan of BiFacial as the generation highly depends on reflection of surfaces and these surfaces remaining clean. Keeping clean surfaces in India is a challenge due to dust and pollution, so the maintenance of these panels remains a challenge.

EQ: Challenges in RoofTop : RESCO Model - Emerging Regulatory Challenges, Few States baring Net Metering KRH: As many states are disallowing net-metering and placing other regulatory challenges for rooftop solar adoption, it is becoming tricky to reach a larger section of the market. Government policy was central to the rise of the ground mounted solar market in India. Without similar support for the rooftop solar market, it will be difficult to reach the 40GW goal set out by the Government of India in the National Solar Mission.

Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for instance are states with large capacity for rooftop solar installations, but the state’s policies do not support the implementation.

EQ: Module & Inverters Warranty Enforcement Challenges: In View of Fast Technology Changing World KRH: It is necessary to separate the two components, module and inverter warranty enforcement.

Module warranty is difficult to enforce, firstly due to the challenges in identification of module faults. Module degradation and faults have not been set as standard practices; the deviation from in standard operating conditions can be associated with a variety of external factors. Establishing that a module is not working “up to the mark” is difficult.

Secondly, supposing the module has failed entirely or is generating very low there is opportunity to approach the module manufacturer but even in this case there are several challenges. There are many factors that could have led to the module fault that do not fall in the manufacturer’s purview; such as transportation, installation and handling damages.

Additionally, there are logistic issues that appear adding up to the cost (removal of panels, transport to lab etc). Lastly, there are large companies that were operating in India and are no longer active. Therefore, module warranty enforcement is a continual challenge.

Inverter warranty enforcement is relatively simpler; an inverter is either working or not working. It is reasonably easier to enforce as assessing inverter faults or breakdowns are intelligible.

EQ: Energy Storage is the need of the hour…Kindly comment KRH: Cheap and efficient energy storage is definitely the need of the hour for the solar industry. Unfortunately, a combination of battery storage and solar energy which will allow complete of-grid power independence is still quite expensive. Storage with solar energy will cost around INR 12-18/unit, depending on the scale, whereas electricity from the grid ranges from INR 6-8/unit. Even if batteries are manufactured in India, the cost is unlikely to shift dramatically. There is a need for a technological breakthrough to reduce the cost to a feasible state. It is therefore not yet a substitute for the grid. In cases where operations are completely off the grid and there is a heavy dependence on diesel generators, it is plausible to shift to storage with solar energy. In order to compete with the grid there needs to be a more dramatic reduction in the price of battery storage technology. The cost of pure storage including replacement will be around INR 5-8/unit, this need to be pushed down to INR 1-3/unit. It is uncertain when this may happen; our hope is that it would possibly with scale.

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

Australia, Canadian funds to invest up to USD 2 bn through NIIF

Dale Burgess, senior managing director (infrastructure and natural resources) of Ontario Teachers’, said, “NIIF’s investment strategy aligns with the long-term and partner-oriented investing approach, we have successfully used in other regions.”

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) recently said Australia’s largest superannuation fund AustralianSuper and Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan have signed pacts to invest up to USD 2 billion with the NIIF Master Fund.

T

NIIF Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sujoy Bose said, “We are delighted to welcome two of the world’s leading pension funds as investors in the NIIF Master Fund and as shareholders of NIIF, alongside other eminent investors. AustralianSuper and Ontario Teachers’ are among the most respected infrastructure investors in the world and bring considerable global perspective and value to NIIF.”

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he NIIF invests in equity capital in the country’s core infrastructure sectors with a focus on transportation, energy and urban infrastructure.

“The NIIF of India is pleased to announce that AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation fund, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers’), Canada’s largest single-profession pension plan, have each signed agreements for investments of up to USD 1 billion with the NIIF Master Fund,” NIIF said in a statement.

The agreements include commitments of USD 250 million each in the Master Fund and co-investment rights of up to USD 750 million each in future opportunities alongside the Fund, it said.

Ben Chan, regional managing director (Asia-Pacific) of Ontario Teachers’, said a commitment to NIIF will substantially bolster Ontario Teachers’ presence in India, providing us with on-the-ground market insights and capabilities to be well-positioned in a large market with significant expected growth.

“This marks the third close of the NIIF Master Fund. AustralianSuper and Ontario Teachers’ will now join the Government of India (GOI), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Temasek, HDFC Group, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance and Axis Bank as investors in the Fund,” the statement said.

AustralianSuper and Ontario Teachers’ will also become shareholders in National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Ltd, NIIF’s investment management company, it said. The Fund also added that domestic investors HDFC Life and Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance have further committed Rs 600 million in the third round.

“With this, NIIF Master Fund becomes the largest infrastructure fund in India with assets under management of over USD 1.8 billion and a co-investment pool of USD 2.5 billion, which will enable the Fund to invest at the scale required for the large infrastructure requirements in India,” it said.

The Master Fund has a tenure of 15 years and is denominated in the Indian rupees to suit the requirements of the infrastructure sector.

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Mark Delaney, chief investment officer with AustralianSuper, said India’s burgeoning infrastructure market is among the largest in Asia, which presents many opportunities for investment. “We are pleased to have entered into this agreement with the NIIF Master Fund and to be shareholders of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited and look forward to participating in a strong pipeline of projects across a range of sectors.”

NIIF is a fund manager that invests in infrastructure and related sectors in India. An institution anchored by the Government of India, NIIF is a collaborative investment platform for international and Indian investors with a mandate to invest equity capital in domestic infrastructure.

Source: PTI

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PV CONNECTORS

Staubli : Original MC-4 Connectors

SMALL COMPONENTS,

BIG IMPACT

S

With Stäubli, you are entering into a long-term partnership built on reliability, profound expertise, dynamism and exceptional quality in both products and services.

Today, we have more than 260 GW of installed photovoltaic capacity, amounting to nearly 50% of the global cumulative PV capacity that had been successfully connected using our Stäubli photovoltaic connectors.

täubli Electrical Connectors, formerly Multi-Contact,is part of the Swiss family-owned Stäubli Group, a globalmechatronics solution provider with three dedicated activities: Connectors, both fluid and electrical, Robotics and Textile, founded in 1892. We have over 56 years of practical experience in producing reliable electrical connectors for different industries. We have been the pioneer and market leader for electrical connectors in photovoltaics for more than 25 years. The first industrial photovoltaic connector (MC3) was introduced by Stäubli in 1996 followed by the original MC4 in 2002 setting the industry standard ever since. We never compromise when it comes to quality, long-term reliability or our partners’ success.

Today, we have more than 260 GW of installed photovoltaic capacity, amounting to nearly 50 % of the global cumulative PV capacity that had been successfully connected using our Stäubli photovoltaic connectors. This figure demonstrates the reliability, highest quality, and market acceptance of our products.

They guarantee proper operation over their whole lifetime which can easily exceed 25 years, defy harsh environmental influences and have a positive impact on the bankability of photovoltaic projects.

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Importance of the quality aspect related to PV connectors Given the current cost pressure climate, with developers and IPPs increasingly quoting aggressively low prices in order to squeeze profitability, the need for cost reduction strategies in the solar industry has been put forth. This is particularly the case across growing solar regions such as India, Latin America and MENA. The question that now comes up: isn’t there a mismatch between what solar owners and investors want, and what diligent EPCs can realistically deliver? How to maintain quality, profitability and reliability in the grip of such financial squeeze? We have to be really cautious, the run for even lower prices can be dangerous; you get what you pay for and you have to be competitive without compromising quality.

Obviously this trend effects the electrical Balance of System components including connectors too. But results of different third party studies as well as our own experiences prove that in existing PV systems huge numbers of cabling/connec-

tors issues due to poor quality have been found. These have a major negative influence on the efficiency, the return on investment and the LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) of the PV asset.

We observe that the industry still faces a huge lack of knowledge on cabling and connectors, not only about the products, but also in respect of the correct handling and its relevance for financial success of a PV asset.

We are frequentlyconfronted with statements such as “connector, what’s that?”, “nothing happened so far, no problems with connectors”,“compatibility for different connectors”or “having certificate and data sheet is enough”.

Today, especially in unsubsidized markets, project owners have topay more and more attention to the quality of components. Mostly though, they focus on modules and inverters – which obviously represent the largest part of the CAPEX – whereas other components are often neglected. Project owners mostly leave this topic to the respective EPC. Most of the time, depending on the business model of the EPC, they will go for the cheapest investment solution. We see there is still a lack of knowledge,

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PV CONNECTORS

technical staff.

Finally, it is not only about the product, but also about the correct handling and installation of the connectors. There are several international and often local regulations as well as assembly instructions to consider when installing in order to avoid e.g. crossconnection of PV connectors.

Top 20 technical failures ERROR MESSAGE

€ 0.17

POTENTIAL INDUCED DEGRADATION

€ 0.21

MAIN SWITCH OPEN & DOES NOT RECLOSE AUTOMATICALLY

€ 0.22

MOD

GLASS BREAKAGE

€ 0.27

STRU CT

INV MOD CONN/DIST BOX

TRACKER FAILURE

€ 0.31

MOD

BROKEN MODULE

€ 0.34

CAB

WRONG/ABSENT CABLES

€ 0.36

MOD

IMPROPER INSTALLATION

€ 0.45

Importance of selecting the right PV connector for the application

BURNT SUPPLY CABLE OR SOCKET

€ 0.60

BROKEN TRANSFORMER

€ 0.66

INVERTER NOT OPERATING/FAILURE AFTER GRID FAULT

€ 0.67

MOD

SHADING

€ 0.68

CAB

DAMAGED CABLE

€ 0.69

IMPROPER INSTALLATION

€ 0.69

IMPROPER/INADEQUATE INSTALLATION

€ 0.71

INV TX/MV/HV INV

CAB TX/MV/HV

€ 0.95

SOILING

MOD INV

FAN FAILURE & OVERHEATING

INV

WRONG INSTALLATION

CAB

BROKEN/BURNT CONNECTORS

CAB

WRONG/ABSENT CABLE CONNECTION –

€ 1.17 € 1.35 € 2.67 € 3.93 €

€ 1.0

€ 2.0

€ 3.0

€ 4.0

€ 5.0

€/kWp/year loss due to the failure

Calculation of the economic impact: Solar Bankability is a project funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program (www.solarbankability.org). According to their “Cost Priority Number” (cost-based failure mode and effects analysis) of the top 20 technical failures in PV systems, cables and connectors can have a huge financial impact (€/kWp/year loss due to the failure). especially among investors and project owners, sometimes they underestimate or do not focus on these “small” components.

They don’t see the decisive character of the latter reflecting at best 0.003 % of the total initial investment cost. The connector is a small part, both in its physical footprint and in terms of its impact in the total system cost.

But if you consider that you are investing a lot of money, and you pay a lot of attention to selecting the right modules, the right system design, etc., then you also want that the energy you are producing is not only transmitted efficiently, but also in a safe and reliable way.

And what part is of crucial importance when it comes to the safe transmission of electric power? It is the connector. Our aimis to create more awareness within the PV industry on these relevant topics.

Suggestion to PV project owners and the key criteria to watch out for As so often in life, good planning pays off.

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A core pillar of cost reduction and securing the asset is a solid planning. Laying the foundations at the very early stages of a project will avert any avoidable costs in the future, protect the investment, and ensure longevity and reliability of the project with an overall lower LCOE. So during the planning phase, a careful selection – which exceeds mere checking of the data sheet and the certificates – of bankable products and components is the key. When it comes to connectors, we recommend to be demanding and audit critical parameters; this may start with a checklist including a data sheet, a track record of the products and questions in respect of their quality system.The product selection should not be limited to the product itself, it should also consider if your supplier is a bankable partner. Does your partner offer local support? Is the company doing business in a sustainable manner, so that it will still be approachable in 10 years from now on? PV project owners should attach great importance to the careful selection of a bankable partner with a quality approach and educated

The worldwide acceptance of PV is also based on the industry’s reliable and safe way to generate electric power. PV connectors play a key role in a long-term durable and reliable protection against hazards such as electric shock, personal injury or fire hazards.

Simply put, for a connection you need a plug and a socket cable coupler and each of them consists of a contact part made from metal and an insulating part made from plastic to protect the connection.

Connectors are used in large numbers: for instance, in a 100 MW solar park, around 700,000 connectors are installed. The key to efficient operation and energy feed-in is a constantly low contact resistance. Vice versa, an increasing contact resistance inside the connectors will induce higher temperatures and power loss, which will have negative impact on the contact resistance again, thus creating a spiral resulting in a high risk of connector failure. So the consequences caused by these failures lead to power loss due to downtimes, expenditure on service hours and costs for spare parts. And, in a worst case scenario, reconstruction measures due to hotspots or a fire. At the end of the day: higher operation/maintenance costs and lower energy yield respectively lower revenue.

The financial impact is of course depending on a lot of different factors: how many connectors are affected, where in the system?

Is only a module, an entire string or the whole PV-plant disconnected? What monitoring system does the owner run and how long would it take to react? So remember: the key to efficient operation of the whole grid is constantly low contact resistance.

Therefore, the key words in respect of product selection is their durability and reliability throughout the entire lifetime of 25 years plus. Hence, long-term stability of the materials used for its production has to be granted. As many connectors look similar, customers often want to know how to classify a durable and reliable connector as one.

Here it is necessary to take a close look at the insulator: carefully selected material ensures protection from environmental influences, guarantees highest operator safety through e.g. touch protection and features the necessary performance in respect of mechanical strength.

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PV CONNECTORS

Image 2: Original MC4 PV connector; 260 GW PV capacity rely on more than 1.6 billion connectors.

The choice of high quality insulator material and its durable and reliable design are crucial. Decisive role of the metal parts: the ones transmitting the electric power within the DC PV system Material choice and its design are also crucial with regards to the metal parts.

When looking at the MC4 product family, the patented, unique and innovative MULTILAM concept guarantees the lowest considerable and long-time stable contact resistance.This low contact resistance is essential when comparing products.Stäubli’s

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precision and know-how in manufacturing the electrical products is proven by its track record of over 260 GW connected worldwide and experience of producing contact technology for electric power transmission.

Importance of a low and long-time stable contact resistance As mentioned above, the primary task of the connector is to transmit the electric power generated by the PV modules in a safe and reliable manner with smallest power loss possible. Electric power is lost

through resistance –in fact, it is not lost but transformed into heat. Therefore it is not very useful to compare initial values of contact resistance of different connector suppliers, but re-evaluate these characteristics over the products’ life time under consideration of the weathering effects. In really bad connections with high contact resistance, the generated heat can lead to fire and otherdangerous hazards. Compatibility is crucial as dimensions, contact pressure and surface, chemical compatibility, etc. need to conform. Compatibility can only be guaranteed if both the connector socket and the connector plug are delivered from the same supplier!

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INDIA

T Mr. Sanjay Banga, CEO, TATA PowerDDL, said, “At TATA Power-DDL, we have always been committed towards sustainable and clean energy.

This collaboration with CEEW will strengthen the operational performance of our power network further and help overcome the existing challenges in rooftop deployment, DER technologies, Demand Response, Energy Efficiency and Grid Level Storage to meet the future power requirements.”

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ATA Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL), which distributes electricity to a populace of over 7 million in Delhi, today signed an MoU with the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), one of South Asia’s leading not-for-profit policy research institutions, to evaluate and accelerate the integration of decentralized renewable energy into Delhi’s power grid.

The collaboration will include joint research on the impact of increased solar rooftop deployment on the quality of power supply, determining optimum rooftop solar photovoltaic share at the distribution transformer-level and techno-economic feasibility of agricultural solar micro-grids. The research findings will provide TATA Power-DDL with an implementable plan to meet a portion of its future power needs using solar and other Distributed Energy Resources (DER) technologies.

Further, TATA Power-DDL and CEEW will also assess the impact of air pollution on the life of power distribution assets and their operational performance. The assets will be evaluated on the basis of their maintenance and replacement history along with prospective measurement of air pollution in areas where degradation is likely to be higher.

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Collaboration will focus on an implementable plan to meet a portion of the future power needs using Solar and DER technologies, Demand Response, Energy Efficiency, Grid Level Storage, Peak Load Shifting etc. lW ill also assess the impact of air pollution on the life of power distribution assets and their operational performance l The collaboration could help achieve Delhi’s solar generation targets of 1 GW by 2020 and 2 GW by 2025, in accordance with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission’s guidelines for implementation of the Group Net Metering and Virtual Net Metering framework TATA Power-DDL is the only Power Utility in the country empanelled as both Channel Partner with highest ‘SP 1A’ rating with Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Grade 1 ESCO with Bureau of Energy Efficiency. It follows an integrated approach to promote Green Energy among all Stakeholders.

The company started its solar journey way back in 2008. Till date it has implemented 15 Solar Projects in its own premises and has promoted Solar Projects among its consumers through various awareness programmes.

It has also conducted a study on Business Models for Distributed Energy resources deployment along with USTDA.

Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, CEEW, said, “Delhi’s discoms have been at the forefront of bringing the clean energy transition closer to communities.

This collaboration with TATA Power-DDL will help us accelerate the deployment of renewables into the grid while taking into account the associated challenges to ensure seamless integration with the existing power system.

Solar rooftops and solar micro-grids, if designed well, could both emerge as affordable, reliable, and clean sources of power for residential and agricultural consumers in the coming years.”

The TATA Power-DDL and CEEW collaboration could also help achieve Delhi’s solar generation targets of 1 GW by 2020 and 2 GW by 2025, in accordance with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission’s guidelines for implementation of the Group Net Metering and Virtual Net Metering framework.

Illustration: Ankit Pandey

Tata Power-DDL & CEEW collaborate to accelerate renewable power integration and micro-grids in Delhi

Source: ceew.in

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BALANCE OF SYSTEM

VIKAS ALMADI FIE , CEO+DIRECTOR DEHN INDIA (P) Ltd.

W

ith a newly installed capacity of some gigawatts annually, free field PV power plants are becoming an integral part of modern power supply systems in India. Today large scale power plants with a capacity much higher than 100 MW are installed ,which are directly connected to the grid. The availability of these open and wide power plants in all weather conditions for 25 years is a challenge and it is necessary to assess the risk of damage by lightning so as to take appropriate protection measures.

Risk of a lightning strike to structures such as PV power plants

The regional lightning frequency (lightning strikes per square kilometres / year)

air-termination system lightning current carrying connection

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LIGHTNING PROTECTION OF SOLAR PLANTS AS PER IEC 62305 Standards , the location and size of the PV power plant form the basis for calculating the probability of lightning strikes to the plant. PV systems are exposed to local weather conditions such as thunderstorms over decades.

The Indian standards for protection against lightning are IS/IEC 62305 standards which are derived from international IEC 62305 series.

Necessity of lightning and surge protection

Lightning causes fire, sparking, destruction or damage to modules, combiner boxes and inverters. Damage to PV systems is caused both by the destructive effects of a direct lightning strike and inductive or capacitive coupling of voltages caused by the electromagnetic lightning field.

Moreover, voltage peaks resulting from switching operations on the upstream AC

pile-driven foundation

air-termination system

system can cause damage to PV modules, inverters, charge controllers and their monitoring and communication systems.

This causes loss of revenue as well as capital and sometimes lives too .

The risk resulting from a lightning strike must be determined at the design stage itself according to the IEC 62305-2 standards by using DEHN Support Tool software.

Risk Analysis done in most of the solar PV plants in India reveals that LPL level 3 or 4 is sufficient depending upon the area. The risk calculations on these power plants do not show the need of higher protection Levels (level 1 or 2) as the presence of human beings is minimal and presence of explosive material is not there in solar PV plants. Thus consideration of currents upto 100KA 10/350 microsec is sufficient to design the lightning protection system.

screw-in foundation

lightning current carrying connection

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BALANCE OF SYSTEM Measures for protecting PV power plants from lightning interference In order to ensure effective protection, a lightning protection system with four main components should be considered : 1. Collection of Lightning – Air Terminals , 2. Down conduction and 3. Dissipation in Earth and 4. Equipotential bonding of all conductive or non conductive metal parts . This is achieved by optimally coordinated elements (air-termination system, earth-termination system, lightning equipotential bonding, surge protective devices for all conductors on power supply and data systems)

Air-termination system

In order to prevent the lightning strike directly on modules and conductors, Air Terminals (Franklin Rods) are installed in strategic locations. According to the class of LPS, the rolling sphere method as per IEC 62305-3 can be used to determine the number, size and location of air-termination rods. These air-termination rods form a protected volume above module structures, operations buildings and cables. NO OTHER TYPE OF TERMINAL apart from franklin rods is applicable as per IEC standards for air termination system.

Deviation from IEC, will mean a compromise in safety and this should NOT be done under any pressures of costs.

Tight Connection – even during Lightning Strike

All down conductors of these air-termination systems must be connected to the

Air-termination rod Generator junction box Main earthing busbar

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terminal lugs of the earth-termination system. Terminal lugs must be corrosionresistant (stainless steel V4A), due to the risk of corrosion at the point where they leave the soil or concrete. Terminal lugs made of galvanised steel must be protected by adequate measures, e.g. Denso tape or heat shrinkable sleeves.

The interconnection should be made with LIGHTNING CURRENT TESTED CLAMPS and not by simple unpredictable welding joints !!

Lightning equipotential bonding

Lightning equipotential bonding means directly connecting all metal systems in such a way that they can carry lightning currents without sparking. If the modules, cables and the operations building with weather station are located in the protected volume of the external lightning protection system, direct lightning currents on the lines are not to be expected.

Equipotential bonding of live lines with the main earthing busbar (MEB) is to be done via type 1 lightning current arresters (e.g. DEHNventil) since partial lightning currents are present. The same applies to the incoming telecommunication cables for which type 1 arresters such as BLITZDUCTOR or DEHN- box must be installed.

To mechanically fix the air-termination systems in place, they can frequently be connected to the module racks. Angled air- termination tips, for example, are suitable for this purpose.

Earth-termination system

An earth-termination system forms the

PV array Earth-termination system (mesh size of 20 m x 20 m to 40 m x 40 m) Operations building

basis for implementing effective lightning and surge protection measures in PV power plants. In Annex D of IEC TR 63277, an earth resistance RA of less than 10 Ω is recommended for an earth-termination system.

The earth-termination systems of the PV generators and the operations buildings must be interconnected by means of a flat strip. This interconnection of the individual earth-termination systems reduces the total earth resistance. By intermeshing the earth- termination systems, an equipotential surface is created which considerably reduces the voltage stress on the electrical connecting lines in case of lightning interference between the PV array and the operations building. The metal mounting systems on which the PV modules are installed must be connected to each other and to the earth- termination system.

Solar generator and external lightning protection system

When installing the external lightning protection system, it must be ensured that solar cells are not shaded, for example, by air-termination rods. Diffuse shadows, which occur in case of distant rods or conductors, do not negatively affect the PV system and the yield. Core shadows, however, unnecessarily stress the cells and the associated bypass diodes. The required distance can be calculated and depends on the diameter of the air-termination rod.

Cable routing in PV systems

All cables must be routed in such a way that large conductor loops are avoided.

This applies to for the single-pole series connections of the DC circuits (string) and to several interconnected strings.

Moreover, data or sensor lines must not be routed across several strings and form large conductor loops with the string lines.

Surge protection measures for PV power plants Surge protective devices (SPDs) must be installed to protect the electrical systems in PV power plants for protection against partial discharge currents.

The magnitude of the partial lightning currents depends on, for example, the type of earth-termination system, soil resistivity on site and the type of cables. In case of power plants with central inverters extended DC cables are routed in the field.

Table A.3 of the IEC 61643-32 standard and IEC TR 63227 require a minimum discharge capacity Itotal of 10 kA (10/350 μs) for voltage-limiting type 1 DC SPDs. SPDs with a maximum short-circuit current rating ISCPV, which is determined by means of the EN 50539-11 standard and tested by independent labs like KEMA or VDE should only be used. SPD should have inbuilt DC arc quenching feature in order to exhibit safety for full scope of irradiation curve.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Authors

Arjun Dutt

Lucila Arboleya

Barath Mahadevan

Kanika Chawla

Michael Waldron

Clean Energy Investment Trends 2019

Evolving Risk Perceptions for India’s Grid-Connected Renewable Power Projects

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS CEEW and IEA Clean Energy Investment Trends To achieve its clean energy ambitions, India’s policymakers, industry actors, and financiers must act in concert. For investments in clean energy to scale, policy measures must address the investment risks perceived by financiers and developers.

The Clean Energy Investment Trends is a joint project of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) Centre for Energy Finance and the International Energy Agency (IEA). By monitoring market activity and identifying market trends, the project seeks to provide a practical guide to stakeholders for understanding how the interaction between risks and regulations is shaping investment flows. The insights generated from the analyses of financing and market trends could be used to inform future policy action geared towards enhancing investment flows.

Themes examined in the Clean Energy Investment Trends 2019 report The 2019 Clean Energy Investment Trends report maps out the evolution in the renewable power industry and investment landscape through tracking the risk perceptions of debt financiers towards solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects over the period from 2014 to 2018 and recent developments impacting the pace of capacity addition. Risk perceptions are analysed through an evaluation of key metrics pertaining to debt financing and capital structure. To assess the relative standing of renewables and thermal assets, this report includes an analysis of thermal projects along the same metrics. The report also takes stock of the impact of a recent policy measure – the imposition of safeguard duties on solar PV cell and module imports – on the pace of project awards.

Further, this report contextualises emerging challenges facing the solar park model, which has been a key driver of solar capacity deployment in India’s energy transition.

Key findings Investment in India’s renewable power sector has doubled over the past five years. At nearly USD 20 billion in 2018, it has surpassed capital expenditure in the thermal power sector.1 Ambitious targets, supportive policies, and falling technology costs have improved the attractiveness of financing utility-scale solar PV and wind projects, spurring a dramatic expansion in deployment, though with some differences in the risk profiles and industry landscape between the sectors.

The cost of equity and debt financing comprises around 60% of the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) of solar PV and wind projects.2 Thus, the cost and availability of financing, which depend on the investment risks as perceived by developers and financiers, significantly shape India’s progress along the energy transition.

Sectoral credit exposure limits in the banking sector in India force renewable energy and thermal projects to compete for the same pool of debt capital (as both are categorised as power sector). Thus, improvements in risk perceptions of renewables projects are necessary to scale up their share in debt finance flows from banks.

This is even more important considering the near-term liquidity constraints on India’s non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), in the wake of a bond default by a systemically important NBFC, hampering the flow of debt capital from these sources.

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An analysis of utility-scale solar PV and wind projects sanctioned between 2014 and 2018 points to higher market concentration, better financing terms and lower investment risks over time. However, financing constraints and uncertainties over key policy and infrastructure enablers remain present.

The analysis reveals five key trends • The market concentration of developers sanctioning new solar PV and wind capacity remained high in 2018—above 80% for the top ten firms in both markets. Top companies that can access financing at favourable terms have an advantage in structuring competitive auction bids.

Both solar PV and wind markets are characterised by high concentration in terms of the sanctioning of new projects. With declines in tariffs and pressure on margins, companies with access to favourable sources of finance succeed in winning project capacity at competitive auctions. At the same time, there has been a notable turnover of top players from year to year, as even the best developers face limitations in continually financing projects. Nevertheless, there were signs of increased consolidation in the wind sector in 2018, with the churn rate dropping considerably from the previous year.

• A maturing market along with reduced risk perceptions and enhanced bankability for renewables has contributed to improved availability and pricing of project debt finance over time, facilitating lower cost investment.

The capital structure of wind projects remained stable–debt-to-equity ratios averaged 75:25 – but the share of debt rose for solar PV, with more 75:25 structures and instances of higher ratios (80:20).

Interest rate spreads over bank benchmark lending rates also fell between 75 to 125 basis points for both wind and solar PV between 2014 and 2018. Loan tenures increased during the period between 2014 and 2018 as lenders became more comfortable in extending longer-term loans.

• Data comparisons with thermal power projects were more challenging, but assets developed by integrated state government—owned utilities appear to benefit from some financing advantages.3 For thermal projects developed by integrated state government– owned utilities, degrees of project debt leverage are higher than those for solar PV and wind investments, and loan tenures are longer than those available to other categories of thermal developers. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), a central government– owned public sector undertaking (PSU) and India’s largest thermal developer, relies on the bond market to fund the bulk of its capital expenditure. Therefore, this analysis excludes most of its projects.

The weak availability of long-term, fixed-rate debt remains a constraint for all power generation investments, raising uncertainty over future financing costs for new plants and the refinancing of existing ones.

Long-tenure bank/NBFC- financed debt for renewable energy projects commonly includes provisions for the reset of spreads and refinancing after a certain period. Loans extended to thermal projects developed by private developers and PSUs also include such provisions. Though debt extended to thermal projects developed by integrated state government-owned utilities is structured at a single, fixed rate, it also includes provisions for reset of interest rates.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS • The imposition of safeguard duties and persistent land acquisition and grid infrastructure related challenges under India’s Solar Park scheme, represent near–term risks to the pace of capacity addition.

The Government of India imposed safeguard duties on solar PV cell and module imports in July 2018. This, along with the associated market uncertainty, has translated into an increase in tariffs discovered at some solar PV auctions from the record lows realised in 2017. This increase in tariffs was a major cause of the cancellation of almost 5 gigawatt (GW) of solar PV projects awarded in 2018, equivalent to about half the total solar PV capacity added in 2018. In addition, challenges in land acquisition and setting up transmission infrastructure have hampered solar park development, with the share of projects awarded at parks in overall capacity awards declining from 54% in 2017 to 24% in 2018, even while the absolute level of solar park capacity awarded remained steady.

Introduction India’s renewable power market continued to expand in 2018. Investment in the sector, at nearly USD 20 billion, surpassed capital expenditure in the thermal power sector, underpinned by the addition of over 8 gigawatt (GW) of utility-scale solar PV capacity and over 2 GW of wind. By May 2019, utility-scale installed capacity of solar PV was over 27 GW and wind was more than 36 GW.4 Policy and market developments over the years have enhanced the viability of solar and wind generation, as reflected in the discovery of rapidly declining tariffs through the transparent reverse auction process. The year 2018 saw an uptick in the total solar PV and wind energy capacity awarded through the reverse auction mechanism. Solar capacity awarded increased from near 6 GW in 2017 to 13 GW in 2018.5 Wind capacity awarded at auctions increased from 2.6 GW in 2017, the first year of wind power procurement through the reverse auction route, to nearly 7 GW in 2018. The Clean Energy Investment Trends series is based on a database of solar PV and wind projects sanctioned between 2014 and 2018.

The update to the database for this year’s analysis captures over 12 GW of solar projects awarded in 2018 (around 95% coverage) and all the wind projects awarded in 2018.

Market concentration among developers remained high as sanctioning of solar PV and wind projects grew

The market concentration in the sanctioning of new wind and solar PV in 2018 continued to be high (Figures 1 and 2). ‘Market concentration’ in the Clean Energy Investment Trends report is defined as the share of top developers in the total project capacity awarded in a particular year. Top companies that can access financing on favourable terms have an advantage in winning projects in competitive renewable energy auctions (Table 1). Furthermore, such companies are also likely to have greater risk-taking capacity and were perhaps able to better navigate uncertainty surrounding the imposition of safeguard duties on solar cells and module imports, and the imposition of tariff caps on solar auctions in the latter part of the year.

Top companies, which have access to financing on favourable terms and are better equipped to navigate policy uncertainty, continued to dominate solar PV and wind auctions in 2018; in both sectors the top 10 developers accounted for over 80% of the capacity awarded.

The top developers for both solar PV and wind continued to be characterised by significant churn in 2018 (Figure 3). The churn rate is defined as the extent of change in the top 10 developers with respect to the previous year – for example, a churn rate of 40% in a particular year means that 40% of the top 10 developers of the previous year did not feature in the top 10 of the present year. As identified in the 2018 Clean Energy Investment Trends report, the high churn rates are indicative of the limitations of the capacity of even the top firms to finance new projects every year. In addition, considerations of portfolio diversification across locations and offtakers also potentially affect bidding patterns.

The churn rate remained stable for solar PV over the 20172018 period, but declined for wind, from 90% in 2017 (after two years of increase) to 50% in 2018. Shifting industry dynamics in wind energy may have driven this decline. In 2016, an estimated 21 firms sanctioned wind generation capacity.

Table 1: Top 10 developers by capacity awarded (2018)

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis www.EQMagPro.com

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Figure 1: Market concentration in solar PV energy rose in 2018

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis Figure 2: Market concentration dipped for wind energy in 2018 but remained high

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis However, with the introduction of competitive auctions, the number of firms succeeding in securing capacity at competitive auctions stood at only 12 and 15 in 2017 and 2018 respectively.6 In 2017 Orange Renewables and Ostro Energy were two of the top 10 developers. In 2018 Greenko acquired Orange Renewables and Renew Power acquired Ostro Energy; industry consolidation eliminated two of the top 10 developers in 2017. These factors could have translated into greater repeat participation of a number of developers in the 2018 auctions. While there has been considerable churn in the top developers sanctioning renewables projects year-over- year, a few companies have emerged as leaders in terms of cumulative installed capacity (Table 2).

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The churn rate of the top 10 developers in terms of awarded capacity for wind declined from 90% in 2017 to 50% in 2018, with industry consolidation translating into greater repeat participation of developers in auctions

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Figure 3: Churn rate for wind dropped considerably in 2018

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis Table 2: Leading developers (cumulative installed capacity, up to May 2019)

Source: Data from company websites and presentations Risk perceptions and debt financing terms have improved for solar PV and wind The power generation sector raises debt capital primarily from domestic banks and NBFCs. However, a liquidity crisis is showing signs of translating into a curtailed role for NBFCs in financing debt for the power sector, at least in the short term. This can be attributed to NBFCs struggling to raise capital from banks and the bond market, their usual sources of funding.7,8 Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) – a large, systemically important NBFC–defaulted on a bond repayment in 2018, which has led to further tightening of lending norms for NBFCs. Debt by both banks and NBFCs to power generation projects is extended on a limited-recourse basis.9

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The increased attractiveness of utility-scale solar PV and wind generation, with tariffs for newly sanctioned capacity dipping below those for new thermal generation, has translated into increased debt flows towards the renewable energy sector. At the same time, with the costs of debt and equity financing together accounting for close to 60% of the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for solar PV and wind generation in India10 (previously accounting for as much as 70% of LCOE for utility scale solar11), improvements in the terms of finance for renewables projects have played an important role in the realisation of lower tariffs.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS A part of the improvement in the terms of debt financing between 2014 and 2018 may be attributed to a general decline in interest rates in the economy, driven by monetary policy cues from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central bank. To put this into perspective, the base rate of the State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest commercial bank by assets, declined from 10% in November 2013 to 8.7% in April 2018 before rising to near 9.1% in December 2018.12 However, this report attempts to assess how much of the improvement is also due to changes in risk perceptions. In order to quantitatively assess changes in risk perceptions, the report considers the proportion of debt in the capital structure of renewable energy projects (debt-to-equity ratio) and two key parameters of debt financing: interest rate spreads from benchmark rates and loan tenure.

Capital structure Solar PV and wind projects, like most capital-intensive infrastructure projects, are financed by a debt-heavy capital structure. The extent of debt in the capital structure is a function of the risk perception of debt financiers – the greater their confidence in the project’s viability (and the borrower’s creditworthiness), the greater their willingness to finance a larger proportion of the capital costs. The debt-to-equity ratio could also be impacted by other factors, such as the extent of the lender’s recourse to the borrower’s assets.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the evolution of the capital structure of solar PV and wind projects.

The distribution of the debt-to-equity ratio in a specific year can be impacted by factors such as the creditworthiness of the borrowers involved or the quantum of collateral involved, but certain larger, aggregate trends

have emerged. Earlier, a greater proportion of wind energy projects had a more debt-heavy capital structure. Lenders were comfortable financing a larger share of project costs (Figure 4) because wind energy had a long track record in India.

Installed capacity stood at around 22 GW at the end of March 2014, when the figure for solar was below 3 GW.13 Policy measures and market developments since have improved financiers’ perceptions of the risk in solar projects, as indicated by a larger share of more debt-heavy capital structures in recent years.

Capital structures for thermal projects The data on the capital structure for thermal projects was not comprehensive enough for a year-to-year comparison with solar PV and wind.

Consequently, this section provides a broad overview of capital structures for thermal projects. Further, since NTPC, a central government-owned PSU and India’s largest thermal developer, finances the bulk of its capital expenditure through the bond route, the data does not include most of its projects. Thus, this analysis is based on a review of capital structures for the remaining thermal projects. Thermal projects developed by integrated state government–owned power utilities that attained financial closure over the period of analysis had a debt-heavy capital structure (debt-to-equity ratio of 80:20). All these loans were extended by one state-owned financier, the Rural Electrification Corporation.

Over the period 2014 to 2018, interest rate spreads for both wind and solar PV have declined by 75-125 basis points - a combination of policy measures, market developments, and technological improvements have been successful in lowering debt financiers’ risk perceptions towards these sectors

Figure 4: More debt-heavy capital structures are now common

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Figure 5: Shares of debt in capital structures for solar PV have converged with and even surpassed those for wind

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis Other thermal projects analysed were those developed by the joint ventures of two PSUs, NTPC and Steel Authority of India Limited. The capital structure of these projects was less debt-heavy (debt-to-equity ratio of 70:30). Financiers may perceive that the risk in extending loans to entities backed by state governments is low not because they think thermal generation projects entail lower risk but because of specific provisions guaranteeing repayment by the state.14 State government-backed utilities may also have greater bargaining power in obtaining financing from public sector lenders.

Interest rate spreads Loans from domestic lenders to infrastructure projects are structured as floating rate loans. Bank lending is structured as spreads over a benchmark interest rate to compensate for risks specific to lending to particular sectors or companies. The marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) replaced the base rate as the benchmark used by banks in 2016.15 Even pre-existing loans were to be migrated to the MCLR regime, though many pre-existing loans are still benchmarked to the base rate.16 In contrast to the uniformity of interest rate structures for banks (benchmark rate + spread), NBFCs (except micro finance institutions) have greater freedom for structuring loan products.17 While NBFCs charge different interest rates to different categories of borrowers (these categories are determined internally by each NBFC), unlike banks these institutions do not publish benchmark reference rates. Thus, the analysis of spreads in this report is based only on loans extended by banks to renewable energy projects.

While wind energy had a head start over solar PV in terms of its track record in India, by the year 2014, bankers were familiar with utility-scale solar PV, and wind projects enjoyed no significant advantage in terms

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of lower spreads compared to solar. Over the period 2014 to 2018, interest rate spreads for both wind and solar PV have declined by 75-125 basis points (Figure 6). This points towards declining risk perceptions towards utility-scale solar PV and wind projects over this period of time. A combination of policy measures and market developments, such as declines in the prices of and technological improvements in solar PV modules and wind turbines, have been successful in lowering debt financiers’ risk perceptions towards these sectors.

Interest rate structures of loans for thermal projects The thermal project loans examined demonstrated two kinds of structures for interest rate payments. Interest rates on loans taken by integrated state government-owned electricity utilities are not structured as spreads over benchmark rates, but as fixed rate loans with provisions for reset of interest rates. Interest rates on loans extended by commercial banks to other thermal developers are structured as spreads over benchmark rates. However, the data available was insufficient for a detailed analysis of spreads by year.

Loan tenures Solar PV and wind projects have useful lives of around 25 years (PPAs lengths are typically 25 years) and need debt products of comparable tenures. Shorter-tenure Long-tenure loans are common for renewable energy projects (Figure 7). These loans include a moratorium on repayment that typically extends up to six months or a year after the project’s scheduled commercial operation date.

Loan tenures for thermal projects Thermal projects, like renewable energy projects, have access to long-tenure loans. State government–owned integrated utilities usually have access to longer-tenure loans (16-24 years) than other thermal developers (12-15 years). A smaller proportion of loans sanctioned in 2016 as compared to the previous year were extended to state government-owned integrated utilities, which caused the decline in median loan tenure. However,given the much longer timelines associated with the construction of thermal projects, the construction phase and the moratorium period after scheduled commercial operations account for up to five years of the loan tenures.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Figure 6: Interest rate spreads for solar PV and wind have declined

Source: Based on interactions with renewable energy debt financiers and empirical data.

Larger financial factors constrain the availability of fixed rate debt in the power generation sector Bank liability profiles comprise short-term deposits of average maturities 3–5 years,21 which are also usually payable before maturity on demand. This creates risks of asset-liability mismatches for banks in providing debt financing for long-term infrastructure projects. Long loan tenures also raise the repayment risk for lenders.

To mitigate these risks, long-tenure loans to both renewable energy and thermal projects commonly include provisions • for reset of spreads, either periodically or based on certain triggers, such as changes in the borrower’s credit rating;22 and • specific provisions for refinancing after a minimum period, consistent with the RBI guidelines on flexible structuring of long-term loans to infrastructure projects.23

Figure 7: Evolution of loan tenures for solar PV, wind, and thermal projects

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Long-tenure debt for both renewables and thermal generation typically includes provisions for reset of interest rates or specific provisions for refinancing; thus, the absence of long-term fixed-rate debt creates uncertainty pertaining to future financing costs for power projects Given the floating nature of loans for renewables projects and provisions for reset or refinancing, long-term fixedrate debt remains absent from the market. The Indian corporate bond market, characterised by the presence of fixed-coupon bonds, can complement banks through refinancing operational projects. However, most current issuances correspond to bonds with high credit ratings (rated ‘A’ or above in India). Since the issuances of most renewables companies are rated lower than A grade, few solar PV and wind developers can raise capital in the bond market.

Impact of imposition of safeguard duty on the pace of solar PV capacity awards The Government of India imposed safeguard duties on solar PV cell and module imports in July 2018 to protect domestic manufacturing from imports. The imposition of safeguard duties on solar cells and module imports in 2018 translated into increased module costs for developers, with imports accounting for around 90% of the market share for modules in India.24 Even before the final imposition of duties in July 2018, the preliminary ruling of the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) announced in January 2018 generated much uncertainty for project developers. The lack of clarity over whether existing change in law provisions in PPAs would enable the

pass through of additional costs associated with safeguard duties, if imposed after the award of projects, prompted developers to factor in the impact of safeguard duties in their bids.

This increase in input costs after the final imposition of duties, and the uncertainty associated with the pass through of increased input costs before the final ruling by the DGTR, were the major drivers of the increase in tariffs realised at solar auctions in 2018 (Table 3)—considerably higher than the record low tariff of INR 2.44/kWh realised in 2017. Given the tariff outcomes, tendering agencies cancelled awarded projects for a total capacity of 4.85 GW, equivalent to half the total solar PV capacity commissioned in 2018 (Table 3).25 These cancellations have slowed down the pace of project award and capacity addition and negatively impacted investor sentiment.

Tendering agencies cancelled almost 5 GW of solar PV projects awarded in auctions in 2018, mainly due to the increase in tariffs compared to the record lows realised in 2017; higher input costs as a result of the imposition of safeguard duties and uncertainty pertaining to pass through of these costs were major drivers of the increase in tariffs

Table 3: Awarded solar PV projects cancelled in 2018

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis Persistent challenges in solar park development hamper capacity awards Persistent challenges in land acquisition and setting up transmission infrastructure26 have delayed the development of solar parks and, consequently, the quantum of project capacity awarded through this route. The share of solar park projects in overall solar capacity awarded declined sharply from 54% in 2017 to 24% in 2018 (Figure 8), though the capacity addition in absolute terms relative to 2017 declined only marginally.

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The share of solar parks in overall solar capacity awarded declined from 54% in 2017 to 24% in 2018, though capacity awarded in absolute terms at solar parks remained largely unchanged over the 2 years

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Figure 8: Challenges in solar park development have hampered project awards at solar parks

Source: CEEW and IEA analysis The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had aimed to complete the development of solar parks to support 40 GW of solar project capacity by the end of FY 2020. In view of the challenges in solar park development, it has postponed the deadline to the end of FY 2022.

In order to ensure timely completion of solar park development, MNRE has introduced a new two-year timeline for the development of sanctioned solar park capacity.27 In view of the challenges faced in solar park development, especially by private-sector park developers, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has now taken a more active role in park development itself through the introduction of a new mechanism - Mode 7 - for park development. Under Mode 7, SECI itself would assume the responsibilities of land acquisition and the development of the external transmission infrastructure with the support of the state government and the state/central transmission utility respectively. It remains to be seen if Mode 7 can accelerate the pace of solar park development.

Annexure : Methodology Evolution of risk perceptions of financiers Financiers that issue primary debt for solar PV and wind projects analyse the risk of lending to these sectors and the borrower’s creditworthiness. To study debt financiers’ perceptions of risk towards these sectors, it is necessary to control for borrower credit worthiness. Therefore, this analysis was based on the capital structure and financing parameters of projects developed by companies of comparable creditworthiness –the top 10 solar PV and wind developers by cumulative installed capacity (Table 2).

These comprised large, creditworthy Indian renewable energy developers and international independent power producers (IPPs) operating in India’s renewable energy sector. The analysis was based on data corresponding to projects that attained financial closure in the 2014–2018 period. The comparative analysis of renewable with thermal was based on thermal projects which attained financial closure through bank/NBFC loans over the 2014–2018 period. Since NTPC, a central government–owned PSU and India’s largest thermal developer, relies on the bond market to fund the bulk of its capital expenditure, the analysis of thermal projects excludes the bulk of its capacity.

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This analysis focusses on domestic sources of debt – Indian banks and NBFCs –which account for the overwhelming majority of debt flows to the Indian renewable energy sector. The benchmark lending rates for domestic sources of debt are subject to variations driven by cues from the Indian banking regulator; therefore, the study of spreads over these benchmarks is a useful indicator of risk perceptions. Measuring risk perceptions through metrics such as spreads requires common reference points. International lenders offer loans based on different benchmarks (such as LIBOR), and a comparison of spreads offered by Indian and international lenders would not yield valid results.Thus, this analysis excludes international debt flows. Most floating rate loans extended by Indian lenders were structured as spreads over benchmarks, but a few were structured as spreads below the prime lending rate (PLR), a benchmark widely used before the introduction of base rates. Spreads under the PLR regime are not comparable to those under the base rate or MCLR regime, and so these have been excluded from the analysis.

To ensure a valid comparison between the terms of debt financing, this analysis considers primary debt issued for capital expenditure; it ignores refinancing of primary debt for operational projects because their risk profiles differ from those for greenfield projects.

Analysis pertaining to cancellations of awarded capacity and solar parks The analysis in the Clean Energy Investment Trends report is based on a database of solar PV and wind projects developed jointly by CEEW and the IEA. The database captures multi-dimensional data on these projects, including basic project details such as technology type, nameplate capacity, project location, project status, details of the contracting and procurement process, and data on capital structure and debt financing. The database comprises information for projects sanctioned over the 2014–2018 period.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Data sources and data challenges The data in the project-level renewable energy database was collated from publicly available sources of data and supplemented by the discretionary use of subscriptionbased databases. Publicly available sources of data for the project included the websites of SECI and statelevel renewable energy nodal agencies, the Ministry of Finance’s database on infrastructure projects, the websites of developers, media reports, and regulatory filings of developers with stock exchanges. The data pertaining to the capital structure and debt financing parameters of both renewable energy and thermal projects was sourced from Corpository’s database of company filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

MCA filings are a useful source of financial information on entities subject to the purview of the Companies Act. These exclude international IPPs that do not operate through an Indian corporate entity. Thus, the analysis on the evolution of risk perceptions of financiers excludes these developers.

Charge documents filed with the MCA should list information on the debt financing parameters examined in this report, but often these disclosures are made in sanctioning letters for loans, which are only sometimes available as attachments with MCA filings. Thus, the analysis on the evolution of risk perceptions is based on data available through MCA filings, not on a comprehensive data set.

Because of these challenges, data on spreads for solar PV and wind was insufficient for a detailed year wise comparison. As a result, the data on spreads was supplemented by interviews with renewable energy debt financiers. Data on loan tenures for solar PV in 2014 and for the debt-toequity ratio for both solar PV and wind in 2018 were insufficient for drawing meaningful conclusions. Data on thermal was insufficient for a detailed analysis by year; where applicable, this report makes a general comparison between renewable energy and thermal.

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ASSUMPTIONS The challenges in obtaining data necessitated the use of certain assumptions for the purpose of the analysis. These include: • The date of financial closure in this report is taken as the sanctioning date of the loan corresponding to the project. In cases where this date was not available, the date of the deed of hypothecation corresponding to the loan was assumed to be the date of financial closure.

• In order to ensure that outliers do not distort the analysis for loan tenures, median values for tenures have been considered in the analysis.

Acknowledgments The report benefited from valuable inputs, comments and feedback from various experts: Gagan Sidhu (CEEW), Manu Aggarwal (CEEW), Tim Gould (IEA), Randi Kristiansen (IEA), Tristan Stanley (IEA), and Astha Gupta (IEA Consultant). The IEA Clean Energy Transitions Programme (CETP) helped fund this report. The authors would like to thank the funders of the CETP: Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Part 2

Mono vs Poly– An introspective simulation study!

The first part of the article “Mono vs Poly – An introspective simulation study!” introduced the types of crystalline technology, the need for this study, the methodology we followed and detailed discussion of 4 climatic zones.

This part would educate its readers on the results of the remaining two climactic zones. Further, it would also present a financial analysis of both the plants and the conclusions from the study.

Cold & cloudy climatic zone

T

Power plant based on fixed area

he climatic zones discussed in our previous article i.e. hot & dry, warm & humid, composite & moderate were relatively warmer with moderate to heavy rains. Few zones had extreme weather conditions which resulted in higher generation during winters and lower generation in summers. The remaining two climatic zones which are discussed in this article are relatively cooler (throughout the year). Found mostly in Northern and few North-Eastern (refer Figure 1) regions of India, cold & cloudy climatic zone could be significantly identified by cool summers and extreme winters with a cloud cover throughout the year. Despite such cool climate close to the ambient operating temperatures of solar module, mono crystalline technology is found to perform better under both fixed area and fixed power conditions. Considering the case of fixed area first, poly crystalline module loses6.25% higher energy than the mono crystalline technology based power plants.Overall an energy boost of around 17.25% in summer can be realized while utilizing mono technology.Performance Ratio (PR) of a mono based power plant is found to 87.10%, which is 3.07% more than that of poly based plants.Energy injected into the grid by mono based plant is deemed to be 17.34% or 41.3 MWh higher (refer Figure 2) which directly enhances the plant’s financial returns.

Figure 2: Energy generation in cold & cloudy climatic zone – power plant based on fixed area

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Power plant based on fixed capacity

Figure 1: Division of climatic zones in India (Source: IIT Bombay)

onsidering the case of a power plant under fixed area, a power plant in cold & cloudy zone is expected to perform best during winters owing to reduced temperatures. Both the power plant on an average generate from 14.59 to 14.70% more in winters compared to summers.

However when comparing both the plants, it was found that mono based power plant annually generates 8.8 MWh more. Further an annual boost of 0.50% is realized while utilizing mono crystalline technology over poly crystalline technology.

The difference in temperature losses follows a similar pattern to the generation curve i.e. the difference is lower during and around monsoon season (average of 519 units) and higher during other months (average of 628 units). A total savings in temperature losses of 7 MWh was realized in power plants utilizing mono crystalline modules (refer Figure 3).

Figure 3: Energy generation in cold & cloudy climatic zone – power plant based on fixed capacity

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Cold & Sunny climatic zone

D

Power plant based on fixed area eemed to be the ideal region for installing a solar power plant, cold and sunny zone are found at specific location in Northern India (around Leh) & the Aravalli range in Western India. They are identified with pleasant summers and extreme winters with fairly clear sky throughout the year. While plants at other location performed better during winters, the plant installed at cold & sunny location was found to be maximum in summers and monsoons due to its clear weather. In winters however, the reduced irradiance coupled with the cloud in the region results in the drastic reduction in the energy output (as high as 32%). Comparing the results for fixed area, we find that the overall generation utilizing mono crystalline module is 48 MWh more than poly crystalline module. Further the temperature loss in a mono crystalline plant stays at 13.85 kWh/kWp, which is 0.79 kWh/kWp less compared to that in a poly crystalline based plant.

The PR gain by utilizing mono crystalline module is 3.10% more than that of poly crystalline module.

Figure 4: Energy generation in cold & sunny zone– power plant based on fixed area

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Power plant based on fixed capacity

C

omparing the results of fixed power plant, the difference in the energy pushed to the grid by a mono based power plant is 0.57% or 9.8 MWh more than the poly crystalline

plant. Further, an approximate of 8.32% in winters and an overall average of 5.86% of energy could be saved from temperature losses if mono crystalline modules are utilized. The power plant during summers

experiences a boost in PR up to 0.52% while an overall boost of 0.45% is expected. Overall, a boost in specific energy yield of 0.03 kWp/kWh could be obtained by utilizing mono crystalline module.

Figure 5: Energy generation in cold & sunny climatic zone – power plant based on fixed capacity

Financial analysis

W

ith the energy sources around the world constantly increasing, it is important for a source to be commercially viable and give back good returns to ensure its widespread uptake. In such situations, only proving a source’s technical superiority may just not be enough. An in-depth financial analysis and its gains need to be identified in detail. The initial cost break up of a solar power plant is well known and is well represented by various bodies. In such break up, the solar modules constitute more than 50% of the cost, whereas the BoS accounts for around 35% of the cost.

The civil works and other costs constitute

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merely 13% of the cost. While the number stands true, the comparison between mono and poly crystalline technology paints a different picture.

The study presented two different scenarios; the financial analysis however is calculated on per MW basis to fairly evaluate the technology. Firstly, the fact that the initial cost of mono crystalline technology is more cannot be argued upon. This leads to a sharp increase in the module’s initial price i.e. ~21% higher than poly crystalline technology. However, now with the changing dynamics in the PV market of the world and with the world demanding higher energy from the same module size,

the prices of mono crystalline PV modules are deemed to fall down drastically. It is an already known fact that mono crystalline module (of similar sizes) are usually at 1~2% higher efficient than the poly crystalline modules. This efficiency advantage leads to a direct 12% reduction in number of solar modules required per MW of power plant when utilizing mono crystalline technology. Further, considering a standard double racking design in a power plant, the cost savings in module mounting structure installed in a mono crystalline modules is 0.25% (when compared to a poly crystalline module based plant). Considering the land requirement, significant savings

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS could be clearly realized in a mono crystalline based power plant. Considering central inverter in both the cases, we find that a mono based power plant could use 31% less land (and hence 31% less cost) compared to poly crystalline module based plant.

While designing a power plant, adequate care needs to be taken to ensure that the electrical losses are minimal and/or within the tolerance limits. One of the easiest yet important parameter to optimize is the DC voltage drop in cables. The drop depends primarily on the internal resistance of

the cable which is further governed by the length and the cross sectional area of the cable. With an increase in number of modules to be utilized in a poly crystalline technology based power plant, the length of the cable increases which directly increases the internal resistance of the wire. In order to mitigate such losses, the cross sectional area of the cable needs to be increases.

Both increase in length and area acts as a double whammy increasing the cabling cost of module by around 10.50% when compared to mono crystalline based power

Figure 6: Difference in investments incurred per MW during the life time of the power plant

plant. Operation & maintenance (O&M) plays a significant role in any power plant if it is to run smoothly and perform as expected. Considering the case of a solar power plant, as a rule of thumb O&M cost is considered only to be around 1% annually of the plant’s total cost. However with the need to clean & maintain more modules, AJB’s and other DC spares in a poly crystalline based power plant its cost raises significantly. It was found that in a mono crystalline based power plant, a savings in O&M cost to the tune of 38% could be realized (refer Figure 6).

With both the incurred cost and energy generated in the favour of mono crystalline technology, it should be clear by now that mono crystalline technology which looks expensive, is actually profitable in the longer run. For the purpose of study, savings across each and every climatic zone was calculated. Hot & dry zone which is expected to have enhanced savings due to temperature loss is expected to realize 9.54% of savings by utilizing mono crystalline technology. Followed to this is the moderate climatic zone at 9.49% which due to lower ambient temperatures (around the year) are expected to generate adequate energy. This is followed by composite zone at 9.37% and warm & humid zone at 9.12% which due to higher ambient temperatures experience modest savingsin the northern and few north eastern parts of India, the savings for both cold & sunny and cold & cloudy are around 9%, which could again be attributed to lower ambient temperatures.

Figure 7: Savings realized while utilizing mono crystalline technology over the plant lifetime

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Conclusion

M

ono crystalline versus poly crystalline has been one of the hot topics of discussion amongst various stakeholders at different platforms. While there has been lot of information available on the matter, a complete guide seems always missing.

Further with the clear trends of the PV market tilting towards mono crystalline technology, the adoptability of PV modules in the Indian market is still primarily based on cost. It was hence necessary to evaluate the technology fully till its end of life and further carry out both technical and commercial analysis for a clear understanding.

The following were the results obtained from the study (refer Table 1&Table 2 for details):

• Utilizing mono crystalline module enable efficient utilization of land by generating 41 MWh to 52 MWh more per fixed area (1000m2). This further converts to 8 MWh/MWp to 14 MWh/MWp more energy injected into the grid annually.

• A boost in performance ratio (PR) of 3.0% (average) is found when utilizing mono crystalline technology in power plant with limited area availability. Utilizing the power plant with fixed capacity, mono crystalline technology was able to deliver a PR boost from 0.40 to 0.80%

• Mono crystalline technology hasa better performance at location with enhanced ambient temperatures and hence acts as a perfect match for countries like India which lie between the tropics.

•Utilizing mono crystalline modules would enable savings in total investment over the plant’s life time to the tune of 8.94% to 9.54% annually.

• Implementing mono crystalline module to have ROI reduced between 0.5~2 years considering economies of scale

Table 1: Advantages realized when utilizing mono crystalline technology - Power plant based on fixed area

Table 2: Advantages realized when utilizing mono crystalline technology - Power plant based on fixed capacity

Let us all pledge to make solar energy the primary source of energy in the near future.

Author -Mr. Sunil Rathi Director- Sales and Marketing Waaree Energies Limited

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TECHNOLOGY

Neutrinovoltaic Technology: Solar Cells That Don’t Need Light The Neutrino Energy Group is working hard to provide the solution of the future

T With CEO Holger Thorsten Schubart at the helm, the Neutrino Energy Group has devised a metamaterial composed of layers of ultra-thin graphene and silicon.

he Neutrino Energy Group cooperates with a worldwide team of scientists and various international research centers, which deal with application research, the conversion of invisible radiation spectra of the sun, among other things the neutrinos (high-energy particles, which ceaselessly reach the earth) in electric power.

Contrary to popular opinion, photovoltaic cells can generate energy even in cloudy conditions. These types of energy-producing cells don’t operate based on heat, after all; solar panels are powered by the visible spectrum generated by the sun, and these solar rays reach us even when there’s a layer of cloud overhead.

Photovoltaic Energy Suffers From Seasonal Dependency

On the other hand, solar panels are much more effective during the summer than they are during the winter. It’s generally believed that photovoltaic arrays are three times more effective during the summer months than they are during the cold, dark winters, and solar panels in the Northern Hemisphere only reach

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peak output between the months of May and September. During the winter months, large photovoltaic arrays must be pointed directly toward the sun to generate a usable amount of electricity.

Most households don’t have the space to put such an array into action, and it generally isn’t possible to change the angle of roof-mounted solar panels.

Energy Technology That Can’t Work in the Snow and Dark

While photovoltaic cells can still produce energy during the winter, one of the most common types of winter weather phenomena, snow, can completely block the operation of these energy-producing devices. When snow accumulates on top of photovoltaic cells, they become incapable of making contact with the sun’s rays, which makes solar power practically useless in places where heavy winter snowfall is common.

If a solar array is arranged so that snow can slide off, photovoltaic potential will be regained eventually. When snow packs on the surface of solar cells, however, photovoltaic cells are only useful when they are paired with costly energy

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TECHNOLOGY struck by neutrinos. Since both vertical and horizontal vibrations are caused at the same time, a resonance is created that can then be converted into electrical energy. Neutrinovoltaic technology operates with complete independence from seasonal shifts or daily weather patterns. Neutrinos never stop colliding with the Earth, which means that neutrinovoltaic cells even work at night.

Neutrinovoltaic cells can be scaled horizontally across a surface, such as a rooftop or a hillside, just like photovoltaic technology. Where these two energy collection technologies differ, however, is in their vertical scalability. Solar cells only operate when they are unblocked from the sun’s rays, which means that they can’t be stacked on top of each other. Neutrinovoltaic cells, however, don’t suffer from this design flaw, which means they can be stacked as high as you want with the bottom cells generating just as much electrical power as the cells on top.

The Future of Neutrino Energy

storage technologies.

Storing Photovoltaic Energy Is Another Flaw

At present, the only way to store a reasonable amount of photovoltaic energy is to invest in refrigerator-sized battery systems. These lithium-ion or lead-acid batteries take up more space than is readily available in most houses and business locations, and the installation and materials costs for these battery arrays can be as high as $12,000. The main purpose of these expensive battery systems is to provide enough energy for a household to use through the night until the photovoltaic array starts working again in the morning. If even the energy provided by these batteries is insufficient, however, it will be necessary to draw on the conventional energy grid until sufficient photovoltaic power can be generated.

Neutrinovoltaic Energy Provides the Solution While getting enough solar energy to cover a home’s electricity needs isn’t feasible for many homeowners, neutri-

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novoltaic technology presents a solution that never stops working. Instead of drawing energy from the visible spectrum of light, the neutrinovoltaic technology developed by the Neutrino Energy Group derives electrical energy from neutrinos, which are invisible particles that bombard the Earth in roughly equal numbers every moment of every day. Neutrinovoltaic technology even harnesses the untapped power of electrosmog, which is the electromagnetic energy produced by manmade electronic devices. This revolutionary technology developed by the Neutrino Energy Group harvests a small amount of the kinetic energy of neutrinos as they pass through everything we see, and this kinetic energy is then transformed into electricity.

Stackable and Scalable Neutrinovoltaic Modules

With CEO Holger Thorsten Schubart at the helm, the Neutrino Energy Group has devised a metamaterial composed of layers of ultra-thin graphene and silicon. When adhered to a metallic substrate, this material vibrates as it is

Neutrinovoltaic energy even operates underground. While most types of radiation are stopped by soil and rock, neutrinos pass directly through the Earth, and only a few materials are known to stop the movement of these ethereal particles. Neutrinovoltaic cells are compact, and they can be deployed anywhere either on the surface of the Earth or underground. Therefore, this technology also prevents the destruction of natural scenery caused by solar cells and wind farms. At present, neutrinovoltaic technology has been demonstrated to work in laboratory settings, and Schubart and his team at the Neutrino Energy Group are hard at work developing a consumer-grade product that will be useful in a variety of applications. At first, neutrinovoltaic energy will be used to power smartphones, laptops, pacemakers, and other small devices, but over time, it will be possible to scale up this energy technology to the point that it can cover the electrical needs of appliances and every other type of powerdrawing device within a household.

Unlike photovoltaic technology, neutrino energy can operate even when the sun goes down. Therefore, a world in which neutrino-powered trucks and industrial equipment are commonplace isn’t as far off as we’d think. Neutrinos have passed through the endless darkness to reach us here on Earth, and now it’s time for us to use these ghostly particles to light up humanity’s future.

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES

INAUGRATION: On August 2, 2019 Tata Motors and Tata Power have joined hands to inaugurated seven charging tation in Pune.

Tata companies join hands to install 300 charging stations As part of the initiative, the companies RECENTLY inaugurated seven charging stations in Pune to enable the e-mobility drive in the city.

“Our aim is to make EV charging as fast and easy as possible for all the Indians and we are very pleased to partner with Tata Motors, with whom we jointly identified high priority locations which could be preferred by the potential electric vehicle owners.”

- Praveer Sinha, MD and

CEO, Tata Power

“The partnership is an important milestone in company’s journey to offer complete ecosystem solutions and offer peace of mind to its customers. We remain committed to the sustainable mobility mission and will continue to work towards bringing aspirational e-mobility solutions for the customers, leading the drive towards faster adoption of electric vehicles in the country.”

T

ata Motors and Tata Power recently said they have come together to install 300 fast charging stations by the end of this fiscal in five cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. As part of the initiative, the companies recently inaugurated seven charging stations in Pune to enable the emobility drive in the city.

Over the next two months, they plan to install 45 more chargers across other four cities. The chargers will be installed at Tata Motors dealerships, certain Tata Group retail outlets and other public locations.

The chargers could be accessed by any electric vehicle user having cars compatible to the above charging standards

- Shailesh Chandra, Tata

Motors president, electric mobility business and corporate strategy

- Guenter Butschek, MD and CEO, Tata Motors

The chargers will be operated by Tata Power and will adhere to Bharat Standard (15 kW) for the initial 50 chargers. Going forward, companies also plans to have charging stations that will adhere to 30-50 kW DC CCS2 Standard.

Tata Power and Tata Motors have jointly developed a charging tariff for Tata Motors EV customers.

Currently, Tata Power has 42 charging points in Mumbai.

The company has signed pacts for setting up commercial scale electric vehicles charging stations at HPCL, IOCL, and IGL retail outlets.

Source: PTI

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Solar Rooftop

The government needs to make solar rooftop installation as simple as buying a car

Making 40,000 MW of solar power happen on Indian rooftop

T

he world today is reeling under the climate change threat. This is driving every country towards minimizing their greenhouse gas emissions and build strong carbon footprints. This certainly brings our attention towards solar energy which is available in abundance and is a better alternative to the cleaner green energy resource.

Indian government, too, has set a target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022, of which 40 GW target is set for gridconnected solar PV rooftop.

Harnessing solar energy at home is cheaper, greener and easier than grid power. Average cost of power per unit comes to Rs 2.5 per unit, if a home goes for solar power. This is much cheaper than power tariffs in most of the Indian states. It does not emit any greenhouse gases either and keeps the home atmosphere cool because of the solar PV shielding at rooftop.

Above all this, the government is also

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offering subsidies and pushing utilities to promote solar power usage at homes.

Consumers are also being incentivised under various schemes.

If the economics make so much sense in using solar power, why the adoption of solar by home owners in India has been extremely low? Currently, the rooftop solar installed capacity in India stands at 4GW that is 10% of the target set by the government.

The reason for such a dismal performance is not that difficult to find. Today, if you want to buy Rs 5-7 lakhs worth a car, you go to a nearby car dealer, take a test drive, sign a few car registration papers, get instant financial support through financial institutions without much of a paper work and drive home a beautiful car, all within half-a-day’s work.

On the other hand, if you want to get a similar priced solar PV rooftop set-up installed at your house, it will take you several weeks to get a bank approval, may be months to obtain the multiple gov-

By Sachin Bhalla, Luminous Power Technologies ernment approvals and in worst cases years before you will get the subsidy credited to your account.

Because of this cumbersome and prolonged authorisation process to install a solar rooftop facility consumers loose their interest, companies lose money, leaving every stakeholder with a bad experience and unhappy.

How can we motivate people then to adopt solar PV rooftop solutions? The government needs to make solar rooftop installation as simple as buying a car.

Nudge the banks to create products for solar financing, incentivize state electricity boards to give approvals faster and on top of that make conducive policy environment so that companies can further invest in the sector.

By making solar buying process as simple as half-a-day car buying event with an efficient support system will ensure that more and more ‘value conscious’ Indians switch to this green alternative source of energy to reduce their power bills.

Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Residential solar-plus-storage systems will make economic sense in several markets by the early 2020s, with more to follow.

WoodMac: Europe’s Home Storage Market Set to Double by

2024

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Europe's market is moving beyond the core markets of Germany and Italy.

urope already claims the title of largest residential storage market globally. And over the next five years, the market will experience growth that goes beyond Germany, the regional leader to date.

Europe’s cumulative base of deployed residential storage capacity is expected to grow fivefold, reaching 6.6 gigawatt-hours by 2024.

Annual deployments within the region are set to more than double to reach 500 megawatts/1.2 gigawatt-hours by 2024, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie.

Residential storage is beginning to proliferate beyond Germany and into other countries, particularly where market structures, prevailing power prices and disappearing feed-in tariffs create a favorable early-stage deployment landscape.While the economics of storage have been challenging in the past, the market is reaching

a tipping point. The major markets of Germany, Italy and Spain are moving toward grid parity for solar-plus-storage in the residential space — when the costs per kilowatt-hour of power from the grid meet the cost per kilowatt-hour of a solar-plus-storage system.

European Energy Storage Vendor Landscape by Segment Modeling shows positive economics — net present values (NPVs) and internal rates of return (IRRs) — in Italy by 2021 and in Germany by 2022. Although these two countries have embraced residential storage more than others, we expect this trend to diffuse throughout Europe, moving the proposition from an emotive purchase to a sound investment decision.

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Although positive NPVs are not essential for market growth, evidenced by strong growth in Germany and Italy to date, they assist with mass adoption and market uptick. Mergers and acquisitions in residential storage are also heating up in Europe. Utilities (both new and incumbent), oil and gas majors, storage companies and connected home companies are exploring residential storage M&A. Successful investment plays are being followed by further controllingstake investments or full on acquisition.

Storage system costs continue to decrease Rapidly decreasing storage system costs are the primary drivers for this economic tipping point.

As the electrification epoch gets underway, infrastructure upgrades and the remnants of policies designed to address high-capex power systems will encourage electricity bills on their upward trajectory With ongoing system-cost reductions, WoodMac expects economic conditions and market growth to continue to improve. The economic tipping points for the U.K. and France are further away, however. Both are hindered by more expensive systems on a cost per kilowatt-hour basis and unfavorable or yet-to-be-developed storage frameworks. Grid parity will not be achieved over

our outlook period, but deployments are expected to continue irrespective of this.

All eyes on Spain Spain is a market to watch for residential storage in Europe. There is no specific residential storage policy in Spain yet and the country has suffered from damaging solar policy in the past (retroactive feed-in tariff policies and the infamous “tax on the sun”).

However, new government thinking (with a nudge from the European Commission) means that the country will soon see renewal in the residential PV market and self-consumption, paving the way for solarplus-storage in one of the sunniest regions in Europe.

There is still a hefty premium for adding storage to a home solar installation — 93 percent in WoodMac’s 2019 base case for Germany. This makes the customer proposition more challenging.

More innovative business models are needed to absorb the upfront cost, allowing residential storage to become a common European residential technology for consumers who want to be a part of the energy transition. Electricity price increases, along with consumers’ desire to live in a more environmentally sustainable household, may be enough to drive the residential business case across the line.

Source : greentechmedia

Europe Annual Residential Energy Storage Deployments, 2013 to 2024E (GW)

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