Saurenergy International Magazine August Issue 2021

www.saurenergy.com

August 2021 | `200

DCP LICENSING NO. F.2(S-29) PRESS/2016 | VOL. 5 | ISSUE 11 | TOTAL PAGES 64 | PUBLISHED ON 1ST OF EVERY MONTH

Primed For Growth

Firms, both established and start-ups, are racing to profit from the opportunities on the energy front.

Sameer Gupta Chairman & MD Jakson Group

Sundeep Gupta

Vice – Chairman & MD Jakson Group

Pranesh Chaudhary Founder and CEO Zunroof

Rahul Kale

Founder Sunpower Renewables

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GROUP EDITOR

Prasanna Singh prasanna@meilleurmedia.com

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From the

Group Editor SAUR ENERGY

DIRECTOR

Prateek Kapoor prateek@meilleurmedia.com

EDITOR

Manas Nandi manas@meilleurmedia.com

STAFF WRITER

Soumya Duggal editorial@meilleurmedia.com

STAFF WRITER Bhoomika Singh

MANAGER - MEDIA SOLUTION Girish Mishra girish.mishra@meilleurmedia.com

DESIGN HEAD

As we head closer to the halfway mark for the financial year, the solar sector is definitely living up to its billing as an exciting sector. In fact, one could argue that activity levels have never been higher. Thus, on

Sandeep Kumar

the one hand, you had almost 4 GW of tenders in the past 30 days,

WEB DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

fund raises made so far. Leaders like ReNew Power will see their

Jitender Kumar

WEB PRODUCTION Balvinder Singh

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Harsh Gupta subscription@meilleurmedia.com Saur Energy International is printed, published, edited and owned by Manas Nandi and published from 303, 2nd floor, Neelkanth Palace, Plot No- 190, Sant Nagar, East of Kailash, New Delhi- 110065 (INDIA), Printed at Pearl Printers, C-105, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi.

DISCLAIMER: Editor, Publisher, Printer and Owner make every effort to ensure high quality and accuracy of the content published. However he cannot accept any responsibility for any effects from errors or omissions. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Editor and publisher. The information in the content and advertisement published in the magazine are just for reference of the readers. However, readers are cautioned to make inquiries and take their decision on purchase or investment after consulting experts on the subject. Saur Energy International holds no responsibility for any decision taken by readers on the basis of the information provided herein. Any unauthorised reproduction of Saur Energy International magazine content is strictly forbidden. Subject to Delhi Jurisdiction.

even as the first half of the year has already seen some of the largest stock listed on the NASDAQ, even as news swirls around about other large manufacturing players planning domestic IPO’s. In all this, there is the usual policy googly, in the form of a period of no duties or taxes on import of solar modules and cells, something that draws widely contrasting views from the government, domestic manufacturers, and developers.

We thought this is as good a time as any to go for a set of interviews across the sector, be it the Gupta brothers leading the venerable Jakson group, or Zunroof, one of the more solar visible startups seeking to expand its offerings, and of course, SunPower Renewables, a Melbourne based firm hoping to strike it big with its storage products in India. And then there is a small Q&A with Trina Solar on agrivoltaics. Each of these firms have their own theory to be optimistic about the future, and is backing it with fresh investments and efforts. Here’s hoping they are proved right !

PRASANNA SINGH Group Editor

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CONTENTS VOL. 05, ISSUE-11

AUG UST 2021

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Policy and Legal

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Projects and Tenders

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Innovations

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Reports

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Modules

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Projects and Tenders

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Finance

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Milestone

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EV Updates

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International

UP Regulator Eases Power Procurement From Exchanges For Industry

New Research Accelerates Development of Organic Solar Cells

Domestic Solar Manufacturers Collateral Damage In Tussle Between Govt And SC

Sterling and Wilson Solar Q1 Results.

Underwhelming

Global EV Charging Station Market to Reach $93 Billion by 2027: Report

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NHPC Tenders for 100 MW Floating Solar Project in Odisha

3.5 GW Solar Capacity Added in H1 of 2021 in India

Saatvik Green Energy Wins BHEL’s 141.76 MW Solar Modules Order

ENGIE Commissions 200 MW Raghanesda Solar Project

JinkoSolar Signs Long-term Deal with Germany’s Wacker For Polysilicon

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COVER STORY

Ready For High Tide At Jakson Group

16 CONVERSATION

Rahul Kale, Sunpower Renewables

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32 CONVERSATION

Pranesh Chaudhary, Zunroof AUGUST 20 21

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UP Regulator Eases Power Procurement From Exchanges For Industry

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he Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, in its recent tariff order dated 29th July 21 for the financial year 2022 has made some key changes that could have a positive impact on the industry as well as renewable energy projects in the state. The regulator announced a reduction of up to 64 paise per unit in the cross-subsidy charges procuring power through Power Exchanges. That makes power procurement from exchanges that much more effective as compared to captive or other options.

India Energy Exchange (IEX), the premier power exchange in the country, claims that today, over 75 consumers in Uttar Pradesh source electricity leveraging the Exchange platform. The competitive power prices have been helping industries optimize their

electricity procurement costs, thereby, leading to increased operational and financial efficiency since electricity contributes a major share of input costs for the industries.

According to Rohit Bajaj, Head-Business Development & Senior Vice President at IEX, “IEX has been seeing significant participation from the open access consumers from the State of Uttar Pradesh.

The reduction in cross-subsidy surcharge by the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) for the open access consumers is a welcome and definitely a progressive step in ensuring industrial and economic growth in the State. All 1 MW and above industrial / commercial consumers can save almost upto Rs 1 per unit. This development enables the State industry to

significantly lower their operational costs and accelerate the overall economic growth of the State which is so critical in the COVID pandemic induced economic slowdown”.

Introduction of GTAM (Green Term Ahead Market) has opened avenues for the development of the organized renewable energy market to provide an alternate market-based route to the RE generators to sell their green power and to the buyers to fulfil their RPO at competitive price with flexibility of entry and exit in the market. As states adopt policies to enable easier power trading, it is bound to support many renewable projects, including those that have been unable to tie-up power purchase agreements for their full capacity. Or those with surplus production during certain

Ministry Of Power Contests Fears Of 90K crore Discom Losses in FY 21

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he Ministry of power (MoP) challenges the concerns of 90K Crore Discom Losses Fy21.

The Distribution Sector in India is termed as the most important, but also the weakest link in the Power Sector value chain. However, the Sector is also witnessing tell-tale signs of improvement in performance and increase in efficiencies due to a multitude of initiatives made by the Central & State Governments and the DISCOMs themselves. Or at least that’s what the Power Ministry would like stakeholders to note.

In a release from the ministry, as per the Audited Annual Accounts of Power Distribution Utilities, DISCOMs have shown an improvement in their operational and financial performance over the past few years: • The Aggregate Technical &

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Commercial (AT&C) losses have come down from 23.5% in FY 2016-17 to 21.83% in FY 2019-20.

• The gap between average cost of supply (ACS) and average revenue realised (ARR) narrowed down to Rs 0.28/kWh in 2019-20 from Rs 0.33/kWh in 2016-17.

• The annual Profit After Tax (PAT) figures being negative have also shown

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improvement from Rs.33,894 Cr in FY 2016-17 to Rs.32,898 Cr in FY 2019-20.

The release is in response to reports that have published speculations regarding DISCOMs achieving loss levels of Rs 90,000 crore in FY2021.

These speculations trace their origins to a report published by ICRA on the Power Distribution Sector in March, 2021. While

this report indicates Profit After Tax (PAT) figures of negative ~Rs 50,000 crore in FY19 (which is consistent with the PFC’s Annual Utilities report of FY 2019), the projections of PAT figures of FY 2020 are shown to increase to the tune of negative ~Rs 60,000 crores. This report further builds on these losses and projects total DISCOM losses of ~Rs 90,000 crore in FY2021. One of the reasons ascribed to this speculation is the decline in electricity volume sales in the year 2020-21 due to the COVID induced lockdown.

This report also mentions ~Rs 30,000 crore increase in DISCOM dues to its creditors from March, 2020 to December, 2020, and perhaps assumes this increase in payables, which is essentially a cash flow problem, to directly reflect into additional DISCOM losses in FY 2021 over the projections of FY2020.

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MoP Issues Draft Electricity Rules 2021 for Green Energy

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he Ministry of Power has released the “Draft Electricity (promoting renewable energy through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2021,” seeking comments from stakeholders within 30 days. The draft rules can be accessed here.

These rules are proposed for the purchase and consumption of green energy, including the energy from ‘Waste-to-Energy’ plants.

The draft rules address the following counts: renewable purchase obligation (RPO); green energy open access; nodal agencies; procedure for the grant of green energy open access; banking; and cross subsidy surcharge.

With regard to tariff, the draft rules propose: “The Tariff for the Green Energy shall be determined by the Appropriate Commission, which may comprise of the average pooled power purchase cost of the

renewable energy, cross-subsidy charges (if any) and service charges covering all prudent cost of the distribution licensee for providing the green energy.”

The drat rules regarding green hydrogen, which is hydrogen produced using electricity from renewable sources, state that the obligated entity, including industries, can meet their RPO targets by purchasing green hydrogen.The quantum of

green hydrogen would be computed by considering the equivalence to the green hydrogen produced from one MWh of electricity from renewable sources. The norms will be notified by the Central Commission, said the ministry.

These draft rules also propose the guidelines for green energy open access and state that, “The appropriate commission shall put in place regulations in accordance with this rule to provide Green Energy Open Access to consumers who are willing to consume the Green energy. All applications for open access of Green Energy shall be granted within a maximum of 15 days. Provided that only Consumers who have contracted demand/sanctioned load of hundred kW and above shall be eligible to take power through green energy open access.”

CERC Permits SolarArise Subsidiary to get GST Compensation

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he Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has ruled in favour of Talettutayi Solar Projects One Pvt. Limited (TSPPL), a subsidiary of Gurugram-based SolarArise, directing Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) to pay the solar developer compensation for the increased cost of a project, excluding carrying cost, due to the implementation of the GST laws which created a ‘change-in-law’ event.

The judgement has come along expected lines, and perhaps its most unexpected quality is its delayed arrival, given that GST compensation is a frequent occurrence now, in which carrying cost is never included anyway.

In February 2016, SECI, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) Phase II Batch III Tranche–V, invited proposals by RfS for setting up of solar power projects in Karnataka. TSPPL won the bid to develop a 30 MW solar power project and entered into a PPA with SECI, as per which the scheduled date of commissioning (SCoD) was September 2017. However, in 2017, GST Laws were enacted for levy and collection of tax, w.e.f.

July that year, on intra-state supply of

goods or services, or both, by the Central Government. Consequently, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) issued an Office Memorandum extending SCoD of the solar power plants on account of the introduction of GST. TSPPL achieved commissioning in January 2018 and commercial operation in February 2018.

TSPPL later approached CERC, submitting that as part of the GST Laws’ enactment, a tax slab of 5% to 28% was introduced with respect to goods and services required for execution, construction and operation of solar power plants. These goods and services were previously either exempted or were under lower tax slabs. The change of tax regime

has escalated the capital cost of the project, hence making the tariff quoted at the time of bid for allocation of project unviable, said the solar developer.

TSPPL submitted that the total escalation in cost due to GST implementation was about Rs. 87,90,302. The developer believes that the enactment of the GST Law is squarely covered by the definition of ‘Change in Law’ under Article 12 of the PPA. The Tariff Policy as amended in January 2016 also provides that increase in taxes and levies are Change in Law events, said the developer.

In response, SECI agreed that a number of taxes, duties, cess and levies had been subsumed in GST in July 2017. But it argued that TSPPL must place before the commission the extent to which its project was subject to such taxes existing prior to July 2017 which have been subsumed in GST. TSPPL, said SECI, is proceeding on the assumption that the entire quantum of taxes under GST are payable, which is contrary to the very scheme of the introduction of GST and the intention of the Central Government in rationalising the tax structure in a manner that various existing taxes will get subsumed in GST.

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MNRE Invites EoI for Evaluation of Solar Park Development Scheme

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he Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) from reputed experts and consultancy firms for evaluating the “Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects” scheme, which the ministry has been implementing since December 2014.

The main objective of the scheme is to set up at least 50 solar parks, each with a capacity of 500 MW and above, by 2021-22, with an estimated Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of Rs. 8100.00 crore under the National Solar Mission (NSM). While the scheme is ongoing in the current financial year, a large number of systems have already been installed or are under installation.

The purpose of the new study is to evaluate the implementation of the scheme by collecting information from state implementing agencies, solar park developers and other stakeholders.

Appointed experts will assess the performance of the applications for different stakeholders and recommend on

whether the scheme should be continued as it is or be modified in some way.

In order to be eligible to submit the EoI, interested candidates should have an experience of at least 5 years in conducting similar assignments and an annual turnover of at least Rs. 1 crore per year during the last three years will be eligible.

Having sector specific experience and in-house capability to manage the assignment will be an added advantage. The consultants shall be short listed inter-alia based on their past experience of handling similar type of studies, strength of their manpower and financial strength of the consultancy firms.

Together with the Expression of Interest,

the following details are to be sent: •D etails of the constitution, ownership, organizational structure and main activities of the bidder organization, including details of full time professionals.

•U nabridged annual reports or audited financial accounts for the last three years. Profile of qualification, experience and number of key staff.

•D etails of major assignments undertaken of a similar nature, including number of years’ relevant experience; past experience of studies of similar nature; past experience in carrying out studies in the related sector and studies carried out in the region.

After the evaluation of the responses to the Eol, bidders meet the eligibility benchmarks will be shortlisted. The shortlisted consultancy firms will then be invited to submit detailed proposal comprising a technical bid, financial bid, Earnest Money Deposit (EMO) in the form of performance security and related documents.

MNRE Issues RLMM List For Wind Turbines

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he Revised list of models and manufacturers (RLMM) for Wind turbines in India has none of the surprises one associates with the ALMM (Approved list of Module Maufacturers) list for solar producers. For where the ALMM list is restricted to domestic manufacturers for now, the RLMM list has as many as 9 out of 14 manufacturers that are foreign firms, or have licenses from foreign firms to make in India.

According to the MNRE, around 70-80% indigenisation has been achieved with strong domestic manufacturing in the wind sector. All the major global players in this field have their presence in the country and over 44 different models of wind

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turbines are being manufactured by more than 17 different companies, through (i) joint ventures under licensed production (ii) subsidiaries of foreign companies, and (iii) Indian companies with their own technology. The unit size of machines has gone up to 3.00 MW. The current annual production capacity of domestic wind turbines is about 8000 MW to 10000 MW. That, and the fact that Wind energy is already struggling to find takers on a stand alone basis due to the widening gap with solar power, means any further protection would be counter productive for the growth of the sector.

The latest list also enjoins manufacturers type and quality

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certification by an Internationally Accredited Certification Body as a mandatory requirement for manufacturers of wind turbines and components and the both certifications should mandatorily include Hub and Nacelle assembly/manufacturing facility in India. The timelines for processing of RLMM applications are: i. Online application for RLMM Registration by OE Ms - Last date 7th of every month (Soft copy through email and Physical Copy); ii. Review by MNRE- Written communication to the OEMs of any shortcomings/gaps by 30th of every month; iii. Replies to be filed with MNRE by OE Ms by 10th of the

following month; iv. RLMM Committee to meet on 15th of every month and if 15th is a holiday, it will be held on the following working day; and v. RLMM list to be updated by 25th of every month.

The Concessional Custom Duty Certificates (CCDCs) regime also continues to apply, to encourage further manufacturing of equipment in India.

In 2021, solar capacity overtook Wind energy capacity for the first time in India, a lead that is expected to widen considerably in the coming years. However, Wind generation continues to lead till date, and actual solar generation will probably overtake wind energy generation only in another 3 months or more.

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CERC Rules With NTPC in Dispute Involving Solar Firm at Bhadla

Mandating Green Hydrogen Use In Fertilisers and Other Sectors Key, Says Minister

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n a petition filed by Solaire Surya Urja Private Limited, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has ruled in favour of NTPC. At issue was a plea to condone delays in the commissioning of these (70x2) 140 MW solar projects or which NTPC had enforced liquidated damages of over Rs 7 crores. Filed under Section 79 of the Electricity Act, 2003 read with Article 16.3.1 of the Power Purchase Agreements dated 02.05.2016 executed between the Petitioner and NTPC Limited, it sought extension of the Scheduled Commissioning Date for two 70 MW solar power projects.

Solaire’s main contention was that the delays were caused by delays in transmission infrastructure. This claim, while true as far as transmission infra delays went, was found wanting when compared to the solar projects actually commissioning dates. Since there was a delay there as well, and NTPC had charged damages only for the period of delay on the solar projects, and not actual start of injection into the grid, the CERC saw it fit to side with NTPC’s view on the issue. An interesting aside to the case was the commissions view that Rajasthan utilities are neither a necessary nor a proper party to the proceedings, since an effective order can be made in their absence and no relief qua the Rajasthan utilities is required to be granted in the present case. A key issue that swung the decision in favour of NTPC was the short notice given to the distribution utilities to provide transmission infrastructure by the petitioner, when a minimum of 60 days is mandated.

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ccording to the junior oil minister, Rameswar Teli, under its quest to reduce carbon emissions, India plans to mandate refineries and fertilizer plants to use some green hydrogen.

In a written reply to lawmakers on Monday, Teli said that India’s draft hydrogen policy will mandate a gradual increase in the use of green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels in refineries and fertilizer plants.

Even when the governments and energy companies across the world are speculating on clean hydrogen playing a major role in efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, its future uses and costs remain uncertain.

Although he did not give details but noted green hydrogen is yet to be produced in India on a commercial scale due to the high cost of production.

Power minister R. K. Singh also told lawmakers last week that the draft National Hydrogen Mission policy, prepared by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), was under ministerial consultation.

The policy intends to boost green hydrogen production and its use across multiple sectors, including transportation, he announced. Consequently, the fertilizer minister Mansukh Mandaviya said last month, the use of green hydrogen would cut imports of ammonia and natural gas required for fertilizer production.

The draft policy wants green hydrogen to account for 10% of the overall hydrogen needs of refiners from 2023/24, rising to

25% in five years, a government source said.

The respective requirements for the fertilizer sector are 5% and 20%, he added.

India is raising its renewable energy capacity, currently, 92.97 gigawatts (GW), to meet about two-fifths of its electricity needs by 2030 under the Paris climate accord, compared with 36.7% currently.

It wants to raise renewable energy capacity to 175 GW by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030. Mandating production of green hydrogen is one way to create significant demand for renewable energy, at a time when demand growth is struggling, and discoms are unable to get off thermal contracts.

India has already begun the use and announced production of green hydrogen as recently, in July, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) has announced plans to build the first-ever commercial green hydrogen plant at its Mathura refinery in Uttar Pradesh.

NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd. (REL) had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Territory of Ladakh to set up the country’s first Green Hydrogen Mobility project.

Recently, JSW Energy’s wholly-owned subsidiary, JSW Future Energy Ltd. partnered with an Australian firm Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), to explore opportunities to develop green hydrogen projects in India. Last week, Indian Railways invited bids to explore if diesel-fuel trains could operate using hydrogen.

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Indian Govt. Confirms Solar Imports Down To $571 million in 2020-21

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esterday, the Union Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh while addressing the Lok Sabha announced that India’s solar cells and modules imports fell to $571.65 million in the last financial year (FY20-21) from $2.16 billion and $1.68 billion in FY1819 and FY19-20, respectively.

Till July end, India had imposed tariff and non-tariff barriers such as a safeguard duty on solar cells and modules imported from China and Malaysia, for promoting domestic manufacturing. China alone accounted for $494.87 million of $571.65 million worth of solar cells and module imports by India in 2020-21. Followed by Thailand that accounted for $18.76 million worth of Solar PV cells/ modules imported, followed by Vietnam ($14.97 million) and Taiwan ($11.28 million).

The government has been trying to protect domestic production and ramp up domestic manufacturing through various steps, including imposing Basic Customs Duty from 2022. But, till recently, India’s domestic manufacturing capacity is not enough to fulfill the solar target of 280 GW by 2030. India’s cell-making capacity is a

little over 3 GW a year. The module production capacity in the country is around five times that of solar cells, yet it mostly depends upon China for solar cells and modules imports. However, that seems set to change fast, as Singh explained.

Singh replied to a question asked in the house saying, steps taken to promote domestic manufacturing of solar PV cells and modules include a modified special incentive package scheme (M-SIPS), Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme. The Scheme has provisions for supporting the setting up of integrated manufacturing units of high-efficiency solar PV modules by providing Production Linked Incentive (PLI) on sales of such solar PV modules. The

scheme was approved with a financial outlay of Rs. 4500-crore for five years.

For the solar energy sector, on 07.04.2021, the Cabinet approved a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, namely, ‘National Programme on High-Efficiency Solar PV Modules’, with an outlay of Rs. 4,500 crore.

Though on the same date, the Cabinet also approved another Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for White Goods (Air Conditioners and LED Lights), with an outlay of Rs. 6,238 crore, the same is not intended for the solar energy sector. (b): Solar PV cells and modules are already being manufactured in the country. To further enhance domestic manufacturing of solar PV cells and modules, the Government has taken the following steps: 1. Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) Scheme of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology: The scheme mainly provides a subsidy for capital expenditure – 20% for investments in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and 25% in non-SEZs. The Scheme was open to receive applications till 31st December 2018.

NSEFI Welcomes APTEL Judgement Outlawing PPA Curtailment

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he National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) has welcomed the judgement of Appellate Tribunal For Electricity (APTEL) in the matter of “deemed generation” filed by the NSEFI on the behalf of its members against the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (TNERC) order passed in March 2019, denying the said deemed generation.

NSEFI is a non-profit organization with the objective of solar power development. It is an umbrella organisation representing solar energy companies active along the whole photovoltaic value chain, project

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developers, manufacturers, engineering companies, financing institutions and other stakeholders.

APTEL, in its judgement, has allowed compensation at 75% PPA tariff along with 9% interest on curtailment for reasons other than “grid security.”

Speaking on this judgement NSEFI CEO Subrahmanyam Pulipaka said, “This is a landmark judgement by Hon’ble APTEL. This will go a long way in reinstating confidence in the entire Renewable Energy sector and will hold utilities and SLDCs accountable for curtailment.”

The key highlights of APTEL’s

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judgement are as follows: • “For the period of 01.03.2017 to 30.06.2017, the respondents [TNERC, MNRE, etc.] shall pay compensation for 1080 blocks considered by Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO), during which the curtailment instructions were issued for reasons other than grid security, at the rate of 75% of PPA tariff per unit along with 9% interest within 60 days from the date of this order.

Both SLDC & DISCOM [TNERC] shall jointly pay these amounts. The

computation shall be made separately for individual members of the Appellant Association based on the curtailment period/ blocks falling in 1080 blocks.

• APTEL also ordered that for future curtailments, they have to compensate curtailment at full PPA tariff.

• POSOCO shall carry out similar exercise for the period up to 31.10.2020 on the same lines and submit report to Respondent Commission within 3 months. Tamil Nadu SLDC and Appellant are directed to submit details to POSOCO.

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Major CERC Judgement on Safeguard Duty Payment, Discount rate, Liability

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n a detailed 97 page order, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has passed an order that covers multiple petitions filed by 34 solar power developers, SECI itself, and involving multiple discoms across the country. The CERC was forced to move to this format as the queries were broadly the same, and required to be settled for clarity and to prevent any further redundant arguments. We list below the key issues as identified and summarised by the CERC, followed by the commissions response to each. The order was passed by a 4 member bench of the commission, chaired by P.K. Pujari, Chairperson. Considering the length and complication of the issues involved, and in the interest of timely dissemination, we will be holding off for adding any analysis to this order, as some of our readers always request.

Issue No. 1: Whether the annuity methodology proposed by SECI is just and equitable and can be approved?

• The discount rate of annuity payments shall be 10.41% towards the expenditure incurred by SPDs on account of Change in Law (GST Laws or Safeguard Duty, as the case may be).

• The liability of SECI/ Discoms for ‘Monthly Annuity Payments’ starts from 60th (sixtieth) day from the date of orders in respective petitions or from the date of submission of claims by the Respondent (SPDs), whichever is later.

In case of delay in the Monthly Annuity Payment beyond the 60th (sixtieth) day from the date of orders in respective petitions or from the date of submission of claims by the Respondent • (SPDs), whichever is later, late payment surcharge for the delayed period Order in Petition No. 536/MP/2020 & Ors. corresponding to each such delayed Monthly Annuity Payment(s) shall be payable as per respective PPAs/PSAs. • The “Tenure of Annuity Payments” shall be for 13 years.

The annuity payment liability shall be a part of the existing payment security mechanism as stipulated in the PPAs and already established under the PPAs by making suitable provision for the annuity payments.

Issue No. 2: Whether interest cost on Customs Bonds executed by some SPDs is covered under Change in Law and whether it should be allowed to be recovered in lumpsum as a separate element?

• The prayer of SPDs that the interest on Customs Bond should be covered under Change in Law and should be paid in lumpsum as separate element is disallowed. Actual cash outflow (due to levy of safeguard duty) for which bonds have been executed will be payable and claims for Change in Law towards Safeguard Duty will be governed by orders in the petitions where the matter has been adjudicated.

Issue No. 3: Whether the cut-off date for payment of GST/Safeguard Duty claims in respect of orders passed by this Commission needs clarification?

• Cut-off date for Safeguard Duty Claims: The invoices related to supply of the goods can be raised only up to the COD for all the equipment as per rated project capacity that has been installed and through which energy has flown into the grid.

• Cut-off date for GST Claims: The

invoices related to supply of the goods can be raised only up to COD for all the equipment as per the rated project capacity that has been installed and through which energy has flown into the grid. in case of supply of services related to goods procured up to COD, the invoices are to be raised within 30 days of supply of such services, which cannot be later than 30 day of COD.

Issue No. 4: Whether there is implication of taxes and duties levied by the appropriate Government on monthly annuity payment and whether the same should be allowed as pass through on actual basis?

• The SPDs shall have to pay all statutory taxes, duties, levies and cases etc. On Monthly Annuity Payments that may be required to be paid as per the terms of PPAs. Issue No. 5: Whether the principles

decided in this Petition can be made applicable to all the current petitions pertaining to GST and Safeguard Duty pending before this Commission?

• Since the pending petitions were not tagged along with the current Petitions, no general Order can be passed.

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Ready For High Tide At Jakson Group

Sameer Gupta

Sundeep Gupta

Chairman & MD

Vice – Chairman & MD

t the closely held Jakson Group, known until recently for its prowess in the diesel genset market rather than renewable energy, setbacks are usually taken in its stride. The group has faced its share of challenges in a legacy almost as old as Independent India, thanks to its modest beginnings in 1947.

The two big disruptions recently have been the 2007-8 market meltdown and more recently, the 2017-18 period, when the firm weathered both a slowdown in its core gensets business and growth pangs in its new EPC business.

Come 2021, the firm is primed to seize the moment and prepare for what it hopes will be some of its strongest growth years, riding the new wave of renewable energy. In doing that, it will vindicate quite a few industry watchers who have always looked at the group as an agile, well run set up. As Sameer Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director leading the second generation of the family in the firm reminds us, “ Today, we have a board that is probably as good, or better than many public limited firms”. Interestingly, the firm’s move into solar happened on the basis of a recommendation from consultants at PWC, who the firm hired after the Lehman crisis and slowdown of 2007-8. “We realised it was not prudent to be so dependent on basically one line of business, and were eventually advised to get into three lines of business by PWC. Solar, Gensets and EPC broadly”.

While stories about IPO plans for the 2600 crore group return, Gupta is quick to add that there are no immediate plans, perhaps waiting to see the groups’ strategy play out a little before considering the big move. Just so you know, the management is hoping that the solar business, which delivered around RS 1200 crores to the firm in revenues till this year, will grow 3.5 to 4 times over the period to 2025. So just how has the Jakson group reinvented itself?

Perhaps the most visible move is the group’s move to build its cell manufacturing of 1 GW. Before that, it hopes to start production

from its module plant from October, where capacity has been ramped up to 500 MW. Aggressive EPC plans, along with a focus on electrical contracts complete the picture for the firm. “ Rooftop solar, particularly in the C&I segment has massive potential, and we have always been clear about expanding there with tight control over our sourcing and quality”, adds Sameer Gupta. Deputy Managing Director Sandeep Gupta adds “ Our own cell manufacturing should provide an additional 5-6% cost advantage, which is vital in this competitive segment”. He adds that considering India’s ambitious 450 GW renewable targets for 2030, of which close to 300 GW should come from solar, the C&I segment will be key. “ I don’t see utility scale additions beyond 13-14 GW per annum. The gap will have to be filled by the rooftop C&I segment, and we are planning for that”, he adds. The C&I segment is also an area of strength for the group, and its focus is on simply offering complete energy solutions that work for its clients, be it a genset, solar rooftop or a storage backed offering linked to either.

For the Jakson group, it’s positioning as distributed energy specialists and expert contractor is a natural evolution from its dominance in the genset business in the markets it operates in. A customer base of 60,000 previous customers also gives it unique insights, access and knowledge about the thinking in commercial and industrial firms across the country.

Which is one reason Sameer is still cautiously optimistic about the gensets business. “ We see three levels in the genset business, the smaller variants between 5-75 kVA, the mid range till say, 500 kVa, and the higher range which can go upto 3 MW or even more sometimes. The improvement in power supply, availability will impact the smallest range the most, while the bigger variants will continue to see demand well into the next 15-20 years”, he asserts.

The only challenge to this continued growth for diesel gensets is ESG norms (Environment, Social and Governance) norms, where he expects to see more and more firms move to abide with better

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standards. That means lower , but still consistent growth of 4-5% CAGR over the next decade, according to Sameer. Sandeep adds that even as the use of gensets has gone down as the power situation has improved, they provide the kind of guaranteed, instant power that few options do right now. For critical back up, they will continue to have a use case for many firms until that changes.

The firm has plans for residential rooftop also, as its own module production ramps up. An interesting move here is the plan to build the latest, high output modules with output upto 600 W from its upcoming plants. Sharing their insights, Sandeep says that the bane of utility scale solar, low cost and an even lower (balance of system) price is not as much of an issue in the C&I segment. “ Commercial firms do not necessarily have abundant land. So space is a constraint, making the case for better designed plants with higher output in the same space. Also, we urge them to take the long view, and not just the initial capex. Solar today delivers savings to you whatever way you look at it, whatever be its share in your total energy mix”.

The long time presence and brand visibility is also an advantage when it comes to the still untapped residential segment, reckon the brothers. “We already have a strong presence on the ground, and will look to increase touch points as well as increase communication outreach as (module) production comes online, says Sameer. Sandeep adds that the firm was constrained in the retail segment with a small manufacturing capacity. Like gensets, it prefers to make the key components here too, and with a larger manufacturing capacity, will expand presence across the country, moving beyond its stronghold in Northern India. “ We will expand our network with channel partners, and what we bring there is a complete kit, so that we have complete control over quality. That frankly will also be the assurance for the end customer, because otherwise quality can be very inconsistent from many of the installers out there today”. On the future shape of the residential rooftop market, Sandeep adds that he expects strong regional players to dominate, even as there will be the odd TATA group that has a national presence.

An area the firm had entered very early, but has stayed away for the past couple of years is its IPP(Independent power producer) or developer plans. “ Money is money, whether it comes from shareholders, banks, or even customers,” says Sameer. “ We have evaluated the recent bids for larger projects, and to us at least those prices were not delivering the kid of returns we look at”, he adds.

Sandeep remembers how the solar plans started off slowly, with an initial focus on being developers. “ It was the Manmohan Singh government that announced a 20 GW target for the country in 2010, I think, and we decided that the time was ripe to get in”. The firm won in one of the initial bids, and got a 20 MW power plant, which it put up in Rajasthan along with a PPA with NTPC. From that PPA price of Rs 8.50 to the current price of well under Rs 3, the firm has quietly transitioned to a solutions provider from a developer.

Sameer also highlights the firms plan in the Solar O&M space, as the installed base grows in the country. “ From about Rs 25 crores last Financial year, we hope to generate Rs 35 to 40 crores in the coming year from Solar O&M. As the overall market ramps upto to 100 GW and more of installed capacity, I don’t see why O&M can’t deliver 400-600 cores of revenue to us”.

Like the move to solar O&M, the firm is also a convert to storage backed solutions, using Lithium-ion batteries for now. For now,

because Sandeep is clear that in the medium to long term, other storage options will grow too, be it non Lithium options for batteries, or even Hydrogen to fuel their gensets and more. For now, the firm is clear that it will provide all the options that make sense for its clients needs. Sandeep informs us that “while we don't plan to manufacture batteries per se, but we do plan to manufacture battery base systems. So what we will be doing is we will be buying the battery and then doing the packaging, the controlling software, the management system that complete the thing - that we will be doing in-house, but the battery or the cells per se we don't plan to manufacture”.

“We have repositioned ourselves as a distributed energy firm. We are offering solar rooftop in C&I, energy storage solutions, and also hybrid solutions, where we ask our customers how we could optimise your energy needs and requirements. Our gensets team should be able to , and does offer complete solutions today, including rooftop solar where required”.

A lesser noticed but strong part of the growth mix for the group is its electrical contracting business and export markets. From sub stations to transmission lines, the firm does it all, and sees massive opportunities in the segment. “ Between Solar(manufacturing), EPC, and our work with railways electrification and other electrical work, we have a clear pathway”, adds Sameer.

Both the brothers see immense opportunities for exporting services, especially in Arica and the Middle East. Sameer likens it to a ‘golden window of opportunity “ for the next 5 years, which India must grab. That is also the nub of their belief that the country must build a strong domestic manufacturing base across the value chain, to ensure that the opportunity is not squandered away. A recent project, executed in Togo in Africa, is just the beginning of what the firm hopes will be many such wins in Solar EPC. AUGUST 20 21

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The whole ethos of the

company is energy independence As the energy market continues to open up In India, it’s throwing up a number of opportunities for firms .

One such firm is Australia based Sunpower Renewables, which has focused on storage based solutions using Lithium Ion batteries. Starting with a simple solar lantern back in 2016, the firm today is offering an array of portable storage products that it claims are seeing strong traction In India too. We caught up with Rahul Kale, Founder and CEO, and Nitasha Badhwar, Chief Strategy Officer, to understand the experience and expectations from India.

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So give us your introduction to Sunpower Renewables first.

Rahul: We are an Australian firm based in

RAHUL KALE

Founder and CEO, Sunpower Renewables

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Melbourne, Victoria, I have been the founder and now, CEO. Our whole core focus has been on product development and innovation, where we develop very innovative solar- portable solar lithium generators. What we’ve done is we’ve integrated all the different components of a solar power plant into a single compact device which becomes a plug and play unit, and can replace power requirements for backup like diesel generators, home ups inverters with lead acid batteries. And we mean that. All the different components of the solar plant with additional features like an in-built Inverter, MPPT charge controller, a pure sine wave UPS, a reversible net meter and an in-built Li-Ion battery pack for energy storage. Thus, ours is a complete, direct substitute and replacement for those units.

We are one of the only companies in the world who have got a range of products, from the smaller handheld portable units to larger units used for residential and commercial purposes. Our closest competitor on the larger end of the spectrum is Tesla with Powerwall, and even they don’t have a portable version whereas all our machines are portable. We’ve been developing this product for the last 5-6 years. We started commercialising our technology in 2018, 2019. We’ve been in India for the last couple of years, and have seen significant growth and demand for our products being generated in the country. Our products are Australian made, all are manufactured in Melbourne and obviously as the pandemic is fueling more and more demand for electricity, the

demand for our products is also going up exponentially.

Nitasha: I’d say our product really aids and

affects the growth of solar renewable in the country, and everywhere else. Like Rahul said our range allows for anyone to use our product. So that means you could use a handheld if you’re going on a car trip, and you can use it to use storage for the house as well as for your business, or anything else. Beyond that we’ve been winning a few awards in Australia and internationally for the sort of innovative research that's gone into our product, which is one of its type.

How are customers using these products?

Use cases.

Rahul: The use cases for the products are very varied. Anywhere where electricity is required, our products can be used. You have your traditional segments like residential, commercial, industrial and off grid. We can see our products being used in defence sector, they’re being used in humanitarian aid, they’re being used in the medical industry at the moment during the pandemic for mobile hospitals. They’ve been used to power satellite phones in the pacific islands. We’ve seen them used for agricultural pumps and other agricultural equipment. We use them to charge electric vehicles for portable power. So literally, anywhere where there is power requirement. Fueling strong demand.

Especially in a country like India, where a lot of people are still dependent on diesel generators or home UPS inverters as energy backup. Ours is a much better, cleaner, greener and more affordable option than any of the existing solutions that are available.

Currently, we have a capacity to manufacture close to two and a half megawatts of storage products per year. For a market like India, as our growth and demand grows in the country, we are looking to move some of our assembly lines to India.

or the home UPS inverter market, where there’s lead acid batteries. Two completely different markets. For a capacity like what we’re talking about in terms of 5 megawatts in energy storage, that’s still a very large number.

NITASHA BADHWAR Chief Strategy Officer, Sunpower Renewables

What is your current manufacturing capacity?

Rahul: Currently, we have a capacity to

manufacture close to two and a half megawatts of storage products per year. For a market like India, as our growth and demand grows in the country, we are looking to move some of our assembly lines to India.

With your own set up ? Or through a partner?

Rahul: We have a couple of distributors

who are capable and prepared to take over the assembly lines over here. In stage one we’ll look to move some assembly lines and in the near future when we hit our target of 5 MW sales for the Indian market, then we will look to move the manufacturing over here as well.

These manufacturing numbers seem low, when we hear about GW sized setups all the time.

Rahul: See, we’re looking at a completely

different segment over here. You’re looking at solar panels and large scale utility products. That’s a very different market. We are looking at the diesel generator market

So far, the sectors you mentioned in India, be it defence, hospitals and emergency uses, the requirement has been urgent, and possibly cost was not the main issue. What about wider acceptance?

Nitasha: In the last few years, solar panels

and storage have continued to depreciate in price whereas diesel has continued to increase. We’ve all seen our bills, where, you know, the price of diesel is going up and significantly impacting all industries.

People are opting for our product because it’s a one time cost, whereas with diesel you’re continuing to pay every month, and there’s a lot more maintenance. This tends to be maintenance free, and there’s not much effort required to set up either. As we mentioned, it’s a plug and play product. So the second you pick it up, you plug it in, and you’re ready to go

Rahul: So in terms of cost comparison to diesel generator, the payback is around 8-9 months and the life of our product is anywhere between 10-12 years, so essentially you’re getting almost 10 years of free power by opting for our machine.

To understand this payback figure, consumption wise, if you look at a residential diesel generator that's used in a residential home, take a 5 or 7 kva generator or 10 kva generator. The cost of the generator plus the running cost with the maintenance and cost of diesel versus our cost for an equivalent product in our range, you’re looking at about an 8 to 9 month payback. By integrating it with solar electricity(generation) during the day, you can use the in-built batteries to power them during the non-peak usage

between the evening- night phase and early morning.

And what is the maximum capacity you offer currently?

Rahul: maximum capacity is around 50

kWh of storage in a single unit.

It doesn’t necessarily end at 50kWh of storage. What happens is you can add multiple units just like the Tesla Powerwall, as its modular.

Nitasha: You know, one of the biggest

challenges that we’ve had till now, was awareness. 2-3 years back, when we launched people were not aware that a product like this exists. Whenever they wanted to go for energy backup they still used to go for diesel generators or those bulky lead acid batteries, like if you look at your home inverter and the ups, they come with those bulky lead acid batteries which are inefficient and last as little as 2 years and are costly. Our products completely replace that- its more technologically advanced, its smaller and compact, it’s portable, you could literally pick it up in the car. We’ve got customers in Delhi who used the product in their homes during the year, and in the summer when they go up to Shimla for their summer holidays, they take the backup into the car and they take it up and power their homes in the hills. It becomes a lot more versatile in its usage and adaptability, rather than a bulky little battery bank as energy backup.

So on a per kilowatt basis, would you be able to share a number? Like what does it actually cost?

Rahul: So per kilowatt we’re roughly

about 75 to 80 thousand rupees per kilowatt hour (kWh). And when I say that remember that we have all the components already in our machine. So if you look at other units you have to buy a separate inverter, you have to buy a

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separate battery, so all those costs add up, whereas ours has no reissue cost and everything is already part of that cost.

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What about your portable sets, what is the lowest capacity and cost in your range?

Rahul: So our lowest capacity is as small

as a 130 watt hour battery, and we’re selling that for about 17500 rupees. We have seen a lot of success in tier two, tier three cities or in the remote camping kind of market when they want to go off grid for camping especially in this pandemic time where international travel is hit, every ones travelling domestically. So many people are taking our units and travelling with that. The larger units obviously go into the lakh range, a few lakhs depending on the size of the battery.

While the cost per watt hour also reduces, our 10 kilowatt hour unit, we’re selling for roughly about seven and a half lakhs rupees. We’ve had a customer in the Andaman islands who has installed a 60kWh unit- so they’ve got a 150 kWh unit and one 10kWh unit. Above 30kWh unit, we also have three phase units.

So we have got single phase and three phase, both types of units.

Nitasha: We like to think of this as bespoke electricity. According to your need is how much you buy, whereas with diesel, you might be lighting one light, but would have to burn that much diesel to get your generator running.

Sectors like fuel stations, telecom tend to be huge consumers of back up power.

Hows have you done there/

We’ve had customers at a few petrol stations, and for petrol stations it’s a very different kind of value proposition. If you look at existing solar solutions they’re only put up for office lighting or canopy lighting.

At a petrol station If there was any electricity shortage, even for one petrol pump nozzle, they have to run the entire diesel generator, which is usually a 5-20 kVa generator leading to inefficiency and wastage. What we’ve managed to achieve with our machine- so our machine has a ups in built in it, and the cutoff from electricity

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to our machine is 0.08 microseconds. So when the electricity goes off, there is no disruption in the power. The petrol pump nozzle can actually put on our machine directly. So even if there is no electricity, petrol pumps have not just recorded a drop in their operational cost, but also reported an increase in revenue.

How long should a 10 kilowatt battery last considering normal usage during a power cut?

It depends on the load you put on. If we take a standard standalone home for example, with one or two ACs running, you have a load of about 3kW. So if there’s no electricity at all or no solar at all you’re getting 3-4 hours of backup with the ACs on. Without the ACs on, obviously, you’d get a much longer backup. Our whole point- the whole ethos of the company, is energy independence. The idea is that you should be able to live off-grid.

How about diesel gensets in the telecom space?

Rahul: We’ve had success in Australia, in

the Pacific Islands. In India, we’ve installed a couple of our units in the mining industry with privately owned mines. Austrade is helping us get connections with a few telecom players here to see how we would broaden our reach into the sector.

In the Pacific islands, they were using battery tech from Germany in the telecom towers. They’ve replaced those completely with our products.

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For such a high value, modular structure, theft would be a risk. How can we control that?

Rahul: All the machines come with a GPS

feature. A mobile application enables you to remotely monitor performance, output. One of the anti-theft and antidamage measures we have taken is to build a cabinet around it to make sure it is protected. In a direct aid program financed by the Australian High commission in Rajasthan, we installed our units across 14 education institutions, and all these units are powered by our machines making them energy independent. We encased a small cabinet around the machines to make sure they are not tampered with.

Nitasha: With the larger units, you have

the option off keeping the wheels on as these come with a break lock. This is meant to keep them in position, otherwise the wheels scan be removed. Keep in mind that the larger machines are heavy. A 10 kW unit would be about 250 Kilos.

What about recycling or buyback options?

Rahul: There are two things that we are

working on. One is that our life span for the battery is roughly around 10 years. Only the efficiency drops to 80 %. As a young firm , we are still some time away for that cycle to start. But we do plan to recycle those batteries . We are one of the founding members of the Victorian Cleantech

We will be launching some new products by the end of this year that we are very excited about. One option is dealing with last mile anxiety with EV cars. cluster. We are working not just to recycle the batteries but also improving the efficiency of used batteries. Extend its life.

Well maintained batteries can last over 15 years, though we can’t claim that yet. In our R&D centre we are seeing over 15 year life cycles. Another option is to source used EV batteries as a battery for our product and sold at a much lower cost for the off grid market. Since these batteries only lose efficiency, but are still at 80% levels, which is good enough for stationary storage in many cases.

What is the current warranty on your products?

We offer a 2 year warranty. Life span is about 10 years. The warranty is extendable warranty upto 5 years at a cost.

How are you selling in India?

Rahul: In India we have multiple

distributors to reach our customers. Prepandemic, we were focusing solely on selling through our distributors who already had a customer base. Post pandemic, we’ve had to ramp up our digital assets, our social media strategy and Again, pre-pandemic we are going solely through our distributors who already had a customer base. Post pandemic, we’ve had to ramp up our digital assets, our social media strategy, our PR activities. We are now on Amazon, we recently tied up with croma. Pre-pandemic, we were selling a lot of the larger units. During the pandemic, buying habits have changed. Suddenly, we have seen a big uptake in the handheld range also, By the middle of 2022, we will still see a lot of growth in the hand held segment but the larger segment will come back stronger. People are looking at cleaner, greener, more affordable options.

What is the current size and future targets for Sunpower Renewables?

Rahul: Our topline currently is close to 8 million dollars. We are growing at 150% a year. Just the diesel energy replacement market is around 2.5 billion dollars. By 2023, we hope to do business worth 25 million dollars here.

In the next 5 years, 50.

Have you raised any funding?

Rahul: We are debt free, no external

funding. So self funded, a self-sustained business.

Nitasha: We will be launching some new

products by the end of this year that we are very excited about. One option is dealing with last mile anxiety with EV cars. We will be offering a product that will boost the car batteries a little, giving it the added power to move to the nearest charging station if required.

Do you see a further drop in prices helping? What’s the Ideal price point?

Rahul: The challenge we have is not the

price point , its more the awareness. This market has really surprised us. Feedback says that the assumption is that we largely sell handheld pieces. For the larger pieces of 10 KW for residential or business use, a Rs 7.5 lacs unit with an asset write off is not an issue.

As Australia, your home market is a market where rooftop solar has been a big success, and off grid applications too, how has that helped you design and validate your products acceptance?

Australia has been quite successful in implementing its solar rooftop strategy through clear and regulated policies,

along with Government incentives to promote the adoption of rooftop solar like tax breaks and subsidies. Since the last 2-3 years, there have been Federal and State incentives to promote the inclusion of batteries as part of the solar rooftop offering.

This has helped us tremendously during our product development phase as we are able to test and validate our products, technology, and its commercial suitability real time in the market. We have tested our products in different industries, locations and customer segments to understand their performance across different weather and consumption patterns. Our partnership with the Calperum Environment Station in South Australia is an excellent example of this where they are using our handheld and grid connected products for independent and sustainable energy generation. The data we get from the station helps us in validating our product performance.

Having our R&D centre in Melbourne helps as we can incorporate these learnings quickly into our product development cycle and continuously improve our product quality and performance. In the end we feel this rigorous and thorough testing has led the team to create an extremely versatile product, durable and capable of performing in extreme conditions and situations.

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New Research Accelerates Development of Organic Solar Cells

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team of researchers is working to replace heavy and expensive silicon solar cells currently being used in the solar industry with light and low-cost organic solar cells - made from materials and elements found in plants and animals which could help in the battle against climate change.

Most of today’s solar cells are made from silicon and are heavy, rigid, and expensive to produce. By contrast, organic solar cells hold the promise of being lightweight, flexible, and cheap to make. However, organic solar cells have not yet reached the sunlight-toelectricity efficiencies of their silicon-based counterparts, preventing their commercialisation.

Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge, in a global collaboration with experts from Canada, Belgium, New Zealand, and China, have discovered a new fundamental way for energy to move in organic materials at a speed up to 1000’s of times faster than normal, getting steps closer

to fully realise the promise of organic photovoltaics. Their findings are reported in the journal Science Advances.

This new movement mechanism, coined “transient exciton delocalization,” allows energy to move and transfer to the surrounding electrical wires incredibly much faster than normal.

“This improvement is made possible by the quantum-mechanical nature of reality, where energy can exist in many places at once, simultaneously”, said first author Alexander Sneyd, a PhD student at Cambridge’s

Cavendish Laboratory. “By taking advantage of these quantum-mechanical elements which allow for highly-efficient energy movement, we can make better, more efficient solar cells.”

The research team began by using a highly advanced nanotechnology technique called ‘living crystallization driven self-assembly’ to create nanofibers made from a sulphur and carbon-based polymer. This allowed them to precisely control the position of each of the atoms in the organic nanofiber to create a ‘perfect’ model material. “This was really the secret to the success”, said Dr. Akshay Rao of the Cavendish Laboratory who led the research. “We were able to attain an unprecedented level of structural control, which one could only dream of until very recently.”

The team then shone a laser at the nanofibers to mimic sunlight, and watched the energy move over time using a technique called transient-absorption microscopy to create ‘films’ of the energy transport.

Researchers Make High-activity Photocatalyst Using Gold Nanoclusters

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esearchers from Japan have designed a stable, high-performance photocatalyst from gold nanoclusters (NCs) by removing the protective molecules around them.

In a new study published in Angewandte Chemie, Prof.

Negishi led a team of researchers, including Assistant Professor Tokuhisa Kawawaki, Mr. Yuki Kataoka, Ms. Momoko Hirata, and Mr. Yuki Akinaga, to dig deep into the mechanism of the ligand removal process in NCs. Catalysts, which help drive reactions, are ubiquitous, whether as an enzyme in the body that digests food or the catalytic converter in the car that breaks down pollutants. In

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chemical reactions, catalysts play an important role in making it more efficient.

Recently, atomically precise metal NCs that can accelerate various thermal, electrochemical, and photochemical reactions have been used to design useful catalysts. These NCs are tiny particles (less than 2 nanometers) whose properties can be modified by changing their atomic composition. This is why, metal NCs have received considerable attention, with scientists trying to find various ways of synthesizing NCs with unique functions. A popular way of fabricating atomically precise metal NCs is using ligands (molecules or ions that attach themselves to a central

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metal core). These ligands not only protect the tiny NCs but also affect their chemical reactivity and selectivity.

Sometimes, however, the reactivity is lower than expected. To increase the catalytic activity of ligandprotected metal NCs, they are heated in a furnace at high temperatures without oxygen (a process called “calcination”) to remove the ligands from the main cluster. However, heating the particles at very high temperatures can cause the NCs to accumulate, often leading to a decrease in reactivity.

“When the ligands are removed without special treatment, the metal NCs easily aggregate on the support and

lose their size-specific properties. It is essential understand the mechanism of ligand calcination to create highly functional heterogeneous catalysts under appropriate conditions,” says Prof. Yuichi Negishi of Tokyo University of Science, Japan, who researches on the synthesis of nanoclusters.

For their experiments, the Japanese researchers synthesized gold NCs protected by two ligands, 2-phenylethanethiolate and mercaptobenzoic acid and then supported them on a photocatalytic metal oxide.

Next, the team heated the prepared material at different temperatures ranging from 195°C to 500°C.

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Researchers Devise New Methods for 'Solar-to-fuel' Production

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n an article published in Coordination Chemistry Reviews, researchers have highlighted the potential of covalent organic frameworks (COFs), a new class of light-absorbing materials, in solar-to-fuel production.

Photocatalysts absorb energy from light to make a chemical reaction happen. The best known photocatalyst is perhaps chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that helps turn sunlight into carbohydrates.

While carbohydrates may be falling out of favor, photocatalysis is garnering more attention than ever. In a photocatalytic process, light falls on a photocatalyst, increases the energy of its electrons and causes them to break their bonds and move freely through the catalyst.

These “excited” electrons then react with the raw materials of a chemical reaction to produce desired products. A top priority in

the field of alternate energy research is using photocatalysts to convert solar energy to fuel, a process called “solar-to-fuel production.”

As co-author Dr. Pardeep Singh explains, “Solar energy has been successfully tapped to make electricity, but we are not yet able to efficiently make liquid fuels from it.

These solar fuels, like hydrogen, could be an abundant supply of sustainable, storable, and portable energy.”

The specialty of COFs lies in their ability to improve catalysis and add special substituent molecules called “functional groups” to their structure, providing a way around the limitations of existing photocatalysts. This is due to certain favorable properties of COFs such as chemical stability, controllable porosity, and strong electron delocalization, which make them extra stable.

Like the name suggests, COFs consist of organic molecules that are bonded together into a structure that can be tailored to suit various applications. Moreover, strong electron delocalization means that, unlike in semiconductor photocatalysts, the excited electrons recombine midway only infrequently, resulting in more excited electrons for the chemical reaction.

Since these reactions occur at the surface of the photocatalyst, the increased surface area and modifiable porosity of COFs is a huge advantage.

COF-photocatalysts find application in the conversion of water to hydrogen, and the production of methane from carbon dioxide, thus promising the dual benefit of producing fuel and mitigating global warming. Furthermore, they can even help with nitrogen fixation, plastics production, and storage of gases.

Researchers Develop Technology to Produce Hydrogen from Agriculture Residue

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esearchers from two Pune-based institutes today announced the development of a technique that produces hydrogen directly from agricultural residue. The generated hydrogen can be used in fuel cell-powered vehicles.

Scientists from Sentient Labs, a KPIT Technologies incubated R&D innovation lab, and Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) of Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science (MACS) came together to develop this innovative technology which they claim to be the first of its kind in the world.

This hydrogen generation technology uses agricultural residue rich in cellulose and hemicellulose content – in paddy, wheat, or maize residue.

The process uses microbial culture for the direct generation of hydrogen from agricultural residues. It further generates methane, which is utilized for producing additional hydrogen by steam methane reformation.

This process can avoid the burning of biomass generated in large measure in the Indian countryside and generate organic manure and CO2, which find applications in various industries.

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"Our technology is 25% more efficient as compared to conventional anaerobic digestion processes used today. The innovative two-stage process eliminates the pre-treatment of the biomass, thus making the process economical and environment friendly. This biologically benign process generates digestate rich in nutrients which can be used as organic fertilizer, said Dr. Prashant Dhakephalkar, Director at Agharkar Research Institute.

He further added, "Its by-products can be used as soil conditioners while undigested solids for briquetting can be sold as solid fuel. I thank the scientists and engineers at Agharkar Research Institute &Sentient Labs for this achievement."

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Indian Scientists Make Dendrite-free Zinc-iron Redox Flow Battery

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ndian scientists have created a redox flow battery based on zinc and iron, which showed strong storage characteristics and no signs of degradation over 30 chargedischarge cycles. Additionally, the battery did not show any signs of dendrite formation, overcoming one of the key challenges for redox-flow batteries based on these low-cost, abundant materials.

The researchers described their invention in the paper "A Dendrite Free Zn-Fe Hybrid Redox Flow Battery for Renewable Energy Storage," published in the journal Energy Storage. The full paper can be accessed here.

About two thirds of global greenhouse emissions is caused by burning of fossil fuels for energy purposes and this has spurred great research interest to develop renewable energy technologies based on wind, solar power etc. Redox Flow Batteries (RFB) are receiving wide attention as scalable energystorage systems to address the intermittency

issues of renewable energy sources.

However, for widespread commercialization, the redox flow batteries should be economically viable and environmentally friendly. Zinc based batteries are good choice for energy storage devices because zinc is earth abundant and zinc metal has a moderate specific capacity of 820 mA hg−1 and high volumetric capacity of 5851 mA h cm−3. In their paper, the scientists demonstrate a zinc-iron (Zn-Fe) hybrid RFB employing Zn/Zn(II) and Fe(II)/Fe(III) redox couples as positive and negative redox systems, respectively, separated by a selfmade anion exchange membrane (AEM).

The battery, say the scientists, delivers a good discharge voltage of approximately 1.34 V at 25 mA cm−2, with a coulombic efficiency (CE) of 92%, voltage efficiency (VE) of 85% and energy efficiency (EE) of ~78% for 30 charge-discharge cycles. Repeated galvanostatic charge/discharge cycles show

no degradation in performance, confirming the excellent stability of the system.

A key advancement in the present Zn-Fe hybrid redox flow battery with AEM separator is that no dendrite growth was observed on zinc electrode on repeated charge-discharge cycles, which was the serious drawback of many previously reported zinc based redox flow batteries.

This study's results show that the operating conditions are crucial impact factors for the cell performance and the Zn-Fe RFB can exhibit good performance at low concentration (1 M) and at low current density (15 mA cm-2). "Thus, we have successfully demonstrated working of a high efficiency and stable Zn-Fe hybrid redox flow battery with no dendrite growth during zinc deposition by optimizing charge-discharge conditions and employing an anion exchange membrane as separator," conclude the scientists.

Solar Cells with Ferroelectric Crystal Lattice Produce 1,000 Times More Power

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esearchers from Martin Luther University HalleWittenberg (MLU), Germany, have developed a lattice arrangement of three different layers of ferroelectric crystals that induced a powerful effect in solar cells.

The researchers believe that on integration with the ferroelectric crystal lattice, the solar cells can become thousand times more powerful. They say that combining ultra-thin layers of different materials can raise the PV effect of solar cells by a factor of 1,000. They achieved this by creating crystalline layers of barium titanate (BaTiO3), strontium titanate (SrTiO3), and calcium titanate (CaTiO3) which they alternately placed on top of one another.

Most solar cells are currently silicon-based however, their

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efficiency is limited. This has inspired researchers to examine new materials, such as ferroelectrics like barium titanate, a mixed oxide made of barium and titanium. However, pure barium titanate does not absorb much sunlight and consequently generates a comparatively low photocurrent.

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characteristic of certain materials that have a spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. According to the physicist Dr. Akash Bhatnagar from MLU's Centre for Innovation Competence SiLinano, Ferroelectric means that the material has spatially separated positive and negative

charges, the charge separation leads to an asymmetric structure that enables electricity to be generated from light.

Studies of these researchers from MLU were published in the journal Science Advances.

Unlike silicon, ferroelectric crystals do not require a so-called pn-junction to create the PV effect, in other words, no positively and negatively doped layers. This makes it much easier to produce solar panels, explains Dr. Bhatnagar. He explains that the important thing here is that a ferroelectric material alternated with a paraelectric material.

Although the latter does not have separated charges, it can become ferroelectric under certain conditions, like low temperatures or when its chemical structure is slightly modified.

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MNRE Releases Updated ALMM List With 3 New Additions

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he Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued an updated list of approved manufacturers in its ALMM (Approved list of module manufacturers) list. The List is effective August 17, 2021, with the certifications valid to August 16, 2023, or two years.

While broadly in line with the previous list, the fresh list has three new additions, in the form of Central Electronics Limited with a capacity of 35 MW, Patanjali Renewable Energy Private Limited for 70 MW, and finally, Jakson Engineers for 80 MW capacity.

Interestingly, all the three new additions are based in and around Western Uttar Pradesh, in Greater Noida and Sahibabad respectively. With no foreign manufacturer in the list still, developers hoping for a change will be disappointed. Even though Power and MNRE Minister R.K. Singh has repeatedly gone on record to say that the ALMM list will be one of the tools to drive faster domestic manufacturing, as even foreign firms will be allowed in only if they set up domestic manufacturing. Overall domestic capacity available as per the new list is now at about 8350 MW spread over 26 manufacturers. With a large amount of capacity (around 7 GW by our estimates) coming up by March 2022, assuming quick certification for those, domestic capacity available post March next year, when the 40 % customs duty will kick in, could be close to 15GW, adequate to meet all domestic demand, but for the manufacturers who also service export markets. Clarity is still not there on the present period, when no duty rules apply, except for the sword of being the ALMM order should developers use imported modules for domestic projects. As we had reported, the power minister has sought to expand the scope of government supported projects to all projects which get any direct or indirect support.

Domestic Solar Manufacturers Collateral Damage In Tussle Between Govt And SC

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he ongoing tussle between the union government and the Supreme Court, where the apex court has repeatedly expressed its displeasure at the slow pace of filling of vacancies in courts, and lately in tribunals too, has come back to hurt solar manufacturers. Of course, for the sector as a whole, this is not the first time they have felt the repurcussions of the tussle, as we saw with the shutdown of the CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission) earlier. It had been asked to cease work after the Supreme Court insisted that the government appoint a member of law, something the government eventually complied with after a significant delay that caused a huge backlog of cases at the CERC. In the present case the Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA) will feel aggrieved. The body had filed a petition with the DGTR for an anti dumping investigation to prevent losses.

Only for the Solar Power developers association (SPDA) to file a petition in the high court asking for more time to respond to DGTR, following which the High court extended the last date for feedback on the investigation to July 19. That complicated matters, as now the DGTR investigation could not be completed before the expiry of

Safeguard Duty on July 29. Which is where the industry finds itself now.

The government, in its wisdom, requested a four week extension to file the counteraffidavits in the anti-dumping investigation while simultaneously filing a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.

On the reason cited for the special leave petition, that there could be irreparable damage to domestic manufacturers, the SC made it clear that delays if any were attributable to the government's own failure to fill judicial posts. The Supreme Court also said that it had no reason to be involved at such an early stage of hearings in the High Court. Thus dismissing the petitions from both the government and the SPDA. It admonished the government for taking 4 weeks to file a counter affidavit, but finding the time to file a special leave petition. Practically assuming that there would be a delay at the High court.

Caught in the middle are the solar manufacturers who fear that this 'duty free' period will lead to massive imports that cripple domestic demand. Of course, that fear seems a little exaggerated, considering how the government has leaned on nontariff options like its ALMM list to stifle imports in the meantime.

Solar PV inverters To Continue Under Self Certification Regime till Dec 31, 2021

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he Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued a notification allowing self certification of Solar Photovoltaic Inverters (SPV) from June 30, 2021, to December 31, 2021. The notification was issued on August 4.

The notification does add the condition that the manufacturers doing so must have valid International Electrotechnical Commission certificates and test reports from international test labs.

This is the probably the sixth extension granted for SPV certification after the earlier one in January this year, when the self certification was extended to the end of June 2021.

The origin of the new rules are the ‘Solar PV Systems, Devices, and Components Goods

Order, 2017’ that was issued requiring compulsory registration with six products included in the schedule on September 5, 2017. Issues, including delays at the Bureau of Indian Standards, led to the order being first extended to April 16, 2018.

While cells and modules have been brought under ALMM guidelines, SPV imports have been allowed more leeway so far, and at least here the government has not shown the same urgency to go for tariff and non-tariff barriers.

Currently, Solar Inverters are subject to a 20% duty, something that has nt really prevented them from dominating the market.

A key issue here might be the relative challenge of making these in the country, as many key electronic components have no manufacturing base here.

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High Power Modules and Agriculture Production Combine, As Trina Showcases 210m Series DR ZHANG YINGBIN

Product Strategy and Marketing, Trina Solar

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Trina Solar has shared on a project, covering 160 hectares of farmland, that uses Trina Solar's 210 Vertex 550W series and is expected to generate 110 million kWh of electricity a year.

The firm is showcasing the 100 MW project as a great example of combining solar with agriculture.

The firm claims that the 210 Vertex module, based on large 210mm silicon wafers, achieves low-voltage highpower characteristics with innovative non-destructive cutting and highdensity cell interconnect technology, achieving maximum power of 670W with an efficiency of 21.6%, and single string power rising 40%.

The inverters compatible with Trina Solar’s 550W modules in this project are Huawei's latest high-current string inverters, highly adapted to ultra-high power 210 Vertexmodules, resulting not only in higher power generation and safer operation, but also performing exceptionally well in terms of system stability of weak-grid connection and intelligent operation and maintenance.

"Ultra-high-power modules are an inevitable trend in the PV industry,” says Huawei. “That is why we have launched matching inverters and

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provide a complete set of intelligent PV solutions,” it adds.

More than 10 mainstream inverter manufacturers have now put highcurrent inverters on the market that are perfectly adapted to 210 modules.

For Trina Solar, pushing to make the 210 mm standard the dominant standard over the 182 mm option, a series of test results on the mechanical reliability of Trina Solar 670W Vertex modules also serve their case. There were six tests: n a static mechanical load test, n non-uniform snow-load test, n e xtreme low-temperature mechanical load test, n hail test, n extreme dynamic mechanical load (DML) test and n a

wind tunnel test to test the modules under extreme wind conditions.

Trina Solar's head of product strategy and marketing, Dr Zhang Yingbin responded to a set of questions on the same. Dr Yingbin, head of product strategy and marketing at Trina Solar, says these advanced tests aimed to verify that ultra-high-power modules can maintain their outstanding performance even when subject to extreme weather.

Why did Trina Solar choose to issue a white paper on these test results?

We see two major trends in PV application. One is globalization.

More than 180 countries and regions now have PV. The other is the diversification of PV application scenarios, such as: agriculture, fisheries, water, etc. These two trends place higher demand on module performance, especially with regards to reliability. PV modules face enormous challenges because of extreme weather such as: wind, snowstorms, cold and hail. A comprehensive range of tests were conducted covering all these extreme conditions. The 670W modules demonstrated it can withstand the extreme conditions and achieve high reliability and stable capability of power production over the whole life cycle. We are sharing the research results across the industry so there can be more innovation and breakthroughs.

How did Trina Solar optimize Vertex 670W design to withstand extreme weather?

Based on more than 24 years of PV module R&D technology and manufacturing experience, we have made many improvements including optimizing design, making frame walls thicker, enlarged cavities and improved the selection of materials and matching designs. All of this helps to achieve ultra-high structural robustness.

If our customers choose to build solar installations in extreme geographic and climatic conditions, we offer customized products and installation design services including total solutions.

Does optimizing products mean costs are likely to greatly rise?

It makes no sense just cutting costs while ignoring the long-term reliability of products. But optimizing and improving product reliability by no means implies greatly increasing costs. It has been calculated that cost increases will be minimal, taking into account the real value that 670W modules deliver to customers in the full life cycle of PV power plants.

Will the core data related to Trina Solar modules, that use 210mm diameter solar cells, be made available to members of the 600W+ Open Innovation Ecological Alliance?

Yes. We are one of the founders of this valuable eco-system that includes many industry players that are committed to development of solar modules that use 210mm diameter solar cells. The publication of Trina Solar’s 210 Vertex modules system ‘white paper’ means that it becomes an open source for other companies.

The core data including product design, layout, the position of installation holes, packaging solution, transportation, hot spot mechanism and working temperature is all shared among members. In addition, the production capacity plans of upstream and downstream companies, estimates of shipment and order data are also shared. The core concept of openness, innovation and ecology of the Alliance accelerates the technological advances and industrialization of 600W+, which has already well exceeded our expectations.

Will 210 modules become main stream in the market?

According to the latest report published by PV info link, the 210 modules production capacity will reach 147GW this year and 234GW next year. High power modules will take more than 70% share of overall global modules production capacity. And the pace of growth is likely to exceed our forecasts.

Have there been project cases of 210 in both domestic and international markets?

Yes, we recently published case studies on large projects that used modules based on 210mm diameter solar cells. For example, the 400MW agricultural photovoltaic solar plant in Nangong, Hebei province. Average three-year equivalent power generation hours have been raised 18% with integrated supply of the Vertex modules plus TrinaTracker solution, compared with traditional solutions.

The customer involved in the 112MW project in Dachaidan, Qinghai province, chose Trina Solar 670W series ultra-high-power modules.

The project is in a desert so the customer only wanted PV modules with high capacity and high reliability to withstand extreme weather.

Overseas there are also many 210 projects. In early August, Trina Solar become the only modules provider for an 850MW large project in Brazil, all fitted with 600W+ series modules that have already been shipped.

How would you sum up all of this?

On the path of leading the PV industry towards 600W+ modules, Trina Solar is not taking actions by itself. Rather, it is the joint efforts and business synergy of the whole industry eco-system from R&D, manufacturing to application. We hope that through innovation we can continue to focus on creating value for our customers and our partners while accelerating the sustainable development of the PV industry through products that offer the best performance and at the lowest cost.

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Sterling and Wilson Solar Q1 Results. Underwhelming

Pune’s goEgoNetwork EV Charging Startup Secures $2 Million Seed Funding

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une’s goEgoNetwork is an Indian EV charging startup that will provide EV chargers to you whether you are at home, at work, or traveling to your weekend getaway destination.

Recently the two-year-old startup has secured $2 million in seed funding to expand its existing electric charging network. Rishi Bagla of the Bagla Group in association with Olivier Guillaumond, Head of Global Innovation Labs and Fintech at ING Bank in the Netherlands had raised the seed round. Speaking of the investment, Bagla said, “EVs are part of the larger disruption in energy and transportation, which are witnessing a considerable shift towards green technology solutions.” “In the EV sector, more focus has begun on installing charging infrastructure. This will be the single most important factor, which drives the adoption of electric vehicles,” he added. Further, the seed funding arrangement was initiated by Jay Shah of Sharad Shah and Company in Pune. The goEgoNetwork charging experience was originally conceived and initiated by the founders, Sayantan Chakraborti, Pravin Kumar, and Dheeman Kadam while working for major investment banks in the Netherlands. The company was incorporated in 2019 and today, the company has its corporate office in Pune, its lab in the Netherlands, and has already set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at AURIC city in Aurangabad to cater to the fast-growing demand for robust EV chargers across the country. This year has seen aggressive investments in the EV sector despite the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Indian EV sector recorded investments of approx. Rs. 25,000 crore during the first seven months of this year.

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terling and Wilson Solar Limited (SWSL) (BSE Scrip Code: 542760; NSE Symbol: SWSOLAR), one of the leading solar EPC and O&M solutions provider, announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended 30th June 2021.

The Company’s consolidated revenue from operations for Q1FY22 stood at Rs. 1,195 crore and adjusted gross margins stood at Rs 28 crore. Gross margins were impacted in Q1FY22 due to continued increase in module, commodities and freight price impacting the overall gross margins of ongoing projects.

That is a 12 percent drop from its Q4 March '21 figures, when revenues were Rs 1365 crores.

On a year on year comparison however, the firm has managed to eke out some growth, as it did only Rs 1067 crores in Q1 2020-22. A 12 percent growth over a covid hit quarter. the firm continued to be in the red, with losses at Rs 87 crores, after the huge hits it took in the previous quarter, with a Rs 400 crores loss. Surprisingly, even the O&M business has seen a drop from Rs 72 crores to Rs 61 crores in the past two quarters.

The firm has informed the stock exchange about order inflows of 623 MW in FY22 till date amounting to 473 crore from domestic market.

Commenting on the results, Mr. Amit Jain, Global CEO, said, “The solar power industry is currently facing headwinds on account of increase in prices of solar modules, commodity prices and rise in freight costs. This has also led to major

developers postponing the finalisation of their utility scale solar power projects. We expect the awarding of contracts to pick-up in Q3FY22. Most of our clients are looking at significant capacity additions and we remain confident of the opportunities going ahead. Our global presence enables us a lot of flexibility in selecting projects globally. Our unexecuted Order Book as on 14th August 2021 stands at Rs. 8,731 crore, which is executable over the period of next 12 to 15 months.

With carbon emission reduction becoming a global consensus, there are enormous opportunities in emerging fields of hybrid energy power plants, energy storage solutions and biomass / waste to energy. Thus, we have decided to enter these new lines of businesses by undertaking the EPC turnkey projects subject to shareholders approval.

We can leverage our existing relationship with clients, further exploit our technical expertise and maximize the inherent benefits of our hub-and-spoke business model, thereby becoming a diversified renewables company into the rapidly growing ESG space" The firm continues to struggle to find its moorings, ever since trouble first hit, right after its 2018 IPO, when it first disclosed the failure of its promoters to repay debts owed to the firm. That chapter finally looks set to end this year for the firm, with a little luck. According, term debt has come down from Rs 810 crores to Rs 64 crores now. that should leave the firm well placed to grab future opportunities and deliver on its promises.

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Domestic manufacturing Push Gaining Strength Across Markets

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imilar to the “AtmaNirbhar Bharat” Program running in India, there are programs running in Europe and USA also where they want to incentivize domestic production of modules instead of importing everything from China, Malaysia, Taiwan and other places. So, with a lot of growth in those markets in terms of the module manufacturing, which also means there is a lot of growth likely to happen in the demand for solar glass we have already started our outreach in those markets. We have in fact started commercial supplies to many large players who are setting up plants and we see that as a future potential for the company," said Jain on the company's growth prospects.

Borosil claims that it has been providing an increased focus on exports to all the markets including Russia, Middle East, Africa North and South America in addition to the regular markets in EU and Turkey. The demand for glasses in all the major markets is expected to rise exponentially due to increased thrust on domestic manufacturing of solar modules.

With solar glass prices coming off their June peaks, the sector could be set for a period of profitable growth at lower margins than those seen in Q3 and Q4 of 2020-21. A possibly larger than planned capex program is also likely to keep profits under a little more pressure, but there is no doubt that Borosil Renewables is very well placed to capitalise on the solar expansion underway. The firm should also benefit from the increased focus on Bifacial modules, which use more glass than the usual modules. The firm was also in the news early during the second wave, when Kheruka announced a generous support and compensation plan for the family of any employee of the firm that succumbed to the disease. The gesture was a trendsetter of sorts, and was followed by many firms across sectors.

Azure Power Secures Green Bond of US$41.4 Million At Lowest Coupon of 3.575%

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ndian independent power producer (IPP), Azure Power Global Limited announced the issuance of a dollar green bond of US$414,000,000, through its whollyowned subsidiary, Azure Power Energy Ltd. The Bond, maturing in 2026, will be issued at a coupon of 3.575%, i.e., the lowest ever coupon in the high-yield segment for any business out of India and lower by 27.5 bps from the lowest offering from any Indian renewable energy company to date.

The order book saw bids above USD 2 billion, with more than 60% of the issuance placed with US and European investors, thereby demonstrating, global recognition of credit and operational strength of the Group.

The transaction also underscores the Group's continued ability to raise debt capital at a lower cost compared to its peers, leading to significant improvement in the overall return profile of the Group.

The Bond has been certified by Climate Bonds Initiative as a Green Bond and is the

third solar Green Bond offered by Azure Power Group after issuances in 2017 and 2019. The Company will primarily use the proceeds to refinance its existing 5.50% US$500,000,000 Green Bond issued in 2017 and due in 2022 and is expected to reduce debt cost by over 200 basis points in hedged INR terms for its 611 MW operational solar projects portfolio offered under the bond.

The Bond has a tenor of 5 years with amortization and waterfall structures built-in and is a leverage-positive transaction for the Group, demonstrating Group's strong focus on creditor interests along with a valueaccretive approach in business conduct.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ranjit Gupta, CEO & MD at Azure Power said, "This is truly a remarkable transaction for the Indian Renewable Energy sector in the global markets, being the lowest ever coupon in the high-yield segment for business out of India, and a landmark for Azure Power Group in its journey of over 13 years in this space.

CleanMax Gets `1,650 Cr Equity Investment from Augment Infrastructure

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umbai-based clean energy company CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has revealed that US investment firm Augment Infrastructure will acquire a majority stake in it for Rs 1,650 crore.

Augment is purchasing the existing stake of Yellow Bell Investment Ltd (an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) in CleanMax. The company will also invest primary capital in CleanMax to fund the growth pipeline. UK Climate Investments (UKCI) will continue as an investor and board member. Rothschild & Co was the sale adviser. Solar rooftop developer CleanMax was founded in 2011 and currently has close to 150 customers including leading corporations such as Facebook, Adobe, Cargill Foods, Volvo, Tata Group, Mahindra Group, Grasim, Manjushree, and others. Augment has new investments lined-up in offsite renewables such as wind-solar hybrid projects in states like Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra; and also in standalone solar farms in

Haryana, UP, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to serve the needs of corporate customers, the company said.

“This is Augment Infrastructure’s first investment in an Indian C&I renewable energy company," said Darius Lilaoonwala, managing partner, Augment Infrastructure.

“We are happy to note that both global investors will secure an exit, which is always a responsibility of the management team to deliver upon. I am also delighted to note that over 150 CleanMax colleagues, present and past, are securing a part exit on their ESOPs," Kuldeep Jain, founder and managing director of CleanMax. In April this year, Facebook announced that its partnership with CleanMax for a 32 MW wind power project to be built in southern Karnataka. Around 50% of the project’s energy generation capacity has already been commissioned and is producing electricity. While CleanMax will handle the ownership and operation of the project, Facebook will purchase electricity off the grid through environmental attribute certificates (EACs) or carbon credits.

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Borosil Renewables Q1 Results. Some Speed Bumps, But A Long Clear Road Ahead

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ontinuing its smart turnaround on the back of high solar glass prices, Mumbai-based solar glass manufacturer Borosil Renewables has reported a net profit of Rs 39.62 crore in Q1 FY22 as against a net loss of Rs 1.87 crore in Q1 FY21. The stunning results follow from a 151.8% YoY increase in net sales to Rs 136.13 crore in the quarter ended June 2021. The big question is, how long can the firm sustain this change in fortunes?

Lower Than Q4, Mostly Due to Covid 2nd Wave In comparison to Q4 FY21, the company's net profit and net sales have gone down by 40.8% and 29.8%, respectively.

Borosil Renewables manufactures extra clear patterned glass and low iron solar glass for application in photovoltaic panels, flat plate collectors and green houses.

Further Capacity Expansion approved The firm's board also approved a proposal to increase the production capacity of the company's upcoming third furnace (SG3), which is being installed at its manufacturing facility at Bharuch, Gujarat, from 500 MT per day to 550 MT per day, increasing the project's estimated cost to Rs 600 crore from Rs 518 crore. The furnace is expected to be commissioned by July 2022.

At the Borosil Renewables Q1 FY2022 investor call held on August 5, 2021, the company's Executive Chairman P.K. Kheruka blamed the pandemic among other issues for the quarter on quarter slump, saying that sales volume was lower than the historical peak volumes achieved during Q4 FY21 by about 10% due to lower production and high costs .

Higher Gas Prices And Vietnam Imports Weigh On Costs And Realisations Respectively

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n the input costs front, Kheruka noted that there been a rise in the costs for natural gas, packing materials and a few raw materials. The company is putting in efforts to minimise the impact. Both these are likely to impact the EBITDA margins in the current quarter, he said. There is a new challenge posed by imports coming from the new solar glass plant in Vietnam set up by one of the large Chinese companies, which has begun operations recently. Such imports are not subjected to any duties as of now. Initially, these imports were priced higher taking into account the duties on alternate sources. However, the offer prices have now aligned to China/Malaysia. Kheruka said that the company is closely watching the situation and will take appropriate measures available under the law. While

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Borosil awaits levy of basic custom duty on solar cells and modules becoming effective from April 1, 2022, the safeguard duty of 14.5% has come to an end of July 30, 2021. This may result in an increase in imports and pose a temporary challenge for domestic producers of modules.

"In our view, the country needs to add 25 gigawatts annually to meet their target of 300 gigawatts of solar installations by 2030. The total annual manufacturing capacity of solar modules in India currently stands at about 11 gigawatts...The module manufactures are also looking at supply chain of the key components from domestic sources including solar glass. The rise in the installed capacity of solar module cell manufacturing will lead to a rise in the production of solar modules, which in turn will lead to a higher

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demand of solar glass," he added.

The company's board has approved a further expansion by 1000 tonnes per day to be implemented in 2 phases of 500 tonnes per day each. These will be their lines SG4 and SG5. The work on SG4 is likely to be taken up during the second half of this financial year and the line is expected to be commissioned in quarter one financial year 2024.

On the question of production costs, Ashok Jain, Director, Borosil Renewables, stated that the price of energy is running high for all glass manufacturers.

The imported LNG or spot LNG is only a part of the company's total basket of sources for natural gas. He explained, "We have a couple of contracts where these import prices do not affect as much. We balance various types of sources and try to minimize the impact and the volatility...

[But for] the LNG portion, which we buy directly on spot quantity basis, [and] which is about 10% to 12% of our requirement, the cost has been running very high. In terms of the other contracts, which we link to oil again, the cost is high, which is another 15% to 20%. Almost one-third of our natural gas is aligned to the volatility in the oil and gas prices.

This is impacting our energy costs and we do not see it correcting in the immediate future." At present, the company has a market share of about 36-37% and is already competing with the world's largest producers located in China and Malaysia, who receive subsidies and other benefits, said the management. The added that while in general, the company exports 16-18% of its production, in the last quarter, this figure was close to 22-23%.

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Reliance Joins Bill Gates, Paulson To Pump $144 M Into Energy Storage Firm Ambri Inc

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eliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), Bill Gates, Japan Energy Fund and a few other strategic partners are investing $144 million into US energy company Ambri Inc to help it commercialize and grow its daily cycling, long-duration system technology, and build a domestic manufacturing facility.

"This financing supports the commercial growth of our company and technology," said Dan Leff, Ambri Executive Chairman.

"Further, these funds are instrumental to driving our efforts to scale the company's operations and establish our manufacturing infrastructure to meet rapidly expanding customer demand. We are delighted that our newest shareholders, who are world class investors and strategic partners, are joining Ambri's journey."

Massachusetts-based Ambri will use the proceeds from this fund raise to design and construct high-volume manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and internationally that

will supply its long-duration battery systems to meet the growing demand from the gridscale energy storage market and large industrial energy customers, such as data centers.

As part of the transaction, RNESL, a whollyowned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), has been selected as Ambri's strategic partner to develop and manufacture Ambri's batteries in India. RNESL will invest $50 million to acquire 42.3 million shares of preferred stock in Ambri.

"Reliance Industries sees this strategic partnership with Ambri as an important step in its journey of achieving its decarbonization goals. Our investment in Ambri is part of our broader plan to develop the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex, which will be amongst the largest integrated renewable energy manufacturing facilities in the world and the epicenter of India's Green Economy movement," stated Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of

Reliance Industries Ltd. Ambri has also entered into a long-term antimony supply agreement with Perpetua Resources, whose largest shareholder is Paulson & Co. Inc. Antimony is a key mineral in Ambri's battery chemistry and this agreement would help secure a domestic source for its supply chain.

"We've been looking for an opportunity to help finance important technologies for large scale utility grade battery storage systems," said John Paulson. "Ambri's novel battery technology is ready to deliver a lowcost, durable and safe battery for longer duration applications that will enable a stable grid that incorporates an increasing amount of intermittent renewable generation. Perpetua Resources, a natural resource company in Idaho, is also an ideal supply chain partner for Ambri, given that it has the largest domestic deposit of antimony, which is a key mineral in Ambri's battery chemistry."

NTPC Investor Presentation Q1 FY21: focus on Renewables, Sustainability

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t the 17th Annual Analysts and Investors Meet of NTPC Limited, the Indian electric utility highlighted its key achievements in FY21 in driving the adoption of green energy, particlulary solar power in the country.

The company stated that it had incorporated NTPC Renewable Energy Limited, a new subsidiary for RE business, in FY21. It has won 1,885 MW of TBCB (tariff-based competitive bidding) contracts since FY21 and is setting up the country’s largest solar park, with a capacity of 4.75 GW, in Rann of Kutch, Khavada, Gujarat.

Details about the park were given by NTPC as follows: • In-principle approval

accorded by MNRE for development of this park as UMREPP •S olar and Wind generation is envisaged from this park •P art of the capacity shall be used for producing green hydrogen, which will be exported through nearest port •C onnectivity and LTA for first 500 MW is being applied and the same for balance capacity shall follow •C TU has initiated activities for setting up of ISTS substation at 765KV/400KV and Transmission Lines at 765 KV to Bhuj •C ommissioning targets are 50% in 3 years and complete park in 5 years from allotment

• Considering the Renewable Energy Plans of Gujarat Government, potential of up to 10 GW of RE power exists in Gujarat itself • Further, sale of power from this park can be targeted through any of the Tariff Based competitive Biddings, as the transmission charges are waived for RE Power till June 2025.

Moreover, NTPC plans to develop another solar plant - an Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Park (UMREPP) with up to 10 GW capacity. The power producer has also signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for the development of solar plants on DVC Reservoirs and land.

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The energy conglomerate signed another MoU with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to jointly develop offshore wind projects. It also specified that it had undertaken due technical and commercial diligence for the acquisition of 500 MW solar assets.

State-run NTPC has plans to list its arm NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd in 2022-23 to raise funds for achieving its ambitious target of 60 GW installed renewable energy (including solar and wind) capacity by 2032, which entails a total investment of Rs 2.5 lakh crore. At present, the NTPC Group has a renewable energy capacity of around 1,365 MW. SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL

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Tata Power Q1 Results Strong, Key Highlights

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ata Power announced its Q1 results on Friday. Consolidated net profit jumped nearly 74 per cent to `465.69 crore in the June 2021 quarter, as compared to ` 268.10 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year. Total income during AprilJune 2021 increased to `10,145.89 crore, compared with ` 6,540.42 crore in the year-ago period.

Q1 FY22 Consolidated EBITDA stood at ` 2,365 crore, up 16% from `2,037 crore in Q1FY21 including Renewable EBITDA of `643 crore up 9% as compared to ` 588 crore in Q1FY21 mainly due to higher wind & solar power generation , all round better performances in Solar EPC, rooftop, solar pumps business and favorable tariff order for CGPL Key Highlghts For the Quarter ended June 30th, 2021: - Tata Power's consolidated Q1 FY22 Revenue stood at ` 9,831 crore up 47% as compared to ` 6,671 crore in Q1 FY21 mainly due to acquisition of Odisha Discoms and higher sales/ execution in its solar EPC businesses - Q1 FY22 Consolidated PAT after exceptional items was up 74% at ` 466 crore compared to `268 crore in Q1 FY21 mainly due to higher wind & solar power generation, all round better performances in Solar EPC, rooftop, solar pumps business and favorable tariff order for CGPL. STANDALONE - For the quarter ended Q1 FY22, Standalone Revenue* stood at ` 1,788 crore up 22% against ` 1,469 crore in the Q1 FY21 due to higher generation - EBITDA stood at ` 937 crore up 44% against ` 649 crore in Q1 FY21 mainly due to higher dividend income from its subsidiaries - PAT after exceptional items stood at `198 crore up 340 % as compared to ` 45 crore in Q1 FY21 due to higher dividend income offset by MAT credit reversal due to change in tax regime Commenting on the Company's performance, Dr. Praveer Sinha, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Power said, "All

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From Q1 Analyst Presentation, Tata Power

our existing generation, distribution and transmission business units have reported a robust performance despite the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic. This can be attributed to the excellent performance of all our businesses and capacity additions.

We aim to scale up our renewable portfolio from the current 4GW to 15GW by 2025 and to 25GW by 2030 thereby achieving 80% clean generation capacity, up from the current 31%.We will continue to expand and promote the mass adoption of rooftop solar & solar pumps, microgrids, home automation and focus on developing the EV charging infrastructure in the country.

We are happy to announce our re-entry into the development of greenfield Transmission Projects. Our partnership with the country's leading T&D EPC player "Tata Projects" will

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Project Pipeline, Solar. Analyst Presentation, Q1

make us a force to reckon with. This would further accelerate the momentum of "Power for All" initiative of the Government of India."

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Battery Startup Log 9 Materials Raises $5 million from Amara Raja Batteries

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engaluru-headquartered advanced battery-tech Log 9 Materials has announced an equity partnership and collaboration with Amara Raja Batteries (ARBL), one of India's largest manufacturers of industrial and automotive batteries. The deal involves an investment of $5 Million from Amara Raja Batteries during its ongoing Series A+ funding round.

For ARBL, the investment follows the announcement of its 'Energy & Mobility' strategy in June this year, which focuses on entering into new green technologies and solutions. These initiatives will include expansion and investments that will help the Company maintain technological and business leadership in the 'Energy & Mobility' space, apart from creating new growth avenues.

While providing an impetus to the research and development work at ongoing projects of Log 9, ARBL is expected to be the primary partner for scaling up the manufacturing operations of Logg's battery and fuel cell technologies.

Log 9's newly-developed Rapid Charging Battery Packs solve multiple challenges to expedite 2/3 wheeler EV adoption in India, whereas Log 9's flagship Aluminum Fuel Cell technology is targeted towards longhaul electric mobility and as a zero emission alternative to diesel generators.

Vikramadithya Gourineni, Executive Director at ARBL said that their investment is in line with ARBL's plans to invest in

cutting-edge technologies to accelerate its evolution towards becoming an 'Energy & Mobility! enterprise. 'This will mark the first in a series of interesting developments that we plan to execute in the future. In this fast-changing technology landscape, we do not believe in a 'one-size-fits-all' approach and we are convinced that there will be the scope for interplay of multiple technology solutions for various applications. We believe that Log 9 has made great progress in developing a range of technologies that will prove very promising in emerging mobility applications. I am confident that both entities can derive significant synergies resulting in mutual long term benefits. " he added Akshay Singhal, Founder & CEO, Log 9 Materials says, "We are delighted to have ARBL as one of the anchor investors in the Series A+ funding round of Log 9. The partnership with ARBL will enable us to propel commercialization at scale of our Rapid Charging Batteries, which in turn shall play a major role in the future in Log 9 eventually becoming the frontrunner and one of the largest Indian players in advanced cell chemistries. In the upcoming months of 2021, we at Log 9 are looking to take our breakthrough rapid charging battery-tech to end-users at scale; on the other hand, the development and advancements of our Aluminum Fuel Cells will also continue to happen in parallel including pilots and OEM-level vehicular

integrations."

Log 9 has also confirmed securing funding from existing investors including Exfinity Ventures and Sequoia Capital India's Surge Programme, alongside a clutch of new investors, as a part of its Series A+ funding round. The strategic angels who also participated in this funding round are -Rajesh Yabaji and Chanakya Hridaya, Co-Founders of logistics industry Unicorn Blackbuck; Rajesh Ramaiah, Partner, Premji Invest; Desikan Sundarajan, MD, Equinor and Faiz Mayalakkara, Director Investments, Emirates Investment Authority. AC Ventures (SEA Frontier Fund LLP) is also among the new investors of Log 9.

The new investors have, along with the existing investors, invested around $8.5 Million in the ongoing $10-12 Million Series A+ round. The fresh funds raised will be utilized to expand production capacity and business development efforts of Log 9's latest innovation - Rapid Charging Battery technology - which has already completed successful pilots and is due for commercial roll-out in October 2021. Further, these funds will also be utilized to advance the start-up's Supercapacitor and Aluminum Fuel Cell based innovations. The start-up plans to set up local cell manufacturing for these technologies under the niche category of the ACC PLI Scheme in the coming years.

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We have pioneered in solving the twin problems of supply and demand of electricity ZunRoof was one of the early movers on the solar rooftop space, going the start up way with fund raises and an aggressive expansion strategy. From solar rooftops, where the IIT Kharagpur educated founders touted their proprietary tools for tracking and performance to the move into IoT based devices for energy savings, the firm has expanded to be a firm focused on energy, but always on the look out for opportunities to build on its energy savings and efficiency pitch. The IoT line of products, being marketed under the zunpulse brand, cover everything from smart bulbs, to the zunpure RO water treatment device. Covering a range of pricing from Rs 590 to Rs 7490 for the RO. The common thread across all is the promise of energy efficiency, and smart functions, be it remote tracking, switch on and off, or times etc. today, the firm calls itself a Home Tech firm offering clean energy solutions. Founder and CEO, Pranesh Chaudhary, responded to a set of questions from SaurEnergy.

What was the closing turnover of Zunroof in 2020-21?

Pranesh Chaudhary: We closed at INR 42Cr in the financial year of 2021.

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With almost Rs 34 crores raised till date, does the company see the need for further fund raises too?

Pranesh Chaudhary: Since, Clean Energy

PRANESH CHAUDHARY Founder and CEO, Zunroof

and IoT are booming sectors in India.

Every bit of funding is needed to catapult the mission to bring smart and clean energy choices for the world. (ZunRoof received 28.2 Crs from Godrej family fund in the pre-Series A and Series A combined, approximately 3.25 Cr from angel investors (Ramakant Sharma, Founder of Livspace, Pradeep Tharakan, ADB, Gaurav Gupta, Partner at Dalberg and IIT Kharagpur seniors such as Kundan from Facebook, Nishant from Morgan Stanley and Nitin from FICO- senior executives in USA) and a grant from USICEF.)

When did the firm decide to diversify away from Solar to efficiency driven appliances?

Pranesh Chaudhary: On the mission to

make India Clean Energy Driven, Providing access to clean, smart and free electricity via solar was only the first half of the problem. The second half involved efficient utilization of this energy through IoT (Internet of Things). So, to address the same, With two years of research and development for leveraging IoT for

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efficient utilization of energy, we created an in-house developed IOT enabled hardware range that includes eleven smart devices under four categories - lighting, security, control, and purifiers - all of them working with one single app over wifi and not needing any wiring change at all in homes (a major limiting factor in usual home automation firms)- These are all plug and play devices.

We are currently operating in 3 segments that include- ZunRoof (Residential rooftop segment catering to urban areas, which was founded in June 2016), zunsolar (Offering a wide range of solar products specifically designed for rural area needs, which was launched in May 2020) and zunpulse (a complete smart home solution to utilize electricity in an efficient manner, which was launched in October 2020) - now forms an ecosystem for each individual - from every walk of life - to efficiently generate and use clean electricity in daily life.

Share details on the portfolio and pricing (zunpulse and zunPure). Do you have unique selling points for these?

Which is the top selling IoT device currently? Where do you source your IoT portfolio from?

Pranesh Chaudhary: Last year in September we launched zunpluse- our home automation range of devices. The first generation of zunpulse has 11 smart home products that are Wi-Fi enabled,

plug & play devices that enable the customers to control all their electrical appliances with just one tap on the zunpulse app. The devices include smart bulb, smart plug, smart ac remote, smart TV remote, energy monitor, smart video doorbell, smart camera and smart plug among many others.

Smart products are currently provided in scattered options or select value propositions across the industry. These products work on different platforms and user interfaces- which makes it difficult for the end user to experience the range of smart products. To experience smart products in its entirety zunpulse is offering a plethora of smart products on a single Made-In-India mobile application.

Apart from the core benefits we are also offering comfort and convenience to the users, the products enable home automation for efficient utilization of electricity at homes and offices. The smart bulb, plug, doorbell and ac remotes are our top selling IoT devices as of now on leading e commerce platforms like amazon, flipkart and snapdeal and zunpulse.com Coming on to the third question, in the world of hardware, there are 3 major angles- software, hardware and firmware.

Hardware and software are dependent upon the extent of backward integration one can do, that’s what makes for the differentiating factor and that’s what stops one from being dependent on external help.

We as a company are at different levels of backward integration for different products - for Energy Monitor and Smart Bulb, the pollution sensor is entirely made in India so we develop them in house. But for other products, the hardware side chips and sensors are not currently manufactured in India. So, we are in a way dependent on external sources.

We at ZunRoof are all for “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, and on the solar side we are completely made in India. For zunpulse however, we are sourcing some components from outside India but as we are expanding, we are planning to indulge into backward

integration by stepping into manufacturing and be self sufficient in ourselves.

How do you claim to be India's no 1 Home tech firm? Who else is there in the category?

Pranesh Chaudhary: zunpure RO We have pioneered in solving the twin problems of supply and demand of electricity. We stand uniquely at the position owing to the plethora of services we provide that covers the wide entire range of solar and IOT products and services.

We today have become India's #1 residential solar rooftop company with a number of sites installed, saved over 50 crores in electricity bills for our customers, and reached a million USD in monthly revenue from the residential solar rooftop business. We, till date, have installed more than half a million IOT devices, assessed over 3,00,000 homes, designed over 35,000 rooftop solar systems in 75+ cities in India, and installed 20 MW+ of rooftop solar.

What is the firm's vision for 2025? In terms of turnover and customers.

Pranesh Chaudhary: So far, we have

be in for any startup. More importantly, a team with varied complementary skill-sets which has withstood multiple roadblocks and was boot-strapped for a long-time built a lot of confidence. Challenges are inevitable for any startup. In our case, we are creating a category of home-tech products (solar and IoT) and services for home-owners, which by definition is a hard business to build. We had to educate the customers rather than sell to them. Both the solar and IoT categories are segments where business can take up pace only after the customer is well informed and educated.

Globally, who are the dominant firms in the Home tech space?

Pranesh Chaudhary: • Schneider Electronics • Philips • TIS Control • Legrand • Crestron

Do you have any exports?

Pranesh Chaudhary: Not as of now.

How do you feel about the growth of solar since the time Zunroof launched?

What has been the biggest drag, biggest plus points?

Pranesh Chaudhary: The rooftop solar

empowered more than 50,000 Indian homes with IoT devices and are on a mission to empower 5 million Indian homes through IoT in the next 5 years.

What is your preferred marketing strategy? Are there lessons to be applied across solar and IoT for selling?

Pranesh Chaudhary: We are the only

player in the industry to have tech enabled online customer acquisition, end to end order management, fulfilment and integrated grievance redressal system that ensures lean and streamlined Pre-Sales and Post-Sales operations for ZunRoof. This ensures that every sale is on unit positive economics even at low selling prices.

In less than 5 years of starting up, we are already the #1 Choice for residential and SME clients in India for solar. An organic growth, fuelled by tech is the right state to

market has grown year on year and is expected to grow at a faster rate because of the favourable regulatory environment, affordable pricing and increasing awareness among customers aided by internet penetration. The immense growth of the Rooftop Solar market in India is combined with the increase in electricity demand per household and regular hikes in electricity tariffs. Lack of single window approval for net-metering often leads to significant delays in certain projects, thus hampering the overall customer experience. At the same time, the increased number of suppliers for every component of the solar rooftop system is easing the process of logistics and order delivery.

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Global EV Charging Station Market to Reach $93 Billion by 2027: Report

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he global Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) market has been fuelled by a growing awareness of environmental conservation and carbon emission reduction. Hence, it has been estimated that the global EVCS market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% from 2021 to 2027 and reach $93 billion by 2027, according to a recent report by Noida-based market research firm Astute Analytica.

The report shows that in 2019, the global EVCS market generated a considerable revenue amount of approximately $23 billion,while 819 thousand units of EVCS were sold in 2019 and the numbers are increasing at 17.5% CAGR. The report sought some key reasons for the market growth as the government has enacted strict regulations to encourage the usage of electric vehicles. Both the supply and demand sides of the economy gain from government subsidies and other perks. For example, the Indian Govt. has invested Rs. 1000 crore for the development of charging infrastructure in the country till now.

One of the biggest challenges the EVCS market faces is the rapid deployment of charging technology, as adopting new technologies such as wireless charging, vehicle to grid (V2G), and vehicle to everything (V2X) charging technology will affect the cost infrastructure as well.

According to the analysis, the cost of charging infrastructure components for level 2 commercial chargers ranges from $2,500 to $7,210, while 50kW fast DC charging infrastructure costs between $20,000 and $35,800.

Fast chargers with more than 22 kW of power are growing at the highest CAGR of 27.8% in the forecast period owing to the capability of these chargers to reduce charging time. CCS is the most popular connector protocol since it offers reverse power transfer, inductive charging, and wireless charging capabilities. This connector protocol was valued at $12,640.2 million in 2019, which is about 55% of the market share.

DC (direct current) charging method is growing at a CAGR of 20.3 percent because,

it can supply electricity straight to the vehicle's battery, bypassing the internal charger. Moreover, DC fast chargers convert AC power to DC within the charging station and supply DC power directly to the battery, resulting in faster charging.

Furthermore, governments in countries such as Germany, Canada, and France are continually investing to boost the use of EVs for public transportation. North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America have been included in the global market's regional study. The Asia Pacific is the leading area with about 80% market share in 2019, most of the credit goes to China.

In addition, China's advanced electrification technology, and government initiatives in Japan and Korea, have boosted the market in the APAC region. Furthermore, China will invest $1.2 billion to expand the country's charging infrastructure. In India, as part of its initial phase of electric vehicle infrastructure development, the Indian government plans to install over 69,000 EV charging stations across the country.

Ola Electric Scooter Prices In States after Subsidies

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ndia's ride-hailing giant Ola has launched its Ola S1 electric scooters on Independence Day 2021. The much-awaited e-scooter comes at Rs 99,999. This price is ex-showroom including FAME II subsidy and excludes state subsidies.

After state subsidy in Delhi, the S1 should cost just Rs 85,099 whereas, in Gujarat, it would cost as low as Rs 79,999. While in Maharashtra it would cost Rs. 84,999 and Rs. 92,999 in Rajasthan, after the subsidies under new policies of respective states. Ola has also tied up with banks and financial institutes for an EMI plan starting at Rs 2,999.

As ola has entered electric

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vehicle (EV) manufacturing, it claims to build up the largest two-wheeler factory in the world, Ola Futurefactory. And it has produced two variants, Ola S1 and Ola S1 Pro at Rs. 99,999 and Rs. 1,29,999, respectively.

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The first phase of Futurefactory is near completion and the Ola S1 purchase will start from 8th September 2021 and the deliveries will be starting in October across 1000 cities and towns. Till then, Ola S1 is

available for reservation at just Rs. 499.

Speaking at the launch, Chairman & CEO of Ola, Bhavish Aggarwal stated, "We are taking this moment to announce ‘Mission Electric’, a pledge that no petrol twowheeler will be sold in India after 2025. We want 50% of allelectric two-wheelers produced for the world to be made in India. It's time for India to lead the way in electrification and build technologies of the future, here in India for the entire world!."

The e-scooter comes in ten color variants, along with a range of 181 Kms, acceleration of 0-40 kph in 3.0 seconds, and a top speed of 115 kmph. I

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40 Electric Buses from Ashok Leyland Hit Roads of Chandigarh

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multinational automotive manufacturer from Hinduja Group, Ashok Leyland, has rolled out its electric buses (e-buses) in Chandigarh.

On August 11, the Governor of Chandigarh, VP Singh Bandore flagged off the set of 40 electric buses from Ashok Leyland in its first phase.

According to the firm, Ashok got the order to build electric buses that are equipped with quick charging technology. This 40-buses fleet would save about 6.5 lakh liters of fuel and reduce carbon emissions of about 1,700 tonnes per annum, as per the company's claims.

The charging infrastructure for the fleet would be developed across four locations and would be maintained and operated by the manufacturer, Ashok Leyland itself.

While the charging stations are announced to be developed by Switch Mobility, the electric vehicle arm of Ashok Leyland. This would be happening under a partnership with Siemens, a germen automation

company. As, in April 2021, Siemens and Switch Mobility signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on delivering efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable e-mobility solutions to various commercial vehicle customers in the country, informed the firm.

Also, in the same month, Ashok Leyland through its subsidiary Switch Mobility has announced its global expansion plans into India and its plan to create 2 subsidiaries.

The first, Switch Mobility Automotive, is

being formed to carry on the EV strategy in India, which forms part of its global entity.

The second is OHM Global Mobility, which will focus on providing Mobility as a Service offering.

While in July, the manufacturing giant has transferred the entire EV business of the group, including UK-subsidiary Optare to Switch Mobility. The company would be entirely responsible for the EV operations of the group with Ashok Leyland concentrating on its core business of dieselpowered (ICE) vehicles along with the work on alternative fuels like CNG, LNG, and hydrogen. As electric bus manufacturing is dominating the conventional fuel buses, Ashok Leyland’s has already invested around $130 million in Switch Mobility for EV manufacturing. On the other hand, its domestic diesel-powered bus manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh was commissioned in March but the production volume has been decreasing so fast as there is no need to add a new production line.

Over 5.17 Lakh EVs Registered over Three Years in India Under FAME

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he Ministry of Heavy Industries of India declared that India registered a total of 5,17,322 electric vehicles (EVs) over three years under the FAME scheme.

Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme was launched in 2015 to promote the adoption of EVs in the country. At present, Phase-II of the FAME is being implemented for 5 years, starting from April 01, 2019, with total budgetary support of Rs. 10,000 crores.

Minister of State for Heavy Industries Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar provided this information to the Lok Sabha in

a written reply on Tuesday. He added that 1,04,806 EVs have been registered in the country during 2021 (till July 19).

However, in 2018, 1,31,554 EVs were registered in India, this number jumped to 1,61,314 during 2019. In 2020, there was a dip in the number of EVs registered at 1,19,648, totaling 5,17,322 as per data provided by the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

The Minister also informed that FAME II focuses on supporting electrification of public & shared transportation and aims to support, through subsidies, 7090 e-Buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars, and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers. Along with 38 original equipment

manufacturers (OEMs) of e-2W, e-3W & e- 4W have been registered under FAME II Scheme as of 9th August 2021.

Recently, under FAME-II, the demand incentive for e-2W is increased to Rs. 15,000/KWh from Rs. 10,000/KWh with an increase in cap from 20% to 40% of the cost of the vehicle to increase adoption of e-2W. Further, the phase-II of FAMEIndia Scheme is extended for two years after 31st March 2022.

The ministry enlisted some initiatives taken up by the Government of India for the promotion of EVs in the country – 1. The Government on May 12, 2021, approved a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) AUGUST 20 21

scheme for manufacturing of Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) in the country to bring down prices of batteries in the country.

2. on EVs has been reduced from 12% to 5%; GST on chargers/ charging stations for EVs has been reduced from 18% to 5%.

3. Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) announced that batteryoperated vehicles will be given green license plates and be exempted from permit requirements.

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Ather Energy Offers its Patented Fast-charging Tech to Rival EV Makers

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engaluru-headquartered EV manufacturer Ather Energy will soon offer its proprietary charging connector to other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for their twowheelers, aiming to pave the way for an interoperable two-wheeler fast charging platform for the country.

This would not only reduce range anxiety by allowing all scooters to access Ather Energy’s 200+ fast chargers, but also allow more OEMs to build products on a common standard thus lowering infrastructure investments, said the company in a statement.

A robust charging infrastructure drives accelerated adoption of electric twowheelers. Ather believes that in order to maximize usage and efficiency of charging infrastructure, there needs to be common connectors that can be used across products. The company has invested in building a fast-charging network since its inception by providing normal speed charge options to all electric two-wheelers and

four-wheelers free of cost. The firm says that opening up Ather Energy’s connector technology will promote the use of a common connector, allowing all EV owners to use any fast charging solution across the country. This is expected to enable the entire ecosystem to work together to fasttrack EV adoption in India. While there are global standards for electric four-wheelers like the CHADEMO, CCS, etc. there are is a lack of connector standards available customized for two-wheeler fast charging, except in China. Two-wheeler fast charging requirements are unique. The shape and size of the vehicle makes it infeasible to

adopt a four-wheeler charging connector.

Similarly, the same connector would be used for normal as well as fast charging.

Indian road environment, temperature, and moisture require a standard designed for Indian conditions with adequate field tests for safety and equipment life.

Ather's device has a combo of AC and DC charging with the same connector. This connector size has been designed to be suitable for integration into two-wheelers and three-wheelers with the ability of CAN 2.0 communication with control and proximity pilot. It is designed for production at low costs, which allows it to be used in mass segment vehicles, added the company.

"Electric two-wheelers are now going mainstream with the big push through FAME 2 by the government. Consumers need a fast-charging network in public locations to make this shift and that’s exactly what we are doing to build this category," said Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy.

Simple Energy To Produce 1 Million E-scooter Units Annually at TN Plant

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engaluru-based electric two-wheeler (E2W) maker Simple Energy has announced setting up its new production plant at Hosur, Tamil Nadu.

Simple Energy's Hosur production plant will be developed around 200,000 sq ft and have a production capacity of up to 1 million units annually. The production plant is also expected to create 1,000 jobs, according to the company.

The e-mobility startup claims that it plans to invest over Rs. 350 crore in the next two years to increase its footprint across India. Also,

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the firm announced that the work for setting up the factory has begun and the production is expected to commence by the end of this year.

Also, the E2W maker is ready to launch its hi-tech sporty electric scooter titled ‘Simple One’ on Independence Day 2021. The Simple One will be available in different cities in different phases, starting with Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad followed by other cities in the coming months.

This Independence Day, let’s celebrate for a bold. smart. innovative future. #Bethechange #Simpleone Watch us live on 15th August

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2021 | 5:00pm IST - https://t. co/iTu0vQ3Jny — Simple Energy (@ SimpleEnergyEV) July 23, 2021 Speaking of the launch, “This is a huge milestone for Simple Energy. Although we aim to lead electric mobility in the country, we will now be able to cater to a larger audience faster than ever. We look forward to the launch on August 15, to embark on this remarkable initiative,” says Mr. Suhas Rajkumar, founder & CEO of Simple Energy.

According to the product specification, the Simple One will have a 4.8 kWh lithium-

ion battery, a range of 240km in eco mode, a top speed of 100kph, and 0-50kph acceleration in 3.6 seconds.

The other key features include a mid-drive motor along with a removable battery and futuristic design. It will also come with features like a touchscreen, onboard navigation, and Bluetooth, among others. However, the exact pricing has not been revealed yet, the e-scooter is expected to be under a range of Rs. 110,000 to Rs. 120,000.

For Tamil Nadu, this is yet another major manufacturing win, after Ola Electrics 10 million capacity plant.

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Mumbai Gets 35 electric Buses as Tata Motors Starts Delivery of 340 Bus Order

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ata Motors, has delivered 35 state-ofthe-art Starbus electric buses (e-bus) as a part of the larger order of 340 electric buses to Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST). BEST is a civic transport and electricity provider public body based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Tata Motors has undertaken to build, deploy, maintain and operate the complete charging infrastructure along with the buses. The company will deliver the rest of the order in a phased manner, as per the schedule. The procurement of the buses by BEST have been enabled under the government of India’s FAME II initiative, and the delivery is a part of the first-ever

Gross Cost Contract (GCC) by BEST. The 12-meter long, 35-seater Tata Starbus AC e-buses are equipped with advanced features for the comfort of the driver and the passengers like: ‘Lift Mechanism’ that extends an automated ramp for easy ingress and egress of specially-abled passengers, along with ergonomic seats, roomy interiors, utility provisions like charging ports and wide entry and exit passages.

The full-electric buses come with Intelligent Transport System (ITS), telematics system, regenerative braking system, amongst other features. The buses have been tested and validated by Tata Motors across varied terrains and conditions and are engineered to deliver a

high standard of performance.

Tata Motors claims to be the leading provider of transportation and mobility solutions to the country, including batteryelectric, hybrid, CNG, LNG, and hydrogen fuel cell technology. The company has received an order of 15 hydrogen fuel cell buses from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. It has supplied 525 electric buses across several states, which have cumulatively clocked more than 15 million kilometers.

These 35 e-buses were flagged off by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Uddhav Thackeray, along with dignitaries from the Maharashtra state government, BEST, and Tata Motors, at an event at Mahim, Mumbai.

Hyundai Partners with UL for Safe Deployment of Second Life BESS

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he South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer, Hyundai Motor Company has partnered with the global safety science leader, UL for the safe deployment and use of second-life battery energy storage systems (SLBESS).

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed during a ceremony at UL's offices in Seoul, South Korea on July 23, formalized the relationship between the two companies. UL and Hyundai will collaborate on SLBESS initiatives, including safety testing and assessment, a North America demonstration project, and evaluation process development. the idea of using used automotive EV batteries for storage requirements is not a new one, and has in fact been cited as one way to reduce

storage costs for stationary energy requirements.

Additionally, UL and Hyundai will harness their collective worldwide presence to help extend the reach of their collaboration globally with the intent to help further SLBESS marketplace adoption.

Speaking of the SLBESS, "Reusing batteries in secondary applications is a promising strategy to help combat climate change and carbon emissions,"

said Sajeev Jesudas, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at UL. "We are excited about our collaboration with Hyundai and how we are joining together to consider second-life battery applications as well as their safety and performance potential."

The concept of giving a second life to electric vehicle (EV) batteries consists of reusing the old batteries, which could still AUGUST 20 21

be used on less-demanding grid-connected energy storage applications. As the EV market continues to grow, there is an increased emphasis on repurposing batteries used in EVs. Concurrent with the desire to repurpose EV batteries, there is an escalating demand globally for efficient renewable energy resources. Innovative energy storage solutions are expected to become a key component of the electricity grid, boosting reliability and helping to integrate renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

Speaking of the partnership, "We look forward to enhancing the safety and reliability of second-life battery energy storage systems through our collaboration with UL, the global safety science leader," said Youngcho Chi, president & chief innovation officer of Hyundai Motor Group.

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NHPC Tenders for 100 MW Floating Solar Project in Odisha

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ndia’s National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd. Has floated a tender for an EPC contract for the development of a 100 MW Floating Solar Project in Odisha.

The tender has been issued on the behalf of a joint venture (to be formed between NHPC Ltd. & GEDCOL). And the scope of work includes Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) Contract for development of the project and associated 220 KV transmission line for connectivity at 400 KV Grid substation along with Comprehensive Operation and Maintenance for 10 years at Rengali Reservoir at Angul district in the state of Odisha. The project forms part of NHPC’s commitment to the state of Odisha, among others. The last date to submit the online bids is October 7, 2021, while a prebid meeting has been scheduled for September 2, 2021. October 14 is the last date to submit offline bids. Interested bidders are expected to pay a tender document fee of Rs. 20,000. Also, the bid is valid for the next 120 days from the last bid submission date. A 12 month period has

been given for completion of the project from the date of issuance of Notification of Award including the commissioning period.

To find themselves eligible to bid, the bidder must have designed, supplied, erected/ supervised erection, and commissioned/ supervised commissioning of Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) based gridconnected power plant(s) of cumulative installed capacity of 40 MW or higher, out of which at least one plant should have been of 10 MW. Or, the bidders must have developed a Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) based grid-connected power plant(s) of the same capacity as mentioned above.

If the bidder is a holding company or joint venture, it shall furnish an Undertaking jointly executed by the firm and the Bidder along with its bid document for the complete performance of the contract (in case of award) jointly or severally, failing which the bid document is liable to be rejected. The bidder must have a minimum average annual turnover in the preceding three financial years shall be Rs. 800 crores.

Bidder’s Net Worth should be positive in 3 out of the preceding 5 financial years. While the working capital (current assets minus current liabilities) should be at least Rs. 90 crores.

SJVN Wins Bihar’s 200 MW Solar Project Auction Worth Rs. 1,000 Crore

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joint venture of Govt. of India & Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, SJVN on Saturday announced winning the auction for 200 MW of Grid-Connected Solar Project of Rs, 1,000 crores in Bihar.

According to SJCN’s Chairman Mr. Nand Lal Sharma, SJVN Ltd got the project through Open Competitive Tariff Bidding Process for quoted capacity of 200 MW Rs. 3.11/unit on Build Own and Operate (BOO) basis during an e-reverse auction held on August 13, 2021.

Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA)

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organized the auction for a solar project of the capacity of 200 MW, through a tariff-based

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competitive bidding process, where three other bidders have also participated. Chairman

further notifies that the tentative cost of construction and development of this project is Rs 1,000 crore. The project is expected to generate 420.48 MU (million units) in the 1st year and the project cumulative energy generation for 25 years would be about 10,512 MU. The PPA shall be signed between BREDA and SJVN for 25 years.

Sharma also declared that currently, SJVN has a total installed capacity of 2,016.5 MW including two hydropower plants of 1,912 MW and four renewable power plants of 104.5 MW (two solar plants of 6.9 MW and 2 wind plants of 97.6 MW).

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GameChange Solar Finishes 394 MW Tracker Project in Gujarat for Tata

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S solar equipment supplier GameChange Solar has completed its first Genius Tracker™ project in India. The 394 MW project is located 110 km from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and is expected to supply clean solar power to the equivalent of 376,000 households.

The company, which manufactures fixed tilt structures and solar trackers, said that it is proud to have been selected by Tata Power, a leading independent power producer in India and part of the Tata Group. This is the largest solar project utilizing single-axis trackers in India, and GameChange Solar’s Genius Tracker™ 1P was selected for the project because of the challenging ground conditions and high winds experienced in the area, an official statement said. The Genius Tracker™ is said to be engineered specifically for these conditions.

The project, which was only partially constructed at the time, withstood the Tauktae cyclone when it hit in May of 2021.

This was the strongest cyclone to strike Gujarat since 1998 and had wind speeds in excess of 160 km/h and uprooted trees & electricity poles. Fortunately, no damage was caused to the portion of the facility installed at that time.

More than 20% of the materials used while installing the Genius Tracker™ came from within the country. GameChange Solar is targeting to locally source more than 50% of the parts for its systems on all future projects in India.

Vikas Bansal, Chief Operating Officer, International for GameChange Solar, stated, “We were pleased to have Genius Tracker™ selected for the Ahmedabad project. We are looking forward to bringing GameChange Solar’s cutting-edge Genius Tracker™ technology to more projects in India. As a global leader in the solar

industry, we will strive to make an impact on the clean energy supply throughout the Indian subcontinent.”

GameChange Solar announced last month that it was setting up an office in Bangalore, Karnataka. In March this year, the PV tracker firm announced that it had deployed over 2,30,000 solar trackers till date. Each solar tracker is an independent robotic system that moves an average of 90 PV solar modules throughout the course of the day to follow the sun and interact with weather patterns to optimize energy harvest for power plant owners.

Tata Power, AlJomaih Winners in RUMSL’s 500 MW Neemuch Solar Park Auction

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UMSL’s third 500 MW auction continued to attract ever lower bids, as TP Saurya (Tata Power), and Saudi firm AlJomaih Energy and Water Company, pocketed the Neemuch park bids. While Tata Power won two parcels of 170 MW and 160 MW at Rs 2.14 and 2.149 respectively, Aljomaih won the remaining 170 MW with a final bid of Rs 2.15/kWh. RUMSL is a joint venture company of Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (MPUVN), and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

These bids follow the last 450 MW RUMSL (Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited) solar auction that was won by NTPC Renewables (NTPC) and Talettutayi Solar Projects Nine (SolarArise) with bids of Rs 2.33/kWh and Rs 2.34/kWh, respectively.

The first of the 1500 MW of of total auctions was held for the Agar Solar park, where the bids for 550 MW capacity saw Avaada Energy and O2 Power (through Beempow energy Private Limited) winning the bids with bids at Rs 2.45(200

MW) and 2.44 (350 MW) respectively.

The attractive bids, made after the government made it clear that they would have to take into account the impending duty structure from April 2022, are very attractive by all means, and indicate a positive mood among developers about the future. Of course, these bids already have assured buys, which ensures that the projects will proceed on schedule, unlike the many SECI sponsored auctions from AUGUST 20 21

2020 that are still struggling to find discom buyers.

The results also mean that the going will continue to be tough for projects bid and won at over Rs 2.70 levels, as discoms will continue to expect lower prices going ahead.

These bids also raise expectations about the prices expect in the 1785 MW Rajasthan tender from SECI, results of which should be coming in soon too. The tender has already drawn a high response of over 10 GW worth of bids.

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NHPC Issues 2 Solar Power Tenders For 100 MW And 500 Mw In Tamil Nadu

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tepping up the pace after its 100 MW floating solar tender early this week, NHPC (National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) has issued two tenders, for a 100 MW and a 500 MW solar project. Both projects are to be located in Tamil Nadu.

With these, the pace of solar development returns to Tamil Nadu, after a period of relative quite.

Both the tenders come with an O&M provision of 10 years, following the standard PSU rulebook. NHPC has set itself a target of almost 4 GW of solar projects by 2024 going by past announcements, and these projects seem very well to be a push to get close to those numbers. The company already has projects worth 2000 MW with ISTS connectivity under implementation, after awarding them last year. It’s floating solar tender for Odisha was also announced recently.

For these two Tamil Nadu solar tenders, the last date for submissions is October 11 (100 MW) and October 8 respectively for the 500 Mw option. As a profitable PSU, it will hope to get some strong bids for these tenders no doubt. While the minimum average turnover requirement for the both

the tendered projects is Rs 700 crores. For the 500 Mw tender, bidding is allowed in multiples of 100 MW each.

Interestingly, while asking for a clear commitment for at least 50 percent of the land required for the project/s, NHPC is assuming requirements at 4.5 acres per MW. One hopes to see this figure come down to 4 acres or less in coming months, as the use of more efficient modules takes root in India too.

The ramp up of tenders from NHPC clearly indicates a new dominance of PSU’s when it comes to fresh capacity creation.

This is something that was on the cards for a while, as we had covered back in January this year. With NTPC doubling its own target to 2032, it should be interesting to see how the plans of the remaining PSU’s, be it Coal India, SJVN, NLC, GAIL and more, that have also committed to add solar capacity, pan out.

SECI Discovers Rs 2.34 Price In 1200 MW Solar Wind Hybrid Auction

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TPC Limited, NLC India, Mission Ten Renewable Energy (Ayana Renewable Energy), and Azure Energy emerged as the winners in the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) auction for 1,200 MW solarwind hybrid projects (Tranche-IV) related to the Interstate Transmission System (ISTS). The final winning bid was at Rs 2.34/unit.

Bids by other majors like ReNew Power, Hero Future Energies, Adani Green, and AMP energy came in at Rs 2.40 or higher. NTPC, Ayana and

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NLC quoted Rs. 2.34/kWh each and won 450 MW, 450 MW, 150 MW, respectively. Azure won 150 MW at Rs 2.35. Renewable energy developers have to take into account the basic customs

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duty (BCD) for all bids henceforth, which was expected to yield tariffs of 2.40 and above.

SECI had released the tender document in April earlier this year, as per which the hybrid

power projects are to be designed for interconnection with the transmission network of the central transmission utility at the voltage level of 220 kV or above. The hybrid power project is to involve one solar and one wind power project.

Prior to this, the previous hybrid project bid came in at Rs 2.41 for Adani, AMP, and Axis Energy. The low prices would have surprised quite a few people, although they could be expected, considering the intense competition and fresh fund raises achieved by most developers.

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BHEL Invites Bids for O&M Of 25 MW Floating Solar Project in Andhra Pradesh

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harat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has issued a new tender, inviting bids for the operation and maintenance works of 25 MW floating solar PV power project at NTPC Simhadri, Andhra Pradesh, for a period of 36 months.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 390.95 lakhs and the deadline for bid submission is August 17, 2021, before 1 pm.

The bid will open on the same day at 1:30 pm.

In order to be eligible for bid submission, interested vendors must meet the following criteria: • Average annual financial turnover during the last 3 years ending 31st March of the previous financial year, should be 30% of the NIT value. Bidder shall

submit the audited balance sheets for past 3 years. In case, audited balance sheet is not available for current year, unaudited balance sheet is acceptable.

•E xperience of having successfully completed similar works during last 7 years ending last day of previous month to the one in which applications are invited should be either of the following: 1. Three similar completed works, each costing not less than the amount equal to 40% of the estimated cost. (i.e. Rs. 156.38 lakhs plus GST); 2. Two similar completed works, each costing not less than the amount equal to 50% of the estimated cost. (i.e. Rs. 195.48 lakhs plus GST); 3. One similar completed work costing not less than the amount equal

to 80% of the estimated cost. (i.e. be Rs. 312.76 lakhs plus GST) •A ny vendors, against whom, action due to non-performance has been initiated

by BHEL are not eligible for participation. The tender envelope submitted by such a firms/bidder will not be opened for evaluation and no communication in this regard will be entertained.

The document also informs that unless the bidder whose tender is accepted signs contract agreement within fifteen days (15 days) of the date of the order directing to do so, the amount of Earnest Money Deposit (EMD), which has been set at Rs. 5 lakhs, will be forfeited and acceptance of the tender will be withdrawn.

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REMCL Invites Bids for 210 MW Solar Projects on Vacant Railway Land

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ailway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL), a joint venture of the Indian Railways and RITES Limited (Rail India Technical And Engineering Services Limited, a railway PSU), has issued a new tender to develop 210 MW of grid-connected solar projects under the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) category. The solar projects are to be developed on vacant railway land.

The work scope includes engineering, packing, unloading, installation, design, supply, transportation, storage, and commissioning of grid-connected solar projects under the DCR category on vacant railway land parcels on a turnkey basis, along with project maintenance for ten years.

The deadline for the submission of bids falls on October 21, 2021, and the bidding will open on the same date, said the tender document.

In May this year, REMCL invited bids to develop a 15 MW solar project with a 7 MW/14 MWh battery energy storage system on railway land at Butibori in Nagpur.

Later, in June, the company invited bids for setting up projects totalling 740 MW ground-mount solar project on vacant lands.

GSECL Tenders for 224 MW of Grid-Connected Solar Projects

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wholly-owned subsidiary of the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam, Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited has floated a tender for a 224 MW solar Photovoltaic gridconnected power plant.

The tender has been issued for the power plants ranging from 10 MW to 55 MW at various substations of GETCO of Surendranagar, Morbi Kutchh, Jamnagar & Surat Districts in the State of Gujarat.

The scope of work includes Design, Engineering, Supply, Procurement, Installation, Commissioning, Operation, and Maintenance of the power plants for five years.

The last date for online bid submission is September 9,

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2021, while a pre-bid meeting has been scheduled for the first of September. Interested bidders are expected to pay a non-refundable tender fee of Rs. 25,000, along with a refundable Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of Rs. 4 Lakh/ MW in the form of a Bank Guarantee. Whereas, the total

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estimated cost of the tender is Rs. 896 Crores.

The total capacities for the power plants for different districts are differentiated into seven groups. Earlier this year, GSECL awarded an LoA to build a 95 MW solar project to Tata Power Solar, the order value of the project was

approximately Rs 460 crores.

In contrast to adding solar power in the state through small developers, GUVNL has recently withdrawn subsidies to small-scale distributed solar projects, hitting about 4,000 projects with an aggregate capacity of around 2500 MW contracted capacity.

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SECI, Renew Power Sign PPA For 400 MW RTC Tender Won In 2020

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eNew Power has announced the signing of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for Round-TheClock (RTC) electricity supply, the first-ofits-kind in India. The PPA was signed with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) ReNew had won the bid to supply RoundThe-Clock power in 2020 through an auction conducted by SECI. As per the contract, ReNew Power will supply electricity in the first year at `2.90/kWh .

This tariff will increase by 3% annually for the first 15 years after which it will stabilise for the remaining 10-years of the 25-year contract. Renew’s bid was just a paise more than the second placed bidder, Greenko. It has taken just over a year for the PPA to be signed, as the results were announced on May 7,2020.

The project will be designed to operate at an 80% average annual plant load factor (PLF) and will have a minimum capacity utilisation factor of 70% monthly, despite

being a renewable energy project. As a typical solar/wind firm power renewable energy project in India has a lower PLF depending on site and technology selection, ReNew Power anticipates the 400 MW RTC project will require 900 MWs of wind capacity, 400 MWs of solar capacity, which will be supplemented by battery storage, for a project cost of approximately US$ 1.2 billion (`8950 crores).

J N Swain, MD of SECI, said, “This PPA is a significant step forward to not only meet

the 175 GW renewable energy target of India but also usher in a dispatchable renewable energy regime in the electricity sector. This is also a momentous occasion for SECI as under this single project, 400 MW renewable energy Round-The-Clock (RTC) capacity will result in the deployment of 1,300 MW of wind and solar capacity and a large-scale battery storage system in the country. With this project, procuring utilities would get round-theclock electricity supply from renewables at a very affordable rate while meeting their RPO targets. Innovative projects like this will be the future of renewable energy in the country.”

ReNew Power will set up this capacity through wind and solar farms across Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan where ReNew has obtained requisite approvals to connect the project sites with the grid and has secured connectivity through the inter-state transmission system.

TPREL Commissions 100 MW Solar Project At Raghanesda, Gujarat

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ata Power Renewable Energy Limited (TPREL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power has successfully commissioned 100 MW Solar Power project at Raghanesda Solar Park, Gujarat.

This project is another landmark for TPREL, as in the first year of its operation, the 100MW plant is expected to generate 255 million units.

Raghanesda Solar Park, located in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat, is one of the biggest solar parks in the country.

This project was awarded by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL). With this addition of 100 MW, the total installed capacity of TPREL will be 2,797 MW with 1,865 MW of Solar and 932 MW of wind. It has

another 1,234 MW of renewable projects under implementation.

The project execution continues to strengthen Tata Power’s solar portfolio as well as overall renewable energy portfolio. As the most well integrated energy firms in the country today, Tata Power also finds itself well placed to

continue to build on its strong legacy advantages as well as the experience with an ever growing renewable energy portfolio. The firm has a declared ambition of shifting to a renewable led growth, and targets a 60% renewable portfolio by 2025. On a base of 25 GW, which the firm expects AUGUST 20 21

to achieve on the back of a capex plan of Rs 60,000 to Rs 65,000 crores. With a strong customer base of over 20 million and plans to bid for more distribution opportunities as they turn up, Tata power also has a strong pitch for its EV charging business, now just expanding out.

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3.5 GW Solar Capacity Added in H1 of 2021 in India

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report by renewable energy research firm JMK Analytics says that India added 3.5 GW of solar capacity in the first six months of the financial year 2022. It places cumulative renewable capacity at 96.95 GW, a figure at variance with government claims of having hit 100 GW. Typically, these differences are accounted for by rooftop solar tally and scheduled commissioning date of some projects.

Solar Continues Run On Top : Solar continues to cement its dominance after overtaking wind in total capacity this year, with a 44% share in the total renewable mix, followed by wind with a 41% share.

According to JMK, the current pipeline of solar, wind, and hybrid projects stands at around 56 GW which is likely to be commissioned in the next 3-4 years, well past the deadline of 2022. Another 25 GW of projects are under bidding phase where tenders are issued but auctions are not completed. So safe to say these will take

even longer according to the researchers.

The H1 Comparisons: In H1 2021, about 3.5 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity was added in the country, which is 63% higher than the H1 2020 installations.

Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh were the leading states with most of the large-scale solar installations during this period.

Quarterly Comparison: In Q2 2021 (Apr-Jun 2021), 1.5 GW of utility-scale solar capacity was installed. This is about 30% lesser than the previous quarter installations. this was helped by almost 215 MW of solar projects commissioned by Renew Power in rajasthan. In wind, about 475 MW were added, which is 56% lesser than the Q1 2021 installations. In rooftop solar, about 417 MW were added, which is 55% lesser than the previous quarter. In wind, only 475 MW could be added, pointing to the increasing troubles in that part of the renewable duo. Notably, this is after Adani Green energy commissioned

some 100 MW of wind energy projects ahead of schedule.

Projections: In terms of projections for the year, JMK predicts that about 10.3 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity and 2.8 GW of fresh wind capacity is likely to get installed in 2021. That, if it happens, would be a massive improvement over the previous three years, when capacity additions have been stuck between 7 to 4.5 GW. Quarterly: In Q3 2021, installation activity is likely to further pick up with an estimate of 3.1 GW of new solar capacity and 1 GW of new wind capacity addition.

That would indicate the slump in Q2 was an aberration caused by spike in Covid’s second wave across key states, that took out most of April and May for firms. While encouraging on its own, keeping in mind the backlog behind, and the ambitious targets in front, clearly the increase needed is of a far higher order to ensure that the country does not miss its own targets by a wider margin.

Green Bonds Worth $3.6 B Issued by Indian RE Developers in H1 2021

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ccording to a study released by CEEW-CEF, Indian renewable energy developers issued green bonds worth INR 26,300 crore (USD 3.6 billion) in the first half of 2021 alone, beating even previous one-year records.

The CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF) is an initiative of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), one of Asia’s leading think tanks. CEEWCEF acts as a non-partisan market observer and driver that monitors, develops, tests, and deploys financial solutions to advance the energy transition.

The study "Financing India's Energy Transition Through International Bond Markets," supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, also found that Indian developers have raised more than INR 78,200 crore

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(USD 11 billion) since 2014 through green bonds issued in international markets. Two of them, Greenko and ReNew Power, account for nearly 70 per cent of all issuances by value.

CEEW-CEF says that the findings highlight the potential of green bond markets to support India’s ambitious push to achieve energyindependence by 2047, a target recently announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Proceeds from the INR 78,200 crore of capital raised have directly refinanced debt for over 10 GW's worth of Indian RE projects. Wind and solar power account for 42 per cent each of this refinanced portfolio and represent a combined 8.4 GW. Hydropower makes up the balance. This implies that 8.4 per cent per cent of India’s non-

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hydro RE capacity, totalling 100 GW, has been debt-financed with overseas capital. Gagan Sidhu, Director, CEEW-CEF, and co-author of the study, said, “India’s non-hydro RE portfolio recently crossed the 100 GW mark, but we need to significantly ramp up capital mobilisation to get to 450 GW by 2030. Additional routes of capital such as green bonds will be essential for this transition, which requires investments of more than INR 15 lakh crore in power generation capacity alone. For perspective, the outstanding exposure of Indian institutional lenders to the entire power sector stood at approximately INR 13 lakh crore as of March 2020."

The CEEW-CEF study highlighted that green bonds issued by Indian developers

have generated high market interest, with average oversubscription at 360 per cent. Asian investors have shown the greatest appetite by picking up nearly 50 per cent of the bonds. However, the market remains nascent. Only eight Indian developers have accessed international bond markets as of June 2021.

Shreyas Garg, Consultant, CEEW-CEF, and lead author of the study, said, "So far, international green bonds have been primarily raised by India’s established utility-scale developers. Going forward, we hope to see more developers leveraging their strong financial credentials to unlock muchneeded capital through this route. Smaller players without gigawatt-scale capacities should also seriously evaluate green bonds."

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Global Stationary Lead Acid Battery Market to be Worth $11 B by 2030

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lobally, the stationary lead acid batteries market is estimated to reach $11.02 billion by 2030 from $7.38 billion in 2020, an uptick at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1%, finds a new analysis by market research company Frost & Sullivan.

The report "Global Stationary Lead Acid Battery Growth Opportunities," shows that stationary lead acid battery features such as low price, ease of recyclability, and user-friendliness are expediting their adoption across industries, including telecom and data centers, automobiles, oil and gas, and utilities.

Organizations' transition toward being carbon-negative will boost the demand for renewable energy power—mainly solar and wind—increasing the adoption of stationary lead acid batteries for backup and storage systems.

Manoj Shankar, Energy & Environment Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said, "Several countries in Asia and Africa still lack access to the grid. Power demand exceeds supply, leading to power outages.

This power deficit will trigger the demand for stationary lead acid batteries to power diesel gensets and UPS systems and store backup power."

Further, from a regional perspective, Asia-Pacific will be the largest market for stationary lead acid batteries due to increased investments in power generation, industrial developments, and the growth of microgrid networks, followed by North America and Europe," added Shankar.

Countries' commitments toward climate change and the increase in renewable energy penetration worldwide present lucrative growth prospects for stationary lead acid batteries market participants, including: • Consolidation and geographic expansion: Market participants should expand their manufacturing footprint in the developed world because establishing local bases is crucial to serving local customers.

High Cost, Infrastructural Issues Limit Green Hydrogen's Role in Energy Transition: Study

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reen hydrogen is recognised as a viable solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning away from fossil fuels for “hardto-abate” sectors. The supply chain for hydrogen, however, is not yet fully developed.

Several barriers, such as the high cost of green hydrogen compared to non-renewable alternatives and the lack of dedicated infrastructure, are still impeding hygrogen's full contribution to the energy transition.

A report titled "Green Hydrogen Supply: A Guide to Policy Making," released by International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), aims to provide a basis for understanding these challenges and the solutions available. It highlights the range of policy options available, complemented by country examples.

Policies presented in this report include measures to support electrolyser capacity deployment; ensure electricity is renewable and cost-competitive; increase green hydrogen demand; and develop a hydrogen transport infrastructure. The report separates policy recommendations into various stages to allow the formulation of appropriate policy pathways most suitable to a country's level of deployment of green hydrogen.

The production of hydrogen is a century-old activity. Hydrogen can be produced in multiple ways from different sources. Green hydrogen is, for the scope of the report, hydrogen produced through water electrolysis fuelled by renewable-based electricity. Water electrolysers are devices that use electricity to separate water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Multiple water electrolyser technologies exist today. Four of them in particular hold promise for use in the near future: alkaline, proton exchange membrane (PEM), solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOEC) and anion exchange membrane (AEM). Alkaline and PEM technologies represent all the installed capacity today, while SOEC and AEM are at an earlier stage in the research funnel, but hold the promise of improved performance.

PEM, AEM and alkaline electrolysers work at low temperatures (< 60-80°C), while SOEC work at a high temperature (> 700°C).

The report analyses the hydrogen strategies

of European countries for this decade and shows that France (6.5 GW) leads the electrolyser capacity targets set for 2030.

Germany and Italy follow with a 5 GW target each. Other European countries' targets are as follows: Poland, 2 GW; Portugal, 2.25 GW; the Netherlands, 3.5 GW; Spain 4 GW. Further, 11.75 GW has also been set aside for EU strategy. In other words, Europe is targeting 40 GW electrolyser capacity by the end of this decade.

The transport of hydrogen is essential when electrolyser facilities are not close to locations where hydrogen is consumed. It can be transported in a variety of ways, including by truck, ship and pipeline. However, to efficiently transport hydrogen, it must either be compressed or liquefied or further synthesised into other energy carriers such as ammonia, methane, methanol, liquid organic molecules or liquid hydrocarbons, which have higher energy density and can be transported using existing infrastructure.

Various barriers exist to the use of each of the transport modes or treatments. In general, each method is better suited to some specific end use and distance. The storage of hydrogen is crucial to the uptake of green hydrogen, and hydrogen’s suitability for storage brings additional value to the whole energy sector. Hydrogen can provide seasonal storage for the power system, a service providable by a limited range of technologies; additionally, hydrogen storage is also essential to maintain a steady input to applications that operate continuously (e.g. the steel industry). Hydrogen can be stored in steel or composite tanks, or in underground geological formations. The report explores the main barriers to the advancement of green hydrogen production and the development of the necessary infrastructure for its transport and storage. It provides a map of the policies needed in the future and aims to provide insights on the policy options.

This forms a basis on which to understand future challenges, providing national examples and case studies to highlight effective policies. Finally, it separates policy recommendations into various stages to help countries at varying levels of deployment address barriers and formulate suitable pathways.

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Asia Pacific Offshore Wind Market To Be Worth $56.8 B by 2026: Report

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he global offshore wind market is expected to grow from an estimated USD 31.8 billion in 2021 to USD 56.8 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 12.3% during the forecast period. During this time, the Asia Pacific region is expected to dominate the market. Offshore wind turbines are increasingly being installed and is showing robust growth.

This forecast has been made by a new market research report "Offshore Wind Market by Component (Turbines (Nacelle, Rotors & Blades, Tower), Substructure, Electrical Infrastructure), Location (Shallow Water, Transitional Water, & Deepwater) and Region (North America, Asia Pacific, & Europe) - Global forecast to 2026," published by MarketsandMarkets™.

MarketsandMarkets™ provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues.

Offshore wind is one of the renewable energy sources and refers to electricity that is generated at offshore locations. Offshore wind farms comprise turbines, substructure, electrical infrastructure, logistics, assembly and installation. They can be installed in three locations in water bodies, i.e., shallow water, transitional water, and deepwater. Offshore wind is a crucial pillar in energy mix together with onshore wind for regions such as Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America to achieve their goals pertaining to climate neutrality.

The new study makes the following predictions:

Asia Pacific to Lead Offshore Wind Market

The Asia Pacific region includes China, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan and South Korea.

This region has shown strong demand for power owing to rapid urbanization and industrialization. With the shift towards decarbonization and sustainable development, there has been a strong demand for renewable power resources.

Governments in this region are increasingly opening gates for development and installation of offshore wind. Technological advancements and clean energy consumption would further propel wind power deployment and open up

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opportunities in the emerging markets in APAC. Various countries are speeding up the installation of offshore wind in order to diversify their energy mix as well as to meet their goal of rection in carbon emission Moreover, favorable supportive schemes, huge investments in grid infrastructure to maximize wind power generation, and foreign direct investments would attract investors to the wind power industry. The key players include General Electric (US), Vestas (Denmark), Siemens Gamesa (Spain), Goldwind (China), Shanghai Electric Wind Power Equipment Co. (China). The leading players are adopting various strategies to increase their share in the Offshore Wind Market.

Turbine Segment to Dominate Industrial Market by Component

The turbine segment accounted for the largest share of the Offshore Wind Market, by component, in 2020. The turbine segment of Offshore Wind Market is further classified into three modules—nacelle, rotors and blades, and tower. Rotors and blades are most stressed part of the turbine and are responsible for catching the wind.

Shallow Water to Dominate Offshore Wind Market by Location

Shallow water covers more of market share in this segment as development of wind power in shallow water is generally cost effective, due to better weather conditions. But with the improvement in technologies and strong wind conditions present in transitional and deep sea water,

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more future projects are planned for deeper waters. However, offshore wind turbines are installed in all three water locations depending on the region, turbine capacity, and wind speed.

Nacelle to Dominate Offshore Wind Market by Turbine Module

Nacelle is one of the important components of an offshore wind turbine and accounts for the maximum cost of the turbine, as it comprises all the main power generation equipment. The nacelle is the section of the turbine that houses the components that convert kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy, which is then used to turn a generator that generates electricity. It comprises the drivetrain, power take-off system elements, monitoring systems and other equipment, such as generator, gearbox, bearings, cooling system, yaw system, pitch system, transformer, converter, switchgear, brake, and sensors.

Substation to Grow Well in Offshore Wind Market by Electrical Infrastructure

Substation and Wires & Cables are the sub-segments under electrical infrastructure. It consists of equipment necessary to transmit the electrical power generated from the offshore wind farms to the end users. Due to increasing demand for offshore wind power and connecting the power generated from these offshore wind to the main grid for distribution of energy to end users, substation market is witnessing a strong growth.

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Li-Ion to Stay The Dominant Storage Standard For India Upto 2030-Report

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ccording to a report by Gurugrambased research and consulting firm Praxis Global Alliance, Lithium-ion technology will drive growth of stationary storage within Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) of India over the next 10 years. The assertion comes even as progress on other battery chemistry's, be it Sodium ion or even Iron, continues apace.

The report believes that the big advantage for Lithum ion is an expected decline in battery prices at 6% CAGR between 2018 to 2030 directing India towards a net-zero trajectory, is responsible for this growth.

As per the International Energy Agency (IEA), India will lead the battery storage market and contribute 35% of the total global battery deployment for energy storage by 2040. Consequently, India's stationary energy storage requirement is expected to grow nine times at a CAGR of 22% during the forecast period of FY22-32.

Some key factors that drive this growth of the Indian stationary storage market over the next 10 years are robust solar energy generation targets and the end-user demand for the green energy transition.

A decline in battery prices of both lithium iron phosphate battery (LFP) and lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese (NCM) batteries will ensure the growth of the Indian battery energy storage systems market by 2030. LFP and NCM are the two most common lithium-ion battery technologies used and hence provide better cost economics. LFP especially offers possibilities of easier raw materials sourcing, one reason even majors like Tesla are shifting part of their production to these.

The report also suggests that the electricity storage technologies used globally and the application of BESS in both utility-scale and end-consumer models that exist globally for battery storage can be

replicated in India as battery prices decline.

The report comes at a time when the Indian government is planning to invite bids for setting up around 4 GWh (4000 MWh) of the grid-scale battery storage systems at regional load dispatch centers (RLDCs). The Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, Raj Kumar Singh has said that the large battery storage can strengthen India’s electricity grids through the use of green and clean energy sources like solar and wind.

Also, a few days back, The IEA India Energy Outlook 2021 projected that India could have 140-200 GW of battery storage capacity by 2040 — potentially a third of total battery storage capacity in the world by then. The cost of standalone lithium-ion battery storage systems globally has plummeted in the last decade from USD 1,100/kWh in 2010 to US$137/kWh in 2020, which possibly could be the push behind this growth.

India Added 601 MW C&I RE Generation Capacity in Q1 2021: Report

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RIDGE TO INDIA has launched a new quarterly report titled "India Corporate Renewable Brief," which provides a detailed regular update on key trends and developments in the rapidly growing C&I renewable market.

The study includes details of capacity addition, key players, policy developments, equipment prices, financing deals and other market trends. The first edition of this report has been financially supported by Renewable Energy Demand Enhancement (REDE) programme, a joint WWF India CII initiative.

According to the report, India added 601 MW of C&I renewable power generation capacity in Q1 2021, reaching 17,817 MW by 31 March 2021, up 20% quarter on

quarter. Installation activity picked up slightly in Q1 in response to easing COVIDrelated restrictions and increasing power demand.

Total open access solar (OA solar), open access wind (OA wind) and rooftop solar capacity was estimated to be 4,468 MW, 7,315 MW and 6,017 MW respectively in Q1 2021.

The report finds that in the last 12 months, Aditya Birla and Cleantech Solar were the largest OA developers (102 MW each), followed by Amplus (100 MW) and AMP (99 MW). Overall, ReNew (495 MW), Greenko (443 MW) and Amplus (383 MW) are the leading developers by capacity commissioned as of FY 2021. In 2020, Fourth Partner was the largest rooftop solar

developer, followed by Cleantech, Amplus, ReNew, CleanMax and AMP. As for policy changes, the report notes MNRE's announcement that solar cells and modules would be subject to basic customs duty (BCD) of 25% and 40% respectively from 1 April 2022.

Separately, the Ministry of Finance has increased customs duty on solar inverters from 5% to 20% with effect from April 2021.

Additionally, new net metering restrictions are being planned to be implemented in Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Karnataka has become the second state after West Bengal to limit net metering to rooftop solar power systems of up to 10 kW capacity.

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Meanwhile, Punjab has proposed to reduce net metering system size limit from 80% to 50% of sanctioned load for C&I consumers. Further, in Tamil Nadu, TANGEDCO is proposing to introduce gross metering for HT consumers above connected load of 10 kW. The report also provides a pricing update: prices for mono-PERC modules increased further to USD cent 23-24/ W in Q1. Balance of system (BOS) costs have also been increasing due to a rise in metal and freight rates. Total EPC cost for utility scale solar projects is estimated at INR 30.2/ Wp, up 18% on a YOY basis. EPC cost for rooftop solar also increased by 16% in the last year to INR 37.5/ Wp. SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL

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ENGIE Commissions 200 MW Raghanesda Solar Project

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NGIE has announced the commissioning of a 200 MWAC (290 MWp) Solar Power Project at the Raghanesda Solar Power Park, in Raghanesda, Gujarat. ENGIE collaborated with multiple Government of Gujarat entities to construct the project that will generate close to 546 gigawatt-hours of electricity.

The project was won under a tender process run by GUVNL and the Power Purchase Agreement for 25 years was signed in August 2019 with GUVNL (Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited), and the Implementation Support Agreement was signed in October 2019 with GPCL (Gujarat Power Corporation Limited).

Debt for the project has been secured under a long-term project financing

arrangement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Societe Generale. The project has been implemented through an Electro Solaire Private Limited (ESPL), a special purpose vehicle owned by the ENGIE Group.

Modules were sourced from Jinko and Longi and String while inverters were procured from Huawei. Sterling & Wilson were the Balance of Plant contractor and will also be the O&M provider for this project for a period of five years.

The project was completed in 14 months, adhering to the environment standard of ADB Safeguard Principle and Equator Principle, with 1.5 million+ safe man-hours by over 800 skilled and unskilled manpower setting up the plant, which is spread across 380 hectares inside the Raghanesda Solar

Park that has been developed by a Gujarat state entity – GPCL. Despite the challenges of executing a project during a global pandemic, a very high-water table creating a challenging design and implementation issue for the module mounting structures, and the project being situated in a seismic zone, the team of experts ensured the completion of the project in line with the schedule.

With this project, ENGIE’s portfolio developed in India now stands at 17 projects with over 1.1 GWp of solar PV and 280 MW of wind power. This milestone reiterates ENGIE’s ambition to be a major renewable energy provider, as India becomes a rapidly growing market in the transition to clean energy.

100 GW Renewable Energy Milestone Achieved, Much Work Ahead In India

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n self-congratulatory messages sent out yesterday, Power Minister R.K. Singh highlighted the key milestone of 100 GW of renewable energy capacity, excluding large Hydro, that has been reached in India.

After including large Hydro, the number goes right up to 146 GW. According to India's power ministry, India now stands at fourth position after China, the USA, and Japan in terms of installed renewable energy capacity. Fifth in solar and Fourth in wind in terms of installed capacity.

While 100 GW has been installed, 50 GW is under installation and 27 GW is under tendering according to records. With a 450 GW renewable energy capacity by 2030, the milestone on the road to 450 GW should be welcomed, for the huge achievement it undoubtedly is.

There is zero doubt that if the

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country had been provided with this possibility even a decade ago when it set a target of 20 GW of solar by now, it would have been considered preposterous. But falling solar prices, a concerted effort to clear the way for their installation, and the natural evolution of the market have made the number possible today.

Dr Ajay Mathur, Director, International Solar Alliance

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had this to say. "A huge accomplishment ! And India has gone from 10 GW to 100 GW in just 15years, between 2005 and 2021. It highlights the success that is achieved with simultaneous, strengthening availability of both equity and debt, of human and organizational capacity in the solar, financial and policy sectors, and of continuously tweaking business models in

light of advances in solar technologies, investments, and markets".

Along the way, the country has learned some hard lessons on the challenges ahead, along with a precious experience that could open up bigger opportunities providing power-related services to the world as far as renewable energy goes. One of the biggest outcomes has been the current push to make in India, as the country tries to reclaim a key role as a solar equipment manufacturer too, something that was ceded to China almost completely over the past decade. Repeated across multiple countries, in fact.

That dependence is considered too risky today, especially with a significant road to be covered on the road to an energy system that is not only electrically driven but mostly renewable energy powered by 2050 or 2060 at most.

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These 5 Firms Moved To Solar in 2021.

How Many Will Follow?

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ndian corporates across energyintensive sectors are increasingly adopting solar for captive use, the latter comprising a solar power plant that is deployed by a company for its own consumption.

That is, power generated by such a solar power plant is consumed entirely by the developing company itself. For instance, Mumbai-headquartered auto major Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. is adopting a 58 MWp captive solar plant that is expected to generate about 100 million units of power annually beginning 2022.

The following list consists of five major Indian companies currently on their way to going solar. The question arises, how many will follow in their footsteps?

Anupam Rasayan India Limited

Founded in 1984, this company is engaged in the custom synthesis and manufacturing of specialty chemicals in India for activities related to agrochemicals, personal care, pharmaceuticals, pigment and dyes, polymer additives, etc. With 6 manufacturing sites located in Gujarat, the firm now aims to adopt green growth.

The chemical manufacturing company announced in May this year that it will invest Rs 43 crore to set up a 12.5 MW solar power plant in an attempt to lower its carbon footprint and save on electricity costs in the long term. The proposed solar plant is expected to help save around Rs. 10 crore per annum for the next 25 years.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Known for its popular small city car Maruti 800, the company was founded in 1981 as Maruti Udyog Limited and was later acquired from the Indian government by the Suzuki Motor Cooperation in 2003 following a partnership between Suzuki and the State Bank of India. The firm has been the market leader in India for over 3 decades now.

In June last year, the Indian automotive manufacturer commissioned a 5 MW carport style solar power plant in Gurugram, with an investment of more than Rs 20 crore. The solar power project is expected to offset 5,390 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually for the next 25 years. while giving an output of 7,010 MWh of power per year.

Vaibhav Global Limited

The company had set up its first solar plant of 1 MW at the Manesar facility in 2014, which was further upgraded to 1.3 MW in 2018. The firm has also reportedly added a massive carport of 15 MW, that should be announced formally soon. That will take its total renewable solar capacity to almost 22 MW.

Tata Motors

This Indian automobile giant was established in 1868 and today produces a variety of vehicles like passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, sports cars, construction equipment and military vehicles. While the company made iconic Indian vehicles such as Tata Indica, Tata Sumo, and Tata Safari in the early parts of the millennium, and is now the market leader in the nascent EV category with its Nexon range.

Rising from a smallish market share of 4.6 percent in 2016, and 4.8 percent in 2020, Tata Motors is now India’s third-largest carmaker, according to Forbes, boasting a market share of well over 9 percent in the world’s fourth-largest automobile market.

In FY21, the company sold 222,025 units of passenger vehicles, a 69 percent growth in comparison to the year-ago period. It also owns and manufactures the iconic Jaguar Land Rover range of vehicles.

In June this year, Tata Motors and Tata Power jointly inaugurated India’s largest grid-synchronized, behind-the-meter solar carport at the Tata Motors car plant in Chikhali, Pune. The 6.2 MWp solar carport deployed by Tata Power will generate 86.4 lakh kWh of electricity per year and is estimated to help reduce 7,000 tons of carbon emissions annually and 1.6 lakh tons over its lifecycle.

This Jaipur-based jewellery and accessories manufacturer was founded in 1980. It has electronic retail units: Shop LC formerly Liquidation Channel in the US & Canada and TJC formally The Jewellery Channel in UK & Ireland, whose combined reach is 123 million households.

In June this year, Vaibhav Global announced that it had become a 100 percent solar-powered company. Two of the company’s primary manufacturing facilities will now be powered by electricity generated by the company's self-owned and operated solar plants. Surplus power would be distributed to local community resources. VGL’s solar journey started in 2014 with the installation of rooftop solar power panels in one of the Jaipur manufacturing plants. After that a fully operational solar PV power generation project under captive use was commissioned in Bikaner-Rajasthan. The recently added plant takes VGLs solar power capacity to 3.23 MW and will address 100 percent of its power requirements for two of the Jaipur manufacturing facilities.

Kajaria Ceramics Limited

Founded 30 years ago, this is a reputed ceramic wall and floor tile manufacturing company, which offers over 2800 options, including many vitrified and designer tiles.

It has an annual aggregate capacity of 70.40 mn. sq. meters, distributed across eight plants in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Yesterday, the company announced its plans to invest up to Rs. 264 Lakhs in an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) for solar power captive consumption as required under the provisions of Electricity Act, 2003. The SPV is to be formed by a solar plant company, CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions Private Ltd. As these firms, across several sectors, demonstrate that there is no time like the present when it comes to shifting consumption away from fossil fuel-powered backup to solar. With battery storage costs also set to come down to a level that is below typical diesel generation costs, the scope for firms to shift in a bigger way is immense.

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PM's I Day Speech-Is India Hurting Itself By Thinking Too Far Ahead?

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rime Minister Narendra Modi, who has a somewhat well earned reputation for making momentous announcements on days when he is the focus of attention, did not disappoint when it came to his Independence day speech. Calling for the country to be free of energy imports by 2047, he went on to announce a National Hydrogen Mission. The idea being to make the country a hub of green hydrogen manufacturing, that can potentially make it an energy exporter, rather than spend the Rs 12 lakh crore it does currently on energy imports.

Keep in mind that early in March 2015, Mr Modi had set the country a target of reducing its oil imports dependence from 77 percent of consumption to 67 percent by 2022, ie, next year. We have however, moved to over 80 percent dependence currently.

What the country has achieved in the meantime is a milestone of 100 GW of renewable energy. Perhaps it is time for the government to focus more on this creditable achievement and maintaining momentum, rather than long term plans on Hydrogen, which will go through the full cycle of tech innovation, disruptions and more, before we see projections for a 3/4th share of Hydrogen produced globally being green hydrogen.

A higher share of renewable energy will actually create the conditions necessary for an easier green hydrogen focus, when the time is right.

We have highlighted in a detailed story in June about how only 3 stories are worth tracking, when it comes to tracking India's progress on the energy front. India's progress on its ethanol blending plans, the massive CBG (Compressed Bio Gas) initiative, and its progress on building quality solar energy capacity.

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IPO Time For India Solar Equipment Manufacturers In 2021

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fter a long wait, initial reports are finally coming out regarding plans by major Indian solar equipment manufacturers planning Initial Public Offers. We refer to a long wait simply because the markets have been buoyant for a while now, and have duly been followed by an IPO wave the likes of which has rarely been seen before. We have written earlier about how a key area of difference is the access for foreign counterparts to public markets, even as Indian manufacturers have fallen behind. In fact, pure play manufacturing, or manufacturing led solar firms are completely missing, as firms like Adani Green Energy, Sterling and Wilson Solar are more developer/EPC category.

A major reason for the move to consider tapping public markets might also be the impending entry of Reliance Industries with its solar manufacturing setup, expected to start entering in phases from 2023 onwards. We covered this issue earlier. Access to capital markets might just support a speeding up of expansion and marketing plans before Reliance starts making a significant impact.

With massive loss making digital firms like Zomato (successfully listed), Paytm (next in line) and more lining up on the basis of growth promises, firms across sectors like chemicals, metals and more have rushed to market. It was only a matter of time before solar manufacturing majors would also make their move. A report published in business paper Mint indicates that Vikram Solar and Waaree Energies might be the first two to make their move now.

For Waaree, it may be a different route, as it already has an EPC focused subsidiary, Waaree Renewable Technologies Limited (Formerly Sangam Renewables Limited) listed. For the record, Waaree Energies Limited had closed 2019-20 with a turnover of 1995 crores, and profit after tax of 57 crores.

For the Rs 1651 crore turnover (2019-20) Vikram Solar, as the contours of a broad growth strategy finally fall into place, and 15 years after it started its solar journey, the time seems right for the move too. The firm is currently the largest manufacturer of modules (2.5 GW) in India, after the inauguration of its 1.3 GW facility in Tamil

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Nadu last month.

Both these firms have a large enough balance sheet, with large turnovers , and are profitable. With the massive projections in place for solar capacity growth, and the buffer of a high duty structure to protect from Chinese imports starting April 2022, this is probably the best time to go public, if you are a solar manufacturer in India.

Interestingly, both seem to have plans in the pipeline for a while now, as the existence of an investors section on their corporate websites denotes. Both have done well enough to create thriving export markets for their output, building a reputation for quality too.

The sector has possibly struggled to make it big in the public markets due to its high dependence on government policy for protection against imports. Or most of the capacity growth. Or the fact that government enterprises continue to play a key role in the broader energy and solar sector. A stronger rooftop solar market, where private sector enterprise and marketing can truly come into its own, would have helped, but that is the one segment that has underperformed relatively, as far as solar growth goes in the past 5 years.

Besides India's ambitious targets and commitments for the next decade, which entail solar capacity additions of almost 25 GW per annum, a major manufacturing expansion is underway, powered expectedly by government incentives and tariff protection. Quality manufacturers need to grab this opportunity, as the downside risk of protection, poor accountability for quality and performance is too high to be left to a large, opaque private manufacturers market.

The big question now is, what kind of valuations can these solar firms command, considering the risks that remain, especially the continued dependence on imports for key inputs, from wafers to even cells. This is a risk that none other than Waaree Groups Chairman and Managing Director, Dr. Hitesh Doshi highlighted in his column on SaurEnergy recently. Dr Doshi must have seen some significant improvements, if he is finally considering an IPO.

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Iron-based Batteries' Future Looks Bright As Tesla Weighs In

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f late, leading executives in the automotive sector have been indicating a reversion to older, cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries in their products. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently spoken of such a shift in the company's energy storage devices and some entry-level EVs. Additionally, Ford CEO Jim Farley has said the company would use LFP batteries in some commercial vehicles, and Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has announced that use of LFP in some VW entry-level EVs. This change is most concentrated in the Chinese automotive industry today. While outside China, nickel-based batteries are largely in use due to their higher energy density that improves battery range, the country's current monopoly on LFP draws from key patents that are managed by a consortium of academic research institutions. This consortium came to an agreement with Chinese battery makers a decade ago under which the manufacturers would not be charged a licensing fee providing that the LFP batteries were used only in Chinese markets. With the blessings of the Chinese Communist party of course.

In general, LFP battery cells are very lucrative because they are cheap and do not require rare materials like cobalt and nickel. If adopted by the EV market, LFP batteries would go a long way in accelerating its growth by reducing EV costs. An added bonus with avoiding cobalt is avoiding the horrendous supply lines that metal comes through, involving deep exploitation, monopoly miners and worse.

As Chinese LFP patents will expire in 2022, non-Chinese battery manufacturers are expecting to get an opportunity to shift their production to iron-based formulas. Even though European and North American battery factories are currently focused on nickelbased chemistries, as a result of their partnership with major South Korean auto companies, we can expect some capacity addition in North America in the coming years. The US is fortunate in this regard since iron and phosphoric acid, required for LFP, are locally manufactured in large quantities.

The main point of attraction in LFP batteries is that they dramatically reduce

the overall cost of a vehicle. It makes sense then to expect leading automakers like Tesla to use iron-based batteries primarily in the production of entry-level and lowcost vehicles. Higher-end and performance cars, on the other hand, would still come with nickel-based batteries. Regardless, the odds of expanding LFP capacity are stacked in North America and Europe's favour.

India's Solar and Wind Generation in Q1, 2021, Versus Q1, 2020 Results for Solar, Wind Generation We believe it is time the focus on solar and wind shifted to generation, not just capacity building. Because generation is eventually what matters, what contributes to carbon emissions reductions. And yes, finally, dependable data on the subject is available, thanks to the much more timely CEA, as well as options like the India Renewables Dashboard. So lets jump in by starting with the Q1 of 2021.

In Q1 2021 (Apr-May-June) quarter, Solar + Wind generated 38665 million units of power to the country's overall energy mix.

This is an over16.1% growth over the 33282 million units that these two key renewable segments generated in Q1, 2020.

Within the figures for Q1 in 2021, Solar had a share of 18123 million units, or just

around 46 percent of the total. Despite solar having overtaken wind in total capacity installations. The same share for solar in 2020 was close to 46% only, indicting the impact of seasonal performance perhaps. Best indicated by the Spike in Wind generation in June, even as solar stagnated.

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April

May

June

Solar

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5618

4703

Wind

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6238

7896

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April

May

June

Solar

6122

5995

6006

Wind

3734

7083

9725

Solar And Wind Generation, MU (Million Units)

With Solar and wind accounting for over 80% of RE generation, we believe it makes sense to focus on these two, for now. At some stage, if the government provided data is robust and consistent enough, we will provide you with a detailed analysis of statewise performance too, and perhaps even the top performing projects.

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JinkoSolar Signs Long-term Deal with Germany’s Wacker For Polysilicon

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hina's solar module manufacturer JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd. has announced signing a deal with Munich-based chemical company Wacker Chemie AG to procure over 70,000 tonnes of polysilicon.

The deal has been signed yesterday through its subsidiary Jinko Solar Co Ltd for a longterm polysilicon supply agreement with the German firm. Under the terms of the agreement, Wacker will supply over 70,000 tons of polysilicon to Jinko Solar Co., Ltd. from September 2021 to December 2026.

The price for the purchase of polysilicon will be decided according to the market prices.

Wacker will reserve the agreed capacity to Jinko Solar Co., Ltd. and supply polysilicon from its production sites in Germany and the United States.

Speaking of the deal, CEO of Jinko Solar, Mr.

Kangping Chen stated, “By locking in over 70,000 tons of polysilicon from Wacker, we will ensure the reliability of the manufacturing of our products from a highquality raw material source, as well as the stable supply of our high-efficiency products to our global clients."

"This ensures we can continue to provide our global clients with a steady supply of more highly efficient and clean products and to promote the development and advancement of the global PV industry together," he added.

Wacker Chemie AG is a German multinational chemical company, founded in 1914. Currently, the firm has more than 3,200 state-of-the-art specialty chemical products.

WACKER currently operates in India as two distinct legal entities – the 51% fully consolidated subsidiary, Wacker Metroark Chemicals (WMC) with its plant near

Kolkata, as well as the 100% subsidiary, Wacker Chemie India (WCIN). Globally, Wacker's polysilicon production is done under Wacker Chemie.

The firm has actually been struggling to turn a profit for the division, after sales in 2020 hit new lows. To that extent, the orders from Chinese players like Jinko are welcome, although a bit ironic considering that Chinese focus on domestic manufacturing is what led to the glut in polysilicon capacity till early this year. Part of Jinko's plans to source from Wacker might be liked to its exports to the US, where key raw material inputs like polysilicon is being closely watched for any link to the Xinjiang in China, where the US has banned most suppliers from. Most Chinese production of polysilicon happens out of Xinjiang.

Sri Lanka To Increase Rooftop Solar Investments, Cease Fresh Coal Plants

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fter announcing its 2030 goals of achieving 70% electricity through renewables, Sri Lanka is now accelerating its investments in rooftop solar and planning to rule out new coal power investments.

Sri Lanka's renewable energy sources currently are primarily HydroPower, which accounts for 35% of its electricity from renewables in 2019. The country has total generation capacity of about 42 GW from all sources and peak demand of about 2500 MW. Currently, the Island has a single 900MW coal power station, built with Chinese backing in 2006, which meets over a third of electricity demand. Plans for a second coal plant, to be financed by India, were suspended in 2016 after environmentalists filed a legal challenge. Ruling out new coal power contributes to a target to cut the Island's greenhouse gas emissions by 4% from business as usual by 2030 with national investment and up to 10.5% with international support. The Lankan government aims to have a carbon-neutral electricity generation system by 2050, according to the document submitted to UN Climate Change last month.

Also, for increasing investments in rooftop solar, the government is urging local Lankans to install rooftop solar power by offering loans with at most a 4% interest rate. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has funded this scheme with a $50m loan.

This step comes after receiving a USD 100 million Line of Credit (LOC) from India for various solar energy projects announced for the island nation. That including those during the Founding Conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) held in March 2018, such as rooftop solar photovoltaic systems for households and government

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Sri Lanka Power Snapshot. Source Ceylon Electricity Board

buildings. A key policy of the government is to generate solar power by installing rooftop solar on state-owned buildings, places of worship, and houses of low-income families. This would facilitate measures that have been taken to increase the contribution of renewable energy sources to the national power grid, officials said. Subsequently, for those solar projects, Sri Lanka announced to purchase the equipment and materials from India itself. That USD 100 million LOC is a 15-year loan of a fixed rate of 1.75% and that within 15 years, from the Export & Import Bank of India. Far better terms than what the island nation was getting from China.

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California Goes With Rule for Solar and Battery Storage on New Buildings

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he California Energy Commission (CEC) has adopted the 2022 Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Energy Code) for newly constructed and renovated buildings that say the new buildings need to be equipped with solar and battery storage for clean energy goals.

As the state's primary energy policy and planning agency, the CEC adopts standards every three years to costeffectively increase energy efficiency and lower the carbon footprint of buildings.

Homes and businesses use nearly 70 percent of California’s electricity and are responsible for a quarter of the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. And the new rules would apply to newly built apartment complexes, office blocks, schools, restaurants, and retail and medical buildings.

Commissioner J. Andrew McAllister, who is the lead commissioner on energy efficiency. “The 2022 Energy Code firmly pivots California’s buildings toward the clean, low-carbon technologies that are the

bedrock on which our collective path forward will rest. This foundation will help the state meet its critical long-term climate and carbon neutrality goals."

The 2022 update will be submitted to the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC), which is scheduled to consider it in December 2021. If approved by the CBSC, it would go into effect on January 1, 2023, giving builders, contractors, and other interested parties a year to gear up for the changes.

The 2022 Energy Code focuses on four key areas in newly constructed homes and businesses: •E ncouraging electric heat pump technology for space and water heating, which consumes less energy and produces fewer emissions than gas-powered units.

•E stablishing electric-ready requirements for single-family homes to position owners to use cleaner electric heating, cooking, and electric vehicle (EV) charging options whenever they choose to adopt those

technologies.

• Expanding solar photovoltaic (PV) system and battery storage standards to make clean energy available onsite and complement the state’s progress toward a 100 percent clean electricity grid.

• Strengthening ventilation standards to improve indoor air quality.

The impact of climate change is accelerating, bringing an even greater need for buildings that are comfortable, efficient, and resilient. Each updated code guides the construction of buildings to better withstand extreme weather, lower energy costs, and reduce climate and air pollution. Over the next 30 years, the 2022 Energy Code is estimated to provide $1.5 billion in consumer benefits and reduce 10 million metric tons of GHGs, equivalent to taking nearly 2.2 million cars off the road for a year. Expanded adoption of new energy-efficient technologies will help reduce the costs of the technology over time.

Bangladesh Invites Bids for 68 MW Solar Project in Sirajganj Region

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he Bangladesh-China Renewable Energy Company (BCRECL) has invited bids for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of a 68 MW solar energy project on a turnkey basis in Sirajganj, Bangladesh, including the construction of a 15 km 132 kV double circuit transmission line with a substation bay.

BCRECL is a joint venture between the North-West Power Generation Company (a subsidiary of the Bangladesh Power Development Board) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation.

The project is to be completed within 540 days from the effective date of the contract. The deadline for bid submission and the date of bid opening is September 27, 2021, and the pre-bid

meeting is scheduled for August 24.

Successful bidders will have to submit $1.5 million as a performance bank guarantee.

BCRECL specifies the following eligibility criteria for successful bidders: • Average Annual Turnover: Minimum average annual turnover of USD 100 million within the last three years.

• Financial Resources: Bidder's financial resources minus its financial obligations for its current contract commitments must meet or exceed the total requirement of USD 30 million.

• General Experience: Experience in the role of contractor for at least seven years prior to the submission date.

• Specific Experience: Participation as EPC contractor in at least two solar

PV projects, both of which should be outside the bidder's home country, each with minimum capacity of 50 MW (AC), within the last five years that have been successfully completed. Such power plants should be in continuous commercial operation for minimum one year prior to bid closing date. The scope should include design, installation, testing, commissioning of PV plant and auxiliaries including grid connection.

In May this year, Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh Limited, an electricity and utility company owned by the Bangladesh Development Board, signed an MoU with Marubeni Corporation for the joint development of a 100 MW solar PV power plant project in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

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ACWA Power Achieves Financial Close for 1500 MW Sudair Solar Plant

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CWA Power, based in Saudi Arabia, has announced the financial close for the 1500 MW Sudair Solar plant, a key project under the Public Investment Fund (PIF) renewable energy program in the country.

The program aims to support Saudi Arabia’s ongoing energy transition and diversification, and to deliver 70% of the country’s renewable energy under the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP).

The launch of the Sudair Solar project was announced at the inauguration of Sakaka PV project in April 2021, under the patronage of Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Further, SAPCO, a fully-owned company of Aramco, has joined the consortium with ACWA Power and Badeel, a company fullyowned by PIF. ACWA Power - in which PIF holds a 50% stake - and Badeel will each own 35% in the special purpose vehicle “Sudair One Renewable Energy Company”,

which was incorporated for the project; with SAPCO holding a 30% stake.

Renewables and Utilities sector is one of the 13 priority sectors that PIF identified as a key focus area in its Strategy 2021-2025.

The strategy focuses on unlocking the capabilities of the private sector, and aims to increase local content contribution to 60% Including PIF and its portfolio companies, in addition to expanding opportunities for local companies to partake in the Fund's projects. Aramco’s investment in the Sudair Project is its first participation with PIF in its renewable energy program.

With an investment value of SAR 3.4 billion, Sudair Solar PV project, which is located at Sudair Industrial City, is set to become one of the largest singlecontracted solar PV plants in the world and the largest of its kind in Saudi Arabia, said ACWA. A 25-year power purchase agreement for the plant was signed with the Saudi Power Procurement Company.

Using bi-facial modules with tracking

technology, the plant is expected to be capable of powering 185,000 homes, while offsetting nearly 2.9 million tons of emissions per year.

The financing for the project is based on the principles of limited recourse project financing, with the senior debt structured as a soft mini perm facility with a tenor of 28 years and both conventional as well as Islamic tranches. The financing structure also features a set of equity bridge facilities provided by local and international banks supporting the sponsor group’s equity investment in the project.

The financing group includes Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Riyad Bank, Korea Development Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corporation, and Standard Chartered Bank as senior lenders and Mandated Lead Arrangers. The equity bridge facilities are provided by Bank Al Bilad, Saudi British Bank and SMBC International Plc.

Fusion Fuel Green Gets €4.3 Million Funding Approval for Portugal Project

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ublin-based green hydrogen solutions provider, Fusion Fuel Green has announced receiving the Euro 4.3 million funding approval from Portugal’s Operational Program for Sustainability and Efficient Use of Resources (POSEUR) for its proposed HEVO-Sul project in Sines, Portugal.

The Portuguese government has allocated €40 million in direct grants for the POSEUR program, which aims to support the production of green hydrogen and other renewable gases. While Fusion Fuel will receive €4.3 million for the project, which has a total investment value of €8 million.

The HEVO-Sul project is comprised of 178 HEVO-SOLAR units, which will produce approximately 418 tons of green hydrogen annually. The hydrogen will be used for several applications, including injection into the natural gas distribution network, as a

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feedstock for green ammonia production, as well as for bottling in pressurized cylinders for industrial uses.

Fusion Fuel has already signed a lease agreement for the land to be used for the HEVO-Sul project. Construction is expected to commence in late 2021, and the company expects operations to commence by the end of 2022. In addition to the HEVO-Sul project, Fusion Fuel is the technology provider for two other projects submitted to the POSEUR program. A decision on these projects is expected in the coming weeks.

Commenting on the approval, Joao Wahnon, Head of Business Development at Fusion Fuel stated, “The POSEUR decision is an important milestone for Fusion Fuel and for Portugal’s aspirations of being a leader in the green hydrogen economy. This project is of strategic value to Fusion Fuel as it builds on our portfolio

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of Company-owned projects and promises to further validate the attractiveness of our off-grid, solar-to-hydrogen technology to produce cost-competitive green hydrogen.

"While we are still awaiting a response on the two projects where Fusion would serve as a technology supplier, we are optimistic as they use the same HEVO-SOLAR technology and would further the government’s efforts to position Portugal in the vanguard of the green hydrogen movement," Joao added.

Recently in May, Fusion Fuel had partnered with Consolidated Contractors Group S.A.L. (CCC), to develop a green hydrogen plant in the Middle East.

Before that, the green hydrogen technology company had collaborated with the Elecnor Group (BME: ENO) for the development of green hydrogen projects in Spain using Fusion Fuel’s HEVO-SOLAR technology.

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Goodyear Invests in EV Charging, Adds AmpUp to its Portfolio

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oodyear announced today that its venture capital arm, Goodyear Ventures, has added AmpUp, a leader in electric vehicle (EV) charging, to its investment portfolio.

AmpUp supports the EV driving community through its advanced charging network and software solutions. With operations across North America, AmpUp aims to make charging accessible and seamless for every EV driver.

"Goodyear is interested in enabling the future of mobility, including within the EV sector," said Abhijit Ganguly, managing director, Goodyear Ventures. "AmpUp will provide us with valuable insights on the latest electrification trends and bring their

solutions to our fleet customers who are considering electrification."

"AmpUp is thrilled to partner with Goodyear, whose commitment to innovation and electric mobility will be crucial to wide-scale adoption of EVs," said Thomas Sun, CEO and Co-founder of AmpUp. "As a company focused on providing seamless charging solutions, AmpUp can't wait to explore solutions with the Goodyear team nationwide."

EV charging infrastructure is growing in India as the Indian Govt. has invested Rs. 1000 crore for the development of charging infrastructure in the country till now. Also, according to a recent report, it has been estimated that the global EVCS market will

grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% from 2021 to 2027 and reach $93 billion by 2027.

The potential investors in EV charging business opportunities in India are in a fix, as they are unsure of whether to put charging stations upfront or wait for a critical mass of EVs before investing any money. It's a classic chicken and egg situation, however, if one takes a closer look into how the Chinese handled this situation, one would realize that the initial thrust came in from the creation of public EV charging stations funded by the government, and later came the private investment into the charging infrastructure creation.

Vestas Revenues At $4.1 Bn in Q2 FY21, Orsted Reports $2.68 Bn

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anish wind turbines manufacturer, Vestas Wind Systems, has released its financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2021 (Q2FY21), and it has reported a revenue of EUR 3.53 billion (USD 4.15 billion).

Fellow Danish utility and developer, Orsted also reported its financial results for the same quarter today, coming out with a revenue of DKK 13.1 billion (USD 2.68 billion) a sharp increase of over the DDK 3.3 billion for the same period in 2020.

The topline at Vestas didn't grow too much over its 2020 corresponding number, though earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) before special items increased by EUR 67 million to EUR 101 million. This resulted in an EBIT margin before special items of 2.9% compared to 1.0% in the second quarter of 2020.

Vestas has reported that the cash flow accounted for EUR 183 million compared to EUR 106 million in the same period of 2020.

The quarterly intake of firm and unconditional wind turbine orders amounted to 5,290 MW. The value of the wind turbine order backlog was recorded at EUR 21.2 billion as of 30 June 2021. In addition to the wind turbine order backlog,

at the end of June 2021, Vestas had service agreements with expected contractual future revenue of EUR 26.9 billion. Thus, the value of the combined backlog of wind turbine orders and service agreements stood at EUR 48.1 billion – an increase of EUR 13.0 billion compared to the year-earlier period.

Also, Vestas is expecting a revenue of EUR 15.5-16.5 billion, including Service, with an overall EBIT margin before special items of 5-7 %, in the third quarter. "We achieved revenue of EUR 3.5 billion and an EBIT margin of 2.9 percent, which is an improvement of 1.9 percentage points yearover-year. In this environment, our Service business and wind turbine order intake grew 23 percent and 28 percent respectively yearover-year, which resulted in an all-time high order backlog of more than EUR 48bn, said Henrik Andersen, CEO & President at Vestas.

He added, "Combined with an average selling price of 0.79 EUR/MW for onshore, new offshore orders and our first preferred supplier agreement for our V236-15.0 MW turbine, the quarter was commercially very strong."

Comparatively, Orsted reports that earnings from its offshore and onshore wind

farms in operation were DKK 0.3 billion lower compared to the same period last year.

The increased generation capacity from new wind farms in operation was more than offset by significantly lower wind speeds across the portfolio. Earnings from existing partnerships decreased by DKK 1.8 billion compared with the same period last year.

Orsted has reported a net profit amounted to DKK 7.1 billion and return on capital employed (ROCE) came in at 12.5 %. It has projected an increase in its full-year gross investment guidance from DKK 32-34 billion to DKK 39-41 billion.

Speaking of the results, Orsted's President & CEO, Mads Nipper stated, "In the first half of 2021, we’ve delivered good operational performance. Within our Offshore business, Ocean Wind 2 was awarded a 1,148 MW contract in New Jersey. Our total awarded US portfolio now exceeds 4 GW. We also entered into several new strategic partnerships in Norway, Korea, Scotland, and Japan."

"At our Capital Markets Day in June, we updated our long-term financial guidance and raised our strategic ambition for renewable capacity to approx. 50 GW in 2030," he added.

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Sicona Secures AU$3.7 M to Expand Battery Supplies Tech

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ustralian firm Sicona Battery Technologies Pty Ltd has raised AU$3.7 million in a pre-Series A funding round from leading investors to scale battery materials technology globally.

This latest capital injection follows the company's $1 million seed round in July 2020, the award of a $704k 'Accelerating Commercialisation' Grant by the Australian Federal Government in November 2020, and Sicona's participation in the prestigious Startmate accelerator in its Summer 2021 climate technology cohort.

The funding round was led by global venture firm Artesian and US-based Riverstone Ventures, an affiliate of Riverstone Holdings, with notable participation by Chaos Ventures (New York), Bandera Capital (Australia), SDGx Ventures (Singapore), and several prominent Australian climate-tech investors and global battery materials specialists.

Sicona, founded in June 2019 by Christiaan Jordaan and Andrew Minett, is developing next-generation battery technology used in the anodes (negative electrodes) of lithiumion batteries that enables electric mobility.

Sicona is commercialising innovative silicon-graphite composite battery anode and

binder process technology and materials, developed and perfected over the last ten years at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) at the University of Wollongong. Sicona's current generation silicon-graphite composite anode materials deliver 50% to 100% higher capacity than conventional "graphite-only" materials and as a result, its cell producer customers can unlock more than 50% higher cell energy density than current Li-ion batteries thereby increasing electric vehicle range whilst reducing the cost and the time it takes to charge. According to a recent report prepared

by Accenture for the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC), of which Sicona is an associate participant, diversified battery industries could contribute $7.4 billion annually to Australia's economy and support 34,700 jobs by 2030. One of the six opportunities identified in the report for Australia to expand its presence across the battery value chain is the establishment of "active materials manufacturing capability to serve the global value chain". Sicona states that it can fulfil this role well as it has plans to establish domestic commercial-scale advanced manufacturing of

its next-generation active anode materials.

The global lithium battery opportunity is growing rapidly with more than 4TWh (equivalent to 4,000 gigawatt sized factories) of announced cell production requiring in excess of four million tonnes of anode materials per annum.

From its Australian base, Sicona also has its eyes set on deploying commercial-scale production plants in Europe and North America. Sicona founder and CEO Christiaan Jordaan said: "We are extremely grateful for the support from our growing international investor base. Our next milestone is the commissioning of Sicona's pilot production plant at our site in Wollongong and leveraging its larger-scale production capacity to qualify our materials with global battery producers and conduct larger-scale battery testing programs."

Kevin Wang, Vice President at Riverstone Holdings, said: "We are excited to support Sicona with this funding round as it is looking to scale its ground-breaking battery materials technology and leverage its successes into the fast-growing markets developing for lithiumion batteries in Europe and the United States."

Recurrent Energy Signs Agreement For 600 MWh Energy Storage Project

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wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc., Recurrent Energy today announced signing a 15-year Resource Adequacy agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to provide 150 MW / 600 MWh of energy storage in phase 2 of the Crimson project.

According to the firm, the 350 MW / 1,400 MWh Crimson project will be one of the largest battery energy storage projects in the world when it comes online beginning in summer 2022.

Earlier this year, Southern California Edison awarded Recurrent Energy a longterm energy storage contract for 200 MW / 800 MWh for phase 1 of the Crimson project located in Riverside County, California. Both contracts are stand-alone storage projects and are part of reliability procurements

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directed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) The newly signed agreement with PG&E is specifically in response to a decision by the CPUC in March for the California utilities to "take actions to prepare for potential extreme weather in the summers of 2021 and 2022."

This additional energy storage capacity further supports Governor Newsom's recent emergency proclamation to expedite new clean energy projects in light of the ongoing extreme weather and climate crisis faced by the state.

Speaking of the project, "It is becoming increasingly important to be able to send energy to the grid during heatwaves and other peak demand events. We are pleased to help PG&E enhance grid reliability in California by providing critically needed resource adequacy

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capacity through our long-term battery storage solution," said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman & CEO of Canadian Solar.

He added, "We are accelerating all our development processes to ensure we reach the target commercial operation date of summer 2022. We thank our partners for their trust and support, and look forward to providing more safe, reliable, affordable, and clean battery storage solutions to the communities we serve."

Recently, Recurrent Energy has expanded its energy storage footprint in the United States with several leading Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) contracted to be built in 2021 and 2022. These projects span retrofits as-a-service, solar plus storage PPAs, and stand-alone storage tolling agreements.

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Nanotech Energy Secures $64 M for Global Graphene Business

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merican graphene-based batteries maker Nanotech Energy has raised $64 million Series D funding at a $550 million post-Series D valuation to accelerate international expansion, including the launch of its EU headquarters in Amsterdam, and to develop a new high-volume graphene battery manufacturing facility in Reno, Nevada, US. Led by Taiwan's largest financial services company, Fubon Financial Holding Co, the Series D funding brings the total amount of funding raised to date by Nanotech Energy to $94.9 million.

The Nevada manufacturing facility is expected to open in late 2022 and create jobs in the Greater Reno market. Nanotech Energy also plans to increase capacity in its current Chico, California factory for graphene itself, graphene-based conductive inks, adhesives, EMI shielding and silver nanowires.

In September 2020, the company announced that it had developed a process to produce 90% monolayer graphene, becoming the first and only producer to

break the 50% content barrier. In March 2021, Nanotech Energy achieved 95% monolayer graphene and is fast approaching 98% monolayer graphene (confirmed by AFM, TEM, SEM and XRD techniques).

A major manufacturer of graphene, the company claims to be the only producer of non-flammable, graphene-based batteries.

"We've spent more than seven years diligently creating new materials to improve battery storage capacity and safety and are now moving into a new phase of production at industry-level scale," said Nanotech Energy CEO and co-founder Dr. Jack Kavanaugh. "We're pleased to have an investor like Fubon, who recognizes the incredible opportunities presented by graphene, embraces science and shares our vision," he added.

"Nanotech Energy's batteries are not only the safest batteries but also highest performing. They demonstrate higher cycle life, better performance at temperature extremes, better range and are faster charging," added Dr. Maher El-Kady, Chief

Technology Officer of Nanotech Energy.

The firm states that graphene is 200 times stronger than steel, 97% transparent, extremely light in weight, flexible and stretchable — making it the thinnest, strongest and most flexible material known.

Nanotech Energy owns the world's first graphene patent, filed in 2002 by Nanotech Energy co-founder and UCLA professor of Chemistry and of Materials Science and Engineering, Dr. Richard Kaner. Notably, Dr. Kaner filed the patent two years before the graphene work of Nobel laureates, Geim and Novoselov.

"We believe Nanotech Energy's proprietary, non-flammable graphene batteries have a clear path to widespread adoption and global scalability," said Richard Tsai, Chairman of the Fubon Financial Group. "We are excited to play a role in helping Nanotech Energy transform the future of battery technology and energy storage, and look forward to our partnership with Jack Kavanaugh and his inspiring team as they work to bring their batteries to market."

Pakistan to Unveil First Domestically Produced Solar Panels

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akistan is gearing up to increase the production and use of renewable energy as a measure to alleviate power shortages. To this end, the country's government has proposed eliminating taxes associated with the manufacture of solar and wind energy equipment in the country.

The University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, is set to launch the nation's first locally manufactured solar power panels.

The university will begin production of the third-generation solar power panels soon. Dr. Najeeb Ullah, leading the research at UET, said, “We are launching our production and will deliver our first order for generating 2MW power very soon.”

Dr. Najeeb notes that at present Pakistan generates 6 percent of its total power from

wind and solar projects, however, the solar panels used to generate energy are imported and are not as effective as the ones being developed by the university’s Center for Advanced Studies in Energy.

According to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization, the total energy consumption of Pakistan is expected to cross 49,000MW by 2025 due to the increase in population. Currently, the average energy demand of Pakistan is 19,000MW against the generation of around 15,000MW. During summers, the demand reaches 20,000MW. Due to faulty grids and distribution systems as well as electricity demand exceeding production, the citizens are subjected to frequent power cuts and blackouts.

Dr. Najeeb claims that the locally manufactured solar panels will reduce the power generation cost. “The panels being used for power generation costs around Rs. 60 per watt. We will produce AAA quality power panels which will bring the production cost to Rs. 48 per watt and eventually to Rs. 10 per watt,” he stated.

Last month, the Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) urged the Pakistani government to initiate measures for the manufacturing of solar panels in Pakistan and facilitate big competent private sector parties to set up plants in collaboration with the Chinese counterparts. In addition to being affordable, solar panels also have an extended lifespan of 15 to 20 years.

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Masdar & EDF led 400MW Wind Farm in Saudi Arabia Begins Generation

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he 400 MW utility-scale wind power project, developed by a consortium led

by EDF Renewables and Masdar, two of the world’s leading renewable energy companies, has started to produce electricity.

The wind farm is claimed to be the largest and first in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Called Dumat Al Jandal, it has been successfully connected to the grid and has produced its first carbon-free megawatthours (MWh) of energy.

The wind farm consists of 99 wind turbines from the supplier and EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contractor Vestas, each with a power output of 4.2 MW. Construction began in September 2019, and the wind turbine erection works are near completion. Vestas is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines.

Its General Manager, Muhamed Bou-Zeid said, “With the full endorsement of the authorities and our partners in Saudi Arabia,

we have been fortunate and privileged to contribute to the Kingdom’s clean energy diversification strategy through the Dumat Al Jandal wind farm."

The wind farm is also claimed to be creating more than 600 local jobs during the construction phase. This wind farm will supply electricity under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Saudi Power Procurement Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), the Saudi power generation and distribution company.

EDF Renewables is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French utility EDF Group, specializing in renewable energy production.

“It is an honor to contribute to the Kingdom’s energy transition with the start of the production of Dumat Al Jandal wind farm, the most powerful in the Middle East. This major step clearly demonstrates our ability to support Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 aiming to

reduce the country’s carbon footprint," expressed Mr. Olivier Bordes, CEO of EDF Renewables Middle East.

He added, "We are thriving to expand renewable energies in KSA and the GCC region to fight together with the global climate change, in line with EDF’s CAP 2030 strategy aiming to double its net installed capacity from 28 GW to 60 GW between 2015 and 2030."

While the UAE-based renewable energy firm, Masdar is said to be proud to be leveraging its experience in renewable energy to deliver the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s first wind farm in collaboration with our partners.

The successful connection of the project to the electricity transmission grid marks an important milestone for this landmark project in the Kingdom and we look forward to the project’s completion in the near future," said Mr. Osama Al Othman, Country Representative, Saudi Arabia, Masdar.

Enel, Fincantieri Will Develop Green H2's Use in Ports, Sea Transport

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nel Green Power Italia, a subsidiary of Europe's biggest utility Enel, and Fincantieri, an Italian shipbuilder, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop an integrated solution for the production, supply, management and use of green hydrogen for port areas and long-range maritime transport.

“The signing of this agreement,” commented Carlo Zorzoli, Head of Business Development for Enel Green Power, “represents a further step forward in Enel Green Power's commitment to collaborating with operators interested in developing solutions for the use of green hydrogen in sectors where electrification is not possible, thus contributing to the energy transition process through the decarbonization of industrial activities.”

The two companies will evaluate the possibility of collaborating both in the supply of green hydrogen to naval, submarine and surface vessels, and to industrial users within the port area, including the design and

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construction of the necessary infrastructure elements, including storage, where necessary; and in the design and development of a system for the management of energy flows, including through the involvement of other companies from the respective groups.

Enel’s Eugenio Montale power plant in La Spezia (Liguria region) will be used as an initial test site for the activities covered by the agreement, thus launching a sustainable energy transition path for the site.

Laura Luigia Martini, CEO Business Advisor and Executive Vice President Corporate Business Development of Fincantieri, said, “The European goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 requires the creation of an industrial eco-system on which Fincantieri has been working concretely for some time through a series of operational agreements with the major Italian players for the realization of complex projects in a short time."

"In this way, we proactively respond not only to the community demands that States must comply with, but we also consolidate

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our leadership position in the process towards a more sustainable economy and society,” added Martini. Hydrogen can make a valuable contribution to the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries such as chemicals, aviation, maritime transport and non-electrified railways, provided it is produced in a sustainable manner. Enel Green Power states that it is committed to the creation and development of projects for the production and use of ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ hydrogen, derived from the electrolysis of water powered exclusively by renewable electricity. The group has started studying new business models that include the supply of green hydrogen for the decarbonization of industrial sectors, with partnerships and projects already being developed in Italy, Chile, the United States and Spain.

This MoU can successively undergo future binding agreements defined according to applicable rules and regulations, including those regarding operations between related parties, say the companies.

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Vestas to Supply 16 Turbines to 58 MW Wind Farm in NSW

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anish wind turbine maker Vestas and its partner Global Power Generation, a subsidiary of the multinational power company Naturgy Group, have secured a 58 MW deal for Crookwell 3 Wind Farm in New South Wales, Australia. The project will feature sixteen V126-3.45 MW wind turbines in 3.6 MW operating mode which Vestas will supply and install.

Built on the same proven technology as the V112-3.0 MW, the V126-3.45 MW IEC IIA/ IEC IIB operates on medium-wind sites.

Equipped with the industry known structural shell blades, the blades of the V126-3.45 MW turbine do not weigh more than those of the V112-3.0 MW. The 126 m rotor enables greater wind capture, which in turn produces more energy at a reduced cost. The result is exceptional profitability in areas with low wind, and new frontiers for wind energy investment, according to the company.

Upon completion, Vestas will also deliver a 15-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement. This agreement will optimise energy production while also providing long-term business case certainty.

“As the largest installer and maintainer of wind turbines, both globally and nationally, we are pleased that customers like Global Power Generation (Naturgy Group) continue to choose our leading technology, market experience and broad service solutions,” said Purvin Patel, President of Vestas Asia Pacific.

“Global Power Generation (Naturgy Group) is a globally valued customer to Vestas,” said Peter Cowling, Head of Vestas Australia and New Zealand. “We look forward to championing their ambitious vision of sustainability in Australia through the successful delivery of Crookwell 3 Wind Farm,

and our remaining projects which are currently in progress.”

“Once again, Global Power Generation is very pleased to partner with Vestas as OEM and long-term maintenance provider for Crookwell 3 Wind Farm,” said Pedro Serrano, Chief Business Development Officer, Global Power Generation (Naturgy Group).

Delivery of the wind turbines is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2022, with commissioning to commence in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Crookwell 3 Wind Farm is set to power approximately 40,000 homes and create around 95 jobs during its construction.

This project is located in the proximity of Crookwell 1 which was the first wind farm to be established in New South Wales when commissioned in 1998. Successfully operating today, the 5 MW project features 8 of Vestas’ V44-600 kW wind turbines.

SolarEdge Earns $431.5 M Revenues from Solar in Q2 FY21

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olarEdge, an Israel-headquartered photovoltaics company, has announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021. The company reported $431.5 million of revenues from the solar segment, up 39% from $310.1 million in the year-ago period.

“We are happy to finish the second quarter of 2021 with record revenues in both our solar and non-solar businesses and with continued strong demand for our products in the various geographies and across the different segments,” said Zvi Lando, Chief Executive Officer of SolarEdge.

The second quarter 2021 highlights are as follows: • Revenues of $480.1 million • Revenues from solar segment of $431.5 million • GAAP gross margin of 32.5% • Non-GAAP gross margin of 33.9% • Gross margin from solar segment of 37.4% • GAAP net income of $45.1 million • Non-GAAP net income of $72.5 million • GAAP net diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) of $0.82

• Non-GAAP net diluted EPS of $1.28 • 1.64 Gigawatts (AC) of inverters shipped “We are successfully navigating through the challenging supply chain environment while continuing to support our customers’ growth and expansion with new and existing products,” Lando added.

GAAP gross margin was down from 34.5% in the prior quarter and up from 31.0% in the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP gross margin was down from 36.5% in the prior quarter and up from 32.4% in the same quarter last year.

GAAP operating expenses were $100.6 million, up 5% from $95.9 million in the prior quarter and up 38% from $73.0 million in the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $81.5 million, up 7% from $76.2 million in the prior quarter and up 33% from $61.1 million in the same quarter last year.

GAAP operating income was $55.6 million, up 26% from $44.1 million in the prior quarter and up 85% from $30.0 million in the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP operating income was $81.3 million, up 13% from $71.9 million in the prior quarter and up 75% from

$46.6 million in the same quarter last year.

Cash flow from operating activities was $38.7 million, up from $24.1 million in the prior quarter and down from $59.3 million in the same quarter last year. As of June 30, 2021, cash, cash equivalents, bank deposits, restricted bank deposit and marketable securities totaled $509.3 million, net of debt, compared to $515.2 million on March 31, 2021.

SolarEdge also provides guidance for the third quarter ending September 30, 2021 as follows: •R evenues to be within the range of $520 million to $540 million •N on-GAAP gross margin expected to be within the range of 32% to 34% •R evenues from solar segment to be within the range of $460 million to $480 million •G ross margin from solar segment expected to be within the range of 35% to 37% The company hosted a conference call to discuss these results at 4:30 p.m. ET on Monday, August 2, 2021. A replay of the live webcast is available in the Investors Relations section of the company’s website at: http:// investors.solaredge.com.

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33 GW Pumped Hydro Storage Projects to be Set Up in Andhra Pradesh

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he Andhra Pradesh energy department will install Pumped Hydro Storage Power Projects (PSP), with 33.24 GW total capacity, across 1.45 lakh acres in Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur districts.

Energy secretary Srikant Nagulapalli believes these pumped hydro storage power will improve the power supply position in the state.

“These will enable the consumers to get quality power. It will also help promote industrialisation. Andhra Pradesh has also initiated go electric campaign to promote electric vehicles in the state. The nonconventional energy development corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP) has already established 109 charging stations. It will set up another 400 chargers across the state and along the national highways at every 25 kilometre distance,” he was quoted as saying.

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Srikant added that the state has introduced the concept of cost effective power. “It has become a role model for other states by saving Rs 2,342 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21. The Union ministry of power has also appreciated the AP power utilities for their sustained efforts to achieve savings and reduce burden on the discoms. The power utilities completed the agriculture feeder upgradation works with Rs 1,700 crore to supply free power during day time to more than 18 lakh agriculture pump sets."

"The power utilities have taken up special measures to reduce interruptions in power supply and provide quality power to consumers. As a result, the interruptions reduced to 1.77 lakh in 2020-21 from three lakh in 2019-20. Similarly, the average cost of service reduced to Rs 7.18 per unit in 2020-21 against Rs 7.23 in 2019-20,” said Srikant.

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In October last year, the Andhra Pradesh government announced its plan to set up seven PSPs, worth nearly 6300 MW, in order to promote new renewable energy power plants in the state. The PSP mode is likely to balance fluctuations in total input power from the existing renewable energy plants depending on solar and wind power stations. PSP projects will act as large-scale energy storage stations.

At the time, S Ramana Reddy, Managing Director of New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation (NREDC), said that PSP stations would be coming up at Gandikota (Kadapa), Chitravati (Ananthapuram), Somasila (Nellore), Owk (Kurnool), Kurukutti, Karrivalasa (Vizianagaram) and Yerravaram (Visakhapatnam).

“PSPs are commercially viable, commonly used and large-scale electricity storage technology,” Reddy had added.

SAUR ENERGY www.saurenergy.com www.saurenergy.com

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As Solar Takes Lead, Moment of Reckoning For Wind Energy

The Sun Rises

For Floating Solar

Floating Solar is Finally at the start of a long growth spurt in India.

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Lead Engineer – Tower Technology Vestas

Lead Engineer – EDGE Controls GE Renewable Energy

Vestas is proud to be the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service wind turbines across the globe, and we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Vestas strives to be the most inclusive workplace in the sustainable energy industry and ensure equal opportunities for everyone regardless of the social identity. We are stronger as a company not despite our differences, but because of them, both professionally and personally.

GE (NYSE:GE) rises to the challenge of building a world that works. For more than 125 years, GE has invented the future of industry, and today the company’s dedicated team, leading technology, and global reach and capabilities help the world work more efficiently, reliably, and safely.

GE’s people are diverse and dedicated, operating with the highest level of integrity and focus to fulfil GE’s mission and deliver for its customers.

Location: Chennai, India Job Description: Tower Module in Vestas Power Solutions is maintaining and developing the complete Vestas tower program. The tasks range from structural engineering over highly specialized FEM calculations, requirements specifications, DFMEA, test planning and execution to risk assessments and compilation of certification documentation. Tower Technology is a sub-department of Tower Module.

Essential Responsibilities: • Identifying & implementing new technology projects in design of towers, tower Internals and tower handling tools for wind turbines • Ensure technical policy making to secure progress in the projects and supervise technical reviews • Prioritize the technical team’s tasks based on the calculated impact to project targets Eligibility Criteria: • Bachelor/Master’s/PhD in Structural/Mechanical Engineering • Professional experience 5 -10 years. (Minimum relevant experience of 6 years).

• Experience in the design of steel/Concrete structures and for example diligently loaded structures.

Apply:https://careers.vestas.com/job/Chennai-Lead-Engineer-TowerTechnology-600119/695286101/

Location: Bengaluru, India Job Description: Systems engineering is a cross-functional engineering discipline centered on an approach, mindset, and process. All activities that consider both the business and the technical needs of the customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the users needs. The discipline that executes a robust process of design, creation, and optimization of systems, consisting of identification and quantification of system requirements, creation of alternate system design concepts, performance of design trade studies, selection and implementation of the best designs and verification that the design is properly integrated and executed.

Essential Responsibilities: • Design analytics / optimization algorithm in C / C++ / C# / Python (primary) code, as well as consolidate test case for functional and system level testing.

• Verify & validate implementation of new apps/algorithms by executing test cases either via simulation or remote testing on actual customer turbines.

Eligibility Criteria: • Master / Bachelor Degree in Electrical / Controls / Mechatronics Engineering with Renewable Energy Emphasis preferred.

• 5-6 years of experience in software development (Python, C, C++, C#) testing, validation, and deployment.

• 2-3 years of experience relevant to wind turbine systems, service, Predix App development or Control system design..

Apply: https://jobs.gecareers.com/renewableenergy/global/en/ apply/1/1?jobSeqNo=GE11GLOBALR3589764EXTERNALENGLOBAL

Senior Technician / Engineer -Mechanical-Mott MacDonald Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management and development consultancy focused on guiding our clients through many of the planet’s most intricate challenges. Our network of experts, active in 150 countries, finds opportunities in complexity, turning obstacles into elegant, sustainable solutions. By looking at problems from a fresh angle, we aim to add value at every stage, for our clients – you – and the lives you touch every day. Improvement is at the heart of what we offer: better economic development, better social and environmental outcomes, better businesses, and a better return on your investment.

Location: Bangalore, India.

Job Description: • Model building and drawings of building

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services elements.

• Basic design calculations.

• Quantities take off based design drawings.

• Carrying out checking of drawings.

• Coordination between other MEP disciplines, Plumbing services.

• Work within time limits to complete deliverables on time.

Essential Responsibilities: •A gile and safe working environment.

•C ompetitive annual leave and sick leaves.

•G roup incentive scheme.

•G roup term life insurance, Workmen’s compensation and Group medical insurance coverage.

•S hort and Long-term Global employment

opportunities.

Eligibility Criteria: • Be a Diploma /graduation in Mechanical/ Refrigeration and AC or equivalent in respective engineering discipline.

• Be proficient in drafting of HVAC systems, plant room layout, sections etc.

• Have relevant years of experience in the field of design.

• Have good experience in relevant design software such as Auto CAD, REVIT and IT literacy.

• Good communication skills and a professional attitude towards work , be a team player and have multi-disciplinary coordination skills.

Apply: https://www.mottmac.com/job/68531

September 2021

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