Saurenergy International Magazine January Issue 2020

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SAUR ENERGY

JANUARY 2020 | Rs. 200

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

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Clean Energy

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Easy Financing Tracking The Latest Hurdles To Raising Funding For Solar Developers In India

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FROM THE EDITOR

SAUR ENERGY I N T E R N A T I O N A L GROUP EDITOR PRASANNA SINGH prasanna@meilleurmedia.com DIRECTOR MARKETING PRATEEK KAPOOR prateek@meilleurmedia.com

EDITOR 2020 has got off to a hopeful start, and it's not just because of the budget on February 1 from which hpes are indeed MANAS NANDI very high. The big one is for yet another attempt to manas@meilleurmedia.com unravel the many knots in India's power sector. The ADITYA scheme seems to be far more ambitious and ASSOCIATE EDITOR better planned than the UDAY scheme, going by MANU TAYAL what we have heard so far. Importantly, if it delivers, manu@meilleurmedia.com it promises to bring much needed clarity to the renewables roadmap too, where Discom fragility STAFF WRITER has been the biggest stumbling block in both policy AYUSH VERMA making and the situation on the ground. editorial@meilleurmedia.com One of the issues with the same policy, always MANAGER- MEDIA SOLUTION well meaning but repeatedly failing to achieve GIRISH MISHRA its objectives, is the amendment last year that girish.mishra@meilleurmedia.com sought to lock in project developers for 3 years with renewable plants. Noone seems to be DESIGN HEAD happy about this, and this seems to have SANDEEP KUMAR added just one more obstacle for developers, when it comes to raising funding support. It WEB DEVELOPMENT MANAGER also risks concentrating the industry at the JITENDER KUMAR top end, as smaller developers face a wall of distrust, poor policy implementation WEB PRODUCTION and cash crunch.

BALVINDER SINGH Elsewhere, we start this issue with a more detailed coverage of relevant orders SUBSCRIPTIONS from state regulatory commissions, KULDEEP GUSAIN to better understand the thinking at subscription@meilleurmedia.com state level. We hope you will enjoy the extra dimension it brings, and Saur Energy International is printed, published, edited and owned by Manas Nandi and look forward to your feedback as published from 303, 2nd floor, Neelkanth Palace, Plot No- 190, Sant Nagar,East of Kailash, New Delhi- 110065 ever.

(INDIA),Printed at Pearl Printers, C-105, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi.

Prasanna Singh prasanna@meilleurmedia.com

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.

CONTENT PAGE

29

MANISH GUPTA Managing Director Insolation Energy

36

18

BRIJESH PRAJAPATI

MANAGING DIRECTOR – INDIA SOFARSOLAR

BOSON ROBOTICS SEES OPPORTUNITY IN INDIA

COVER STORY

20

CLEAN ENERGY FLUNKS THE EASY FINANCING TEST POLICY

08 MNRE Clarifies on Implementation of PMKUSUM Scheme

06

JANUARY 2020

Maharashtra Issues Rooftop Solar Net Metering Regulations SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

MARKET

40 Sharp Drop in Solar Installations in China After Policy Change Renewable Investments up 1% YoY in 2019, India Drops 14% Global Offshore Capacity to Reach 142 GW by 2030: Report

CONTENT PAGE

PROJECTS

OPINION

50 Waaree Breathes Easy: Gets MERC Approval for 184MW Project MSEDCL Retenders for Procurement of 1350 MW Solar Power

EV

56 Can Surplus Renewables Production in West Rajasthan Build A Big Battery?

Will ADITYA Succeed Where UDAY failed?

MILESTONE

FINANCE

26

31

44

Delhi Cabinet Clears EV Policy for 5 Lakh Vehicles by 2024

Growatt now the Top Supplier of Rooftop Inverters in India

Sterling and Wilson Solar Pays Rs 1000 cr in Outstanding Loans

EESL Signs MoU to Promote E-Mobility in South India

Tata Power Solar Keeps Top EPC Spot in Rooftop Solar Segment

Renewable Energy Certificates Sales Down 10% in December VOL 4 l ISSUE 05 | SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL

07

JANUARY 2020

POLICY UPDATES

MNRE Clarifies on Implementation of PM-KUSUM Scheme After clarification sought by the implementing agencies on certain issues, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued a clarification on the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) Scheme.

As per the MNRE notification, the distribution companies (Discoms) can, if they desire so, pass on the Procurement Based Incentive (PBI) given to them by the Central Government under component-A of the scheme, to the renewable energy power plant owner to get more competitive tariff of renewable energy power under the scheme.

Secondly, implementing agencies, if they desire so, can invite a single bid

under component-A of the scheme on the basis of pre-fixed levelised tariff for installation of renewable energy power plants for all distribution sub-stations in the state/Discom area. However, adequate measures should be taken to ensure

transparency and objectivity for allocating capacity to applicants. Further, in case the applications are received for capacity that is more than capacity available for injection at a particular distribution substation, a transparent methodology may be adopted for allocation of capacity in such cases, it further said.

Finally, regarding availability of Central Financial Assistance (CFA) for solarisations of pumps of capacity above 7.5 HP under component-C of the scheme, it is again clarified that solarisation of pumps of capacity higher than 7.5 HP is also allowed, however, the CFA in such cases would be limited to the CFA applicable for pumps of capacity 7.5 HP in the respective state/UTs.

ICRA Revises Outlook from Railways Land for 500 MW Stable to Negative for RE Sector Solar Plants For Energy Needs

08 JANUARY 2020

On the back of delays in both payments from Discoms and execution of projects, credit rating agency ICRA has revised the year-end outlook for India’s renewable energy (RE) sector from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’.

According to the rating agency, country’s renewable energy sector is facing headwinds due to long pending payments by the state Discoms (power distribution companies), difficulties in land acquisition and timely financing for projects, delay in projects during last 2 years and securing transmission connectivity. On the challenges front, ICRA is not expecting growth in the capacity addition in FY2020 and it will remain at about 8.5-9.0 GW similar to FY2019. Sabyasachi Majumdar, Group Head & Senior Vice President – Corporate ratings at ICRA, said that “the headwinds related to payment delays, uncertainty over resolution of tariff issue for projects in Andhra Pradesh, as well as execution and financing related challenges for under-construction projects have impacted investor sentiments in the sector.”

Majumdar further added that “this is reflected from the slowdown in tendering of wind and solar PV projects by 37 per cent to 10.6 GW in 9 months CY2019 from 16.7 GW in the corresponding period of the previous year. Moreover, many of bids called by central nodal agencies remained under-subscribed.”

As per the ICRA report, the capacity addition in FY20 will be primarily driven by the solar power segment. However, compared to 5.6 percent in FY15, the share of renewable energy-based generation in the overall generation mix at pan India level is rising, as seen from an increase to 9.2 percent in FY2019.

SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

The railways will offer its vacant land to install 500-megawatt solar power plants to meet its energy needs, Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav has said. This is in addition to the railways’ aim of installing 500 MW solar power plants and about 200-MW wind plants by 2021-22 across its zones and production units (PUs).

The 500-MW solar power plants will be installed atop roofs of railway buildings through the PPP (public-private partnership) mode with 25-year agreements and used to meet the nontraction loads at railway stations.

“As a pilot project for the land-based power plants, a threemegawatt plant has already been installed at MCF, Raebareli, while in Bhilai, a 50-MW plant on a 300-acre vacant railway land has been awarded by the Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL) and it is under progress with targeted commissioning by March 2021.

“These plants will reduce carbon emissions and carbon footprints. Sixteen stations have been declared ‘Green’ railway stations across IR, which are meeting their energy needs completely either through solar or by wind,” Yadav said. He also said work was underway for about 111-MW solar plants and tenders for 93-MW solar plants were recently floated by REMCL. Tenders for 45-MW rooftop solar capacity have also been floated by REMCL and is due for opening on January 27, 2020. The balance 154 MW is under different stages of planning, Yadav said.

In addition to the land-based solar projects, IR has also taken up two pilot projects for feeding solar power directly to 25 KV AC traction system — the Diwana Solar Plant Project and the Bina Solar Project.

POLICY UPDATES

MNRE Drafts Scheme for Round-the-Clock Supply of RE The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued a new draft policy for the supply of round-theclock (RTC) power from renewable energy (solar, wind or small hydro) power projects. The power will be complemented with thermal power projects as and when needed.

The ministry has now requested stakeholders like the Ministry of Power, SECI, NTPC, CEA, CERC, PGCIL, POSOCO, RE Associations and state governments and their Discoms to provide comments/ feedback on the subject draft scheme.

The idea behind the implementation of the scheme is to address the biggest issue with large scale uptake of clean energy – intermittency. Solar and wind energy are not available throughout the day severely limiting their use in

modern grids. To address the issues of intermittency, limited hours of supply and low capacity utilisation of transmission infrastructure, the ministry has come up with the process of reverse bundling, wherein high-cost thermal power is being allowed to be bundled with cheaper renewable energy.

“The main objective of the scheme is to provide RTC power to the Discoms

through the bundling of renewable power with thermal power and to scale up renewable capacity additions. It will also facilitate fulfilment of the renewable purchase obligation (RPO) requirement of the obligated entities,” the ministry has issued.

With the implementation of the scheme the main beneficiaries of the scheme, the Discoms will be able to meet their RPO obligations and the will also be able to purchase firm power at competitive rates to meet their deficits or replace costly power. The distribution companies will not have to undertake operations to integrate renewable power into the grid since the responsibility of giving firm power will be with the Generator and they may further save due to optimum scheduling of power among the sources.

Maharashtra Issues Rooftop Solar Net Metering Regulations The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has issued new regulations for the net metering for rooftop solar systems in the state. The regulations will be implemented once it is published in the official gazette.

The regulation will apply to net metering and net billing arrangements (gross metering), and grid-connected renewable energy generating systems (REGS) tied to the consumer’s meter.

As per the new regulations, the netmetering arrangement or net billing arrangement will be permitted by the Discoms on a non-discriminatory, ‘first come, first serve’ basis to eligible consumers who have already installed or are likely to install a REGS connected to the network of the Discom.

The cumulative capacity of all renewable systems under net metering or net billing arrangement connected to a distribution transformer of the Discom should not exceed 70 percent of its rated capacity.

The commissions latest regulations also state that the Discoms should update the distribution transformer-wise capacity available and the cumulative capacity of the renewable systems installed under net metering arrangements on its website

every quarter. As for the technical arrangements, the minimum size of the system that can be set up under net metering or net billing arrangements is 1 kW. The maximum size of installation allowed will depend on the cumulative capacity of the distribution transformer, which has already been utilised.

However, high tension (HT) consumers

can install and connect the renewable systems at their low tension (LT) bus bar systems. In such cases, the net meter will be installed on the HT side of the consumer’s transformer. Meanwhile, the eligible consumer can install or enhance the capacity of renewable energy generating systems at different locations within the same premises.

VOL 4 l ISSUE 05 | SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL

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JANUARY 2020

POLICY UPDATES

Cabinet Approves MoU With Saudi Arabia for Cooperation in RE The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of the Government of India and the Ministry of Energy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for cooperation in the field of Renewables.

The MoU aims at setting up a framework for cooperation between the two parties in the field of renewable energy in the following areas:• Upgrading the level of technologies and their applications in the field of renewable energy.

• Contributing to the field of renewable energy to raise its efficiency in the national energy combination in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

• D eveloping the renewable energy projects in solar, wind, biogas, geothermal and other fields of renewable energy.

• Development and localisation of value chain in the field of renewable energy.

• Developing and boosting uses of solar

energy small applications for buildings, homes and others.

Recently, Minister of State for New & Renewable Energy and Power, RK Singh had said that India will need an investment in the region of approximately Rs 4 lakh crore to achieve the balance target of its ambitious 175 GW renewable energy generation capacity by 2022 target.

In response to a question raised in the

Rajya Sabha, the minister said that the Government has set a target for installing 175 GW of Renewable Energy capacity by the year 2022 which includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from Biomass and 5 GW from Small Hydro. And that a cumulative renewable energy capacity of 83.38 GW has already been installed in the country up to October 2019.

Chattisgarh Issues Tariff Regulations for RE Projects

10

JANUARY 2020

The Chattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (CSERC) has issued the regulations specifying the terms and conditions of tariff for renewable energy sources for the purpose of sale of power to Discoms in the state. These Regulations will be called the CSERC – (Terms and conditions for determination of generation tariff and related matters for electricity generated by plants based renewable energy sources) Regulations, 2019.

And will come into force from April 1, 2019, and shall remain in force for a period of 3 years from the date of commencement.

The regulations shall apply to the Renewable Energy projects, achieving commercial date of operation (COD) from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2022, and are located in the state and supplying entire power to Discom(s) of the state on a long term basis.

Following projects achieving COD after April 1, 2019, shall be eligible under these regulations: • Wind power project • Hydro project – I • Large Hydro Projects (LHP) above 25 MW • Biomass power project based on Rankine cycle technology • Non-fossil fuel-based co-generation project • Solar PV, Solar Thermal Power Projects, Solar rooftop PV systems and small Solar power projects SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

• Municipal solid waste (MSW) based power projects • Refuse derived fuel (RDF) based power projects The commission has stated that it will also determine the generic preferential tariff in the case of small hydro, solar PV, and cogeneration power projects at the beginning of each year of the control period. Furthermore, as per its new regulations, the commission said it would determine generic tariffs only for solar PV projects ranging between 0.5 MW to 2 MW and 2 MW to 5 MW in capacity.

POLICY UPDATES

MERC Approves Tariff of Rs 2.90/kWh in 500 MW Solar Tender The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) in its latest order has approved the tariff discovered by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) for the long term procurement of 500 MW power from Intra-State solar power projects for meeting the Solar Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO).

MSEDCL had filed the petition on December 26, 2019, making the following prayers: a) To accord approval for adoption of tariff for 500 MW solar power as discovered through Competitive bidding and the same to be made eligible for meeting the Solar RPO requirement of MSEDCL. b) To accord approval for signing of PPA with successful bidders at discovered tariff.

In its case, the state Discom had submitted that it is is trying to fulfill the shortfall in its Solar RPO target by way of purchase of solar Renewable Energy Certificates (REC). However, considering the existing shortfall and future RPO targets, it needs to

procure additional RE power for fulfilment of its RPO targets.

In its findings the commission stated that, MSEDCL had conducted transparent process of competitive bidding for procurement of Solar power and discovered Tariff of Rs 2.89 and Rs 2.90 per unit.

In its order the MERC stated that, “In view of above, the Commission opines that the discovered rate of Rs. 2.89 – 2.90 per

unit is generally as per the existing market realities for the Solar Project being setup in Maharashtra. Further, in line with the mandate under Section 63 of the EA, the Commission deems it fit to adopt the tariff and approves discovered Tariff by MSEDCL for procurement of 500 MW of Solar power on long term basis (for the period of 25 years) from grid connected Solar projects for meeting its Solar RPO.”

MERC Declines Adani Plea on RE Pricing for Mumbai The Maharashtra Electricity Regulation Commission, in its order dated January 8 has disposed of the plea by Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) on tariff for the renewable energy it planned to purchase to meet the city’s RPO obligations and broader energy needs.

The plea by AEML, which pitched for sourcing 700 MW of RE power from a Hybrid renewable arrangement, at a price of Rs 3.35 per unit was notable for the structuring and assumptions behind the proposal. From a CUF (capacity utilisation factor) of 50 percent to the setup in Rajasthan for the proposed 1300 MW of power (650Solar + 650 Wind), it was finally disposed of by the MERC after a detailed explanation of its reasons.

While the detailed order is available at the MERC site, the key question that will be considered here is whether the regulator is playing it too safe by shrinking from a slightly higher price despite what seems

to be a very innovative option from AEML. Or alternately, perhaps it is skeptical of the claims, and actually wants to take out the possibility of future appeals to amend its approvals?

We should have the answer to these questions in the next few months, but it

is clear that whatever emerges here, it will be an interesting solution indeed. Of course, if its own firm Rosepetal Energy ‘agrees’ to the lower price of Rs 3.24 proposed by the MERC, then all bets are off on the next step. watch this space for the Rosepetal response.

VOL 4 l ISSUE 05 | SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL

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JANUARY 2020

POLICY UPDATES

KERC favours BESCOM in Tariff Dispute With Emmvee Solar In an order that was published earlier, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission has ruled to dismiss a petition by Emmvee Solar Systems, against BESCOM (Bangaloire Electricity Supply Company Limited).

The key issue was Emmvee Solar's contention that by denying it a tariff of Rs 9.56 as per the PPA it signed with BESCOM on 27.02.2016, it had been subjected to a financial loss, at the proposed tariff of Rs 5.20 per unit.

The new tariff of Rs 5.20 was invoked by BESCOM on discovering that the petitioner (Emmvee Solar) had taken more than the 6 months allowed at the time of signing the PPA to have the system up and running. Emmvee on the other hand had contended that the original letter from BESCOM had mentioned a time period of 12 months for execution, within which it did complete the project. The bone of contention? The fact that the one year allowance was a mistake by BESCOM, which it had subsequently corrected on its website as well as all other agreements it entered into.

Importantly, BESCOM , it seems agreed to a one year time frame on the assumption that the building was under construction, and not a functioning building with a ready rooftop. Its a point the commission stressed on, and even stated that Emmvee could have got corrected at the signing stage itself.

The commission noted that the petitioner could not have been unaware of the mistake, and their contention that BESCOM never contacted them or informed them during the course of construction about the change, could not be considered.

It also used a very interesting piece of information to put down the contention of financial losses.

As can be seen by the workings above, the commission declared that the loan amount, and the actual disbursal prove that the actual loss to Emmvee was not significant,

further weakening their case of financial losses.

While this order lays to rest this small case for 1 MW, it also highlights the criticality of correct paperwork, and an understanding of specific issues like what is actually considered a completed project. For example, till formal inspection and certification by the Chief Electrical Inspector, the work completion report is not considered complete.

Industry insiders will also look back with some nostalgia at the rates that existed just 5 years ago, and their current state. To think that even Rs 5.20 was a rate being offered as recently as 4 years ago for net metering will always make people wonder just what could have been. Of course, it also serves to remind us that in India, the benefits of government support have been pulled back with incredible alacrity, just when the industry was scaling up rapidly, with consequences that are all too visible. Of course, the interest of consumers has been quoted ad nauseum by everyone to justify this, but the fact remains, as compared to markets in China and Europe, acchhe din came and went too fast for the sector.

For Emmvee, clearly the deal that got away.

NSEFI Petitions to the Govt Against NTPC’s Tender Conditions

12

JANUARY 2020

State-owned NTPC's refusal to exempt small and medium enterprises from earnest money deposits (EMD) for its solar power tender has riled an association of the solar energy industry which has now petitioned the government seeking its intervention. The National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI)— an umbrella organisation representing solar energy companies -- on January 7, 2019, wrote to Nitin Gadkari, minister for micro, small and medium enterprises, seeking his intervention in issuing a direction to NTPC to abide with the government policy of not seeking tender fee from MSMEs as well as exempting them from payment of earnest money deposit.

It said NTPC is not exempting MSMEs from SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

payment of earnest money for bidding for its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender for 923 MW solar projects, costing an estimated Rs 5,000 crore. In the letter, the association said the Narendra Modi government had in June 2016 brought Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act with an aim to facilitate the promotion, development and enhancing the competitiveness of MSMEs. The present provisions provide for providing MSMEs "tenders sets free of cost" as well as exempting them "from payment of earnest money", it said. "With the various preferential business-conducive provisions of the Act, it is bound to give the Make in India concept a much-needed stimulus

by promoting the participation of MSMEs in building public infrastructure.”

The Federation said NPTC in the tender dated December 3, 2019, for development of grid-connected solar PV project has "not yet allowed this incentive of exemption in furnishing earnest money deposit (EMD) for the tender.” This despite the provision of the MSME Act being brought to NTPC's notice, it added.

"We request your kind intervention and request your office to kindly issue suitable clarifications to NTPC, enabling MSME registered companies to submit their bid with the exemption of EMD," it said in the letter which was also marked to the Prime Minister and Power Minister, RK Singh.

INNOVATION UPDATES

IBM Research Discovers new Battery That Could Trump Li-ion IBM Research is building on a long history of materials science innovation to unveil a new battery discovery. This new research could help eliminate the need for heavy metals in battery production and transform the long-term sustainability of many elements of our energy infrastructure.

As battery-powered alternatives for everything from vehicles to smart energy grids are explored, there remain significant concerns around the sustainability of available battery technologies.

Many battery materials, including heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt, pose tremendous environmental and humanitarian risks. Cobalt in particular, which is largely available in central Africa, has come under fire for careless and exploitative extraction practices.

Using three new and different proprietary materials, which have never before been recorded as being combined in a battery, the team at IBM Research has discovered chemistry for a new battery that does not use heavy metals or other substances with sourcing concerns.

Just as promising as this new battery’s

composition is its performance potential.

In initial tests, it proved it can be optimised to surpass the capabilities of lithiumion batteries in a number of individual categories including lower costs, faster charging time, higher power and energy density, strong energy efficiency and low flammability.

New battery design could outperform lithium-ion across several sustainable technologies. Discovered in IBM

Research’s Battery Lab, this design uses cobalt and nickel-free cathode material, as well as a safe liquid electrolyte with a high flash point. This unique combination of the cathode and electrolyte demonstrated an ability to suppress lithium metal dendrites during charging, thereby reducing flammability, which is widely considered a significant drawback for the use of lithium metal as an anode material.

Chemist Finds Way to Produce new Materials for Solar Panels

14

JANUARY 2020

A chemist from RUDN University has synthesised new types of optically active materials with the structure of the mineral perovskite. Proposing an environmentally friendly, fast and easily reproducible mechanochemical method, which allows obtaining hybrid materials of high purity, promising for the creation of solar cells.

In the article published in the journal Nanoscale. The research reveals that the vast majority of organo-inorganic hybrid materials used today in solar power are three-dimensional perovskitelike semiconductors that contain lead in their structure. However, the use of such materials creates problems due to their toxicity. Double perovskites, or “elpasolites,” can serve as a convenient alternative that would help avoid using toxic lead.

To date, many of the theoretically predicted structures of double perovskites SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

have not been synthesised due to a number of problems, such as the formation of stable by-products, for example, cesium, bromine, and antimony compounds, which prevented the reaction from being completed. Rafael Luque, the Director of the scientific center at the Joint Institute for Chemical Research of RUDN University, and his colleagues

used the methods of “green chemistry” to synthesise three double perovskites: Cs2AgBiBr6, MA2TlBiBr6, and Cs2AgSbBr6.

The chemists used the mechanochemical approach, that is, high-energy grinding, which does not require the use of organic solvents, and therefore is more environmentally friendly. The authors of the article demonstrated that low temperature is a critical parameter in the process of synthesis in a ball mill because it eliminates the formation of side compounds.

The research also revealed that the structure and the phase and elemental composition of the obtained perovskites were confirmed by physicochemical analysis methods. Thermal stability was also evaluated. It was shown that the synthesised materials are stable at high temperatures, from 300 to 500 degrees Celsius.

INNOVATION UPDATES

Bifiacials Generate 15-20% More-New Thermodynamic Formula Double-sided solar cells are already enabling panels to sit vertically on land or rooftops and even horizontally as the canopy of a gas station, but it hasn’t been known exactly how much electricity these panels could ultimately generate or the money they could save.

But now, a new thermodynamic formula reveals that the bifacial cells making up double-sided panels generate on average 15 percent to 20 percent more sunlight to electricity than the monofacial cells of today’s one-sided solar panels, taking into consideration different terrain such as grass, sand, concrete and dirt.

The formula, developed by two Purdue University physicists, can be used for calculating in minutes the most electricity that bifacial solar cells could generate in a variety of environments, as defined by a thermodynamic limit.

“The formula involves just a simple triangle, but distilling the extremely complicated physics problem to this elegantly simple formulation required years of modeling and research. This triangle will help companies make better decisions on investments in next-generation solar cells

and figure out how to design them to be more efficient,” said Muhammad “Ashraf” Alam, Purdue’s Jai N. Gupta Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Alam and co-author Ryyan Khan, now an assistant professor at East West University in Bangladesh, also show how

the formula can be used to calculate the thermodynamic limits of all solar cells developed in the last 50 years. These results can be generalised to technology likely to be developed over the next 20 to 30 years.

The hope is that these calculations would help solar farms to take full advantage of bifacial cells earlier in their use.

Stanford Scientists Develop new Plan to Achieve 100% RE A team of scientist from Stanford University have outlined new steps that 143 countries around the world can take to attain 100 percent clean, renewable energy by the year 2050. The roadmap, published in the journal One Earth, uses the latest energy data available in each country to offer more precise guidance on how to reach those commitments.

It comes ten years after the publication by scientists of the first plan for powering the world with wind, water, and solar.

Mark Z. Jacobson from Stanford University and his team focussed on low-cost, stable grid solutions in 24 world regions encompassing the 143 countries. They project that transitioning to clean, renewable energy could reduce worldwide energy needs by 57 percent, create 28.6 million more jobs than are lost, and reduce energy, health, and climate costs by 91 percent compared with a business-as-usual analysis.

The new roadmap makes use of updated data about how each country’s energy use is changing, acknowledges lower costs and greater availability of renewable energy and storage technology. It includes new countries in its analysis and accounts for recently built clean, renewable infrastructure in some countries.

“There are a lot of countries that have committed to doing

something to counteract the growing impacts of global warming, but they still don’t know exactly what to do,” said Jacobson. The roadmap calls for the electrification of all energy sectors, for increased energy efficiency leading to reduced energy use, and for the development of wind, water, and solar infrastructure that can supply 80 percent of all power by 2030 and 100 percent of all power by 2050.

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GRID UPDATES

Power Demand Peaks As Delhi Breaks 119 Year Record As Delhi grapples with one of its coldest winters in over 119 years the Tata Power Delhi Distribution (Tata Power-DDL) has announced that it has successfully met the record peak power demand of 1541 MW without any network constraint and power outage as the capital also touched a record high of 5298 MW, highest till date. The previous highest demand of Delhi was 4800 MW and 1433 in the TATA Power-DDL area in January 2019.

The company is expecting the peak demand to breach 1600 MW mark this season and has made long-term power tie-ups for meeting the same and has ensured reliability of its equipment at these low temperatures and foggy conditions.

A total of 1700 MW of power is available from long–term sources with the company which would help in meeting the peak demand effectively.

“At Tata Power-DDL we are fully committed to ensuring warm and safe winters to our consumers, we have made surplus power arrangements over and above the expected peak demand to cater to contingencies. Besides this, we

are using a mix of technologies such as hotline washing using water jets and also techniques such as AI & Machine Learning for better load forecasting to provide reliable power supply,” said Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO, Tata Power-DDL. The firm announced that its power-supply arrangements during the winter-months

include long–term agreements from power-plants like Maithon Power, NTPC Stations, and Delhi based gas-fueled generating stations. Additionally, the company will also be receiving around 20 MW from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and 80 MW from SunEdison GreenKo.

TERI Develops Blockchain-Enabled Prototype for Solar Trading

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The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has announced that it has developed a platform to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions of solar energy among consumers in the same neighbourhood. The prototype which utilises blockchain for execution of the trading can be used to sell the surplus power generated by an individual’s rooftop solar power plant to their neighbours directly from the smartphone, and at a rate more than what they are currently compensated for. Not only this, it also provides an option to sell it back to your power distribution company. The platform has been developed as a prototype for enabling a peer-to-peer transactional control in which electricity consumers such as residential premises, malls, schools, or even small and medium enterprises can trade local power generation from rooftop solar plants among themselves. The prototype is empowered by blockchain technology that ensures security, transparency and efficiency in the transactions that will take place among consumers.

TERI has developed this prototype in partnership with Sofocle Technologies Limited, a blockchain and IoT start-up in Noida.

The objective of this prototype is to demonstrate the concept of energy trading among rooftop solar plant owners so as to facilitate the development of local electricity markets. This in turn will promote the adoption of rooftop solar PV systems, SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

particularly in the residential consumer segment, as it will incentivise consumers by providing additional incentives of trading among themselves, in addition to selling to the distribution utility. India aims to install 40,000 MW of electricity capacity from rooftop based solar plants by 2022. The growth among residential consumers has been slow in comparison to the commercial and industrial segments.

POINT OF VIEW

What are your key expectations you hope will be addressed in New Year?

Aspirations of solar industry are also rising in this New Year, as the year gone by was filled with many challenges which resulted into slowing down the speed of growth of the solar industry as compared to the previous years. Here’re some expectations of the industry stakeholders that they wish will be fulfilled in the coming year:

Priyanka Mohan Managing Director KOR Energy

“I am deeply concerned about climate change. Solar energy and solar battery storage only to the extent that they make financial sense for homeowners. Because of shading, insufficient space and ownership issues many homes are unfit for solar panels. May in future, government introduce shared solar, homeowners can subscribe to “community solar gardens” and generate solar electricity without actually having solar panels on their own rooftops. As everyone knows climate change is expected to have major impacts in India. Disrupting rainfall patterns and increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, increasing pollution is making this problem worst. People should take initiative to use more and more Recyclable products, stop using single use plastic.

Education is another way to make people aware specially youth and adults related to climate crisis, pollution of water and land will encourage individuals and communities to change attitude and behavior towards it. Power your home with renewable energy and people start taking initiative to invest in energy efficient appliances to save energy for generation. Obviously reduce water wastage. Eat healthy to remain fit and fabulous.”

“In the new year, I hope to see deeper penetration for electromobility when it comes to last mile delivery, as well as passenger travel. The government should aid this by encouraging more innovation amongst home grown companies in this sector. I also hope to see further large scale adoption for energy storage for renewable energy, as well as a concerted effort for new public transportation infrastructure which can run on natural gas and clean fuels. All these steps should fit in well with the government need to work towards a greener, cleaner future.”

Shival Garg

Head Strategy and Business Development, Patanjali Renewable Energy

Akshay Kashyap

Founder and Managing Director, GreenFuel Energy Solutions

“This year we will be more aggressive in our approach to spread Patanjali Renewable as a renowned brand in the energy sector. We expect government to be aggressive too in their approach with some encouraging policies and robust framework, as we are lacking behind in our Renewable Energy target of 175 GW by 2022. Our modus operandi for year 2020 will include: • Expanding our distribution network to every state of India.

• Targeting specific government schemes (SKY, KUSUM, SMART CITIES and other agricultural based tenders).

• Setting up Channel partners to target big project leads.

• Adding 2-3 new product lines, complementing our existing product range.

To summarise, we are targeting to touch Rs 200 crore milestone for this year and making sure that Patanjali Renewable gets acknowledged not only for its brand name, but also for its quality products and services.”

-MANU@MEILLEURMEDIA.COM VOL 4 l ISSUE 05 | SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL

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THE CONVERSATION

BRIJESH PRAJAPATI Managing Director – India, Sofarsolar WE ARE PLANNING TO ENTER INTO EV CHARGER MARKET IN INDIA

We are also entering in the Indian market with our new and innovative EV Charger products. For this, our discussions are already going on with some reputed Indian companies about EV Charger concept. In my opinion, EV Segment and Li-ion battery products have very good scope in the Indian market. So, we are very optimistic about EV segment business in India as a future scope, says Brijesh Prajapati, Managing Director – India, Sofarsolar, China based one of the leading solar &hybird inverter manufacturers. In conversation with Manu Tayal, Associate Editor, Saur Energy International, Prajapati shared about his company’s journey into the renewable space in India, product offerings, targets in the New Year, future expansion plans etc.

Following are the excerpts from that exclusive interview

Q

Tell our readers about Sofarsolar’s journey in the renewable space, its various business verticals? What market share you enjoy in India?

Sofarsolar is part of the Sofar Group, a highly diversified company enjoying No.1 position in the GPS business.

Sofar Group has been in the communications and renewable energy fields since 2007 and then entered the photovoltaic (PV) inverter business in 2012 with the establishment of Sofarsolar.

Our specialities include research & development (R&D), production, sales and service of grid-tied inverters. In order to support the current growth of Indian PV market, we have recently taken steps to strengthen our business position in the country and have setup a new office and leadership. Also, we are confident that our new range of compact inverters will help us carve a special space for our products in India.

Q

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How do you see year 2019 for Sofarsolar in terms of projects, revenue, growth etc?

We are enjoying “Top Positioning” market in Gujarat, Punjab-Haryana, Maharashtra and Chennai-Kerala.

Now we are also focusing on North India and NorthEast India region.

Sofarsolar has consistently won the ‘Most Selling Inverters’ in Gujarat under GEDA (Gujarat Energy Development Agency) rooftop policy. In other states also we have built our strong installation base and service support.

We are well positioned to become a major player in the commercial rooftop and utility-scale PV installations.

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I would like to highlight here that Sofarsolar with largest installation secured top position in the SKY Project (KUSUM Yojana) Scheme in Gujarat, India. Sofar inverters have been installed in farms under SKY Project (Surya Kisan Yojana) initiative of the Gujarat Government at different feeders covering Gujarat region.

Q

What are the targets that you have set for the New Year? Do you believe your success is tied completely to rooftop solar growth?

Since 2016, we have supplied solar inverter systems of more than 350 MW of capacity in India through earning our customers support and trust. We have a very long vision business road map for the current and future sales growth.

In 2019, our

THE CONVERSATION

projection was to supply Sofar inverters of more than 250 MW capacity and with the Client-Business partner support we almost crossed the target. In 2020, Sofarsolar is having a very aggressive plan with new agenda for business expansion with new and innovative products. Besides, we are also working on some up-gradation on current products. We have good installations in the rooftop market and also last year our business increased particularly in the rooftop segment.

Rooftop is a very huge market in India and government is also very supportive on the rooftop subsidy policy.

rooftop solar segment. Sofar is also among the top 5 String inverter manufacturers in China and specialized in the ongrid string inverters since 2012, with a wide range from 1 KW to 70 KW. Also we are among the leading storage solution providers in India, including AC retrofitting storage inverter and hybrid inverter.

Till now Sofar has secured many Certifications - IEC 61727 / 62116 / 61683 / 60068 / 62109 /61000 /60255/ IP65 / EN 50530. Our BIS Certification is also under process.

Q

With the expected boom in the electric vehicles market Shed some light on your latest product offerings for the in India in coming years, do you see an opportunity Indian market in terms of technology? for Sofarsolar here?

In order to cater to the Indian Market we have established Sofar Group has multiple businesses in China and we are “Sofarsolar India Pvt. Ltd” and our Marketing and Service a continuously growing company. We have variety of Centre is in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Our range of grid-tied products in our basket including New Energy Automobile inverters includes 1 KW to 6 KW in single phase and 3 KW (Supercharger). It’s a new innovation and revolution for to 70 KW in three phase, support zero export solution. We coming years in the Indian market. It’s a green energy also have 3 kW power storage inverters and 3 KW to 6 KW concept and already welcomed by Indian government hybrid inverters in single phase and 10 KW to 20 KW hybrid and users. In 2020, we are also entering in the Indian market inverters in 3 phase, Li-Ion Batteries. with our new and innovative EV Charger products.

For this, our discussions are already going on with some What is your major USP among Indian customers as reputed Indian companies about EV Charger concept. compared to the close peers? How do you market In my opinion, EV Segment and Li-ion battery products your products in India? have very good scope in the Indian market. So, we are We are among the top 3 on-grid solar inverter sellers in very optimistic about EV segment business in India as a India for the residential market with a proven record in the future scope.

Q

Q

Clean Energy Flunks The Easy Financing Test

Ranjit Gupta CEO Azure Power

Rananjay Singh Head - BD Gensol Engineering

Mohua Mukherjee Climate Finance Expert; Program Ambassador, ISA

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P. Vinay Kumar Founder and CEO Varp Power

Sanjeev Aggarwal MD & CEO Amplus Solar

Manoj Gupta VP-Solar & Waste to Energy Business Fortum India

Animesh Damani Managing Partner Artha Energy Resources

For a Sector that requires one of the largest sustained funding requirements in decades, financing for clean energy investments in India has had a rocky ride. The three year lock-in for developers is the most recent obstacle.

SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

COVER STORY

B

ankability. That’s a word that is highlighted proudly across the solar chain, and whose value can never be underestimated. Be if the developer who has to have the cash and balance sheet strength to raise funds, or the many vendors, from the modules to the inverters who need to have the credibility to assure financiers that using their products is indeed the right move. Bankability, or simply, access to finance or even qualifying for financial support has become a critical issue for the sector today. Interestingly, just a little while ago, we witnessed the sight of the National Solar Energy federation of India (NSEFI) protesting about NTPC’s refusal to waive off EMD (Earnest Money deposits) for small and medium enterprises, when bidding for their solar tenders of close to 923 MW. When we mentioned this to one of the many developers we spoke to, one of the larger ones shrugged, and added that its not as if they have it easy too. “One of the most irritating aspects of the bidding process that has emerged with time is the struggle to get back your EMD’s, after the auction is over”. He claimed that not only do they face regular delays there, EMD’s, along with non-refundable processing fees, are a major reason for even some larger developers staying away from multiple bids simultaneously. With EMD’s ranging between Rs 6 lakhs to Rs 20 lakhs per MW on most SECI and NTPC projects, the amounts can add up, for larger bids. For smaller firms looking for exemptions under the MSME policy of the government, NTPC’s stubborn refusal to exempt them adds to the challenge. In fact, when it comes to money, developers blame that everything they want has to be paid for upfront, but their most critical cash flows, the payments from Discoms, are breaking new records in payment delays every month. Not the best way to nurture an emerging sector, surely?

But let’s move on to the large financing challenge. Globally, new clean energy financing for emerging markets slipped to USD 133 billion in 2018, against USD 169 billion in 2017. India too contributed to this global contraction in clean energy investments by declining USD 2.4 billion in 2018 as compared to the previous year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s (BNEF) 2019 report on emerging markets.

On Asian nation’s individual performance, Rohit Gadre, Analyst India BloombergNEF commented “India was the world’s largest renewables auction market in 2018. The competitive and transparent auctions have attracted

foreign investment and led to lower tariffs.” Something clearly didn’t work, as solar installations

crashed between 2017 and 2019. Also, 2019 was particularly disappointing with even the reduced target of 9 GW capacity addition missed with installations declined by almost 35 percent from the same period in 2018. In 2018, it had recorded 15 percent decline over 2017. Worse, even rooftop solar which now has simply impossible target of 40 GW by 2022, dropped sharply on its small base.

2020 brings fresh challenges The World Bank has recently trimmed India’s growth for FY 2020 to 5 percent from its earlier 6 percent projection, which is lowest in past 11 years. Growth is expected to recover slightly in the next fiscal year to 5.8 percent. The main reason behind the downgrade is lingering weakness in credit from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

On the renewable energy front, investments across the sector stalled throughout 2019 on the back of inability of Discoms (power distribution companies) to make payments. The move was a warning light to global investors about the lack of sanctity of contracts, drawing global criticism to the country.

These worries found reflection in the negative outlook given by ratings agencies like CARE Ratings to many solar power generators with Discoms as clients in states like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This further added to the pain of the developers as they are facing steep difficulty in servicing their debt.

Record low tariffs have also had lenders taking a much harder look at proposals, in terms of long term viability.

Efforts from the government to ease the situation – be it offering state governments with concessional loans from its state-owned lenders such as Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), missing to open LC’s now before committing to power off take, and so on, have largely failed to make the sort of impact envisaged.

On top of all these issues which renewable energy developers were grappling with, came the power ministry amendments in July 2019 to the guidelines for tariff based competitive bidding process for the procurement of power from grid connected solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects.

With the new amendment, solar project developers are now required to maintain a controlling stake of 51 percent in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) or the project company executing the power purchase agreement (PPA) for 3 years from the commercial operation date (COD).

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Speaking on the government’s motive behind this move, Rananjay Singh, Head - Business Development at Gensol Engineering, an arm of Gensol Group that offers an renewable EPC & solar advisory services, was of the view that “there are plants which were developed with low grade equipment especially modules. The generation from these plants has dropped drastically and defeats the purpose of having major chunk of power from renewable energy in the country. There have been cases wherein the developer had sold the plant post lock-in restrictions and the generation of the plant has degraded drastically.

Thus, to discourage such intentions and avoid assets with lower grade modules, inverters and other equipment, the lock-in is revised, as the developer has to maintain the plant for 3 years and all the flaws will surface during this period. This move may control the quality of the assets and may serve as a step to save Nations’ interest.”

On this another major developer, Azure Power’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ranjit Gupta says “the intent of government behind this move is to protect the industry from investors looking at short-term gains. And increase the solar power project quality with the use of better quality modules as poor quality modules will show degradation within three years.”

However Ranjit Gupta has a caveat to add “there are various ways to ensure quality of modules like photovoltaic (PV) module qualification and safety standards, which are already being factored in tenders. Also, looking at the project sizes, all independent power producers are focused long term companies who will not compromise on quality modules as it would impact their generation and valuation where again, there are penalties in the PPA as a deterrent. Most importantly, in case of new financing after a year, the new investors will do its detailed due diligence for the project, therefore there is no reason to believe that the developer will compromise on the quality of the project.”

Offering a contrarian view on 3-year lock-in period P. Vinay Kumar, Founder and CEO of Varp Power, owner and operator of solar rooftop/open access developments, says “it will have the unfortunate impact of slowing down secondary sale of assets and will impede the recycling of capital for developers/ IPPs. It may worsen an already stretched liquidity position and can impact their under-construction solar pipeline indirectly.”

Vinay Kumar further suggested that “a better way of achieving the asset quality objectives will be to have a robust mechanism of enforcing quality standards for modules, BoS components and equip agencies like BIS with more teeth.”

Sanjeev Aggarwal, Managing Director & CEO of Amplus Solar, now a part of the Malaysia-based Petronas (Petroliam Nasional Berhad) Group and distributed energy provider to C&I customers, also seemed to understand, yet have his doubts on the move.

Sanjeev Aggarwal remained cautious about short term equity investment for developers and said “with doors being closed for short term equity investors due to the lock in and with little or no interest expected from the long-term investors with the lowest risk appetite due to construction risk, the long-term impact would be that fewer new investors will enter the market.

It will just be the existing large developers (who take the risk of SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

construction and hold the project for 25 years) participating in new bids and building their portfolio size.”

Besides, other industry stakeholders Manoj Gupta, VP-Solar and Waste to Energy Business, Fortum India, an Indian arm of Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum, has no doubts on the relevance of the move, and said that “this is not a welcome move as per my perspective and I don’t know the government’s intention behind this. As an industry, we always oppose any kind of lock-in period for shareholding. It was initially started under Gujarat Solar Policy in 2010 and lots of developers couldn’t attract any foreign investment due to this lock-in. In fact, foreign investment in India was delayed due to 5 years lock-in under Gujarat solar policy. Under National Solar Mission program, the lock-in period of 1 year was a good move by the Centre but from a developer’s perspective we do not want any kind of restrictions in lock-in so that in case of any fund constraint, there is sufficient freedom for the developer to bring the investor to any extent. It will help in commissioning of all those projects on time that have fund constraints.”

Manoj Gupta from Fortum India also pointed to the performance bank guarantee clause and said that “as far as government is concerned, at the time of signing of the PPA, developers must submit the performance bank guarantee for timely commissioning of the project which is already a sword on his neck.”

So the clear takeaway seems to be - advantage large developers. It’s not an idle claim, if you consider the roster of India’s top developers today. At least four of the biggest, Tata Power, Adani Green Energy (part of the Adani Group), NTPC and NLC, are large legacy firms with interests in thermal and coal. While the rest of the top 15 are dominated by firms with an outstanding ability to raise funding (ReNew Power, Avaada Energy) or backing from private equity financing.

It is the firms which have neither of these attributes that are struggling to big aggressively today, be it ACME Solar which bid low to win but is struggling with payment issues, or even SB Energy, reportedly under some pressure due to the travails at its parent firm, Softbank. Renew Power for instance, clearly doesn’t have to worry about such issues, with over USD 1 billion in fund raises during 2019 itself, from a USD 300 million rights issue to a USD 375 million green bonds issue and a debt issuance of another USD 300 million.

COVER STORY

Source: Bridge to India On the other side, for meeting the government’s objective of ensuring a better quality of panels and equipment being used, Animesh Damani, Managing Partner of Artha Energy Resources, an advisory firm that is focused in attracting and bringing new investment into the power generation industry in India, adds that “the move is fundamentally flawed. Simply increasing the lock-in period from one to three years does not mean better quality of panels or equipment will be used.

Most solar projects do not witness high degradation in first 5 years. It is after the 5th year that degradation of panels comes to the fore. Hence, I don’t think the objective of ensuring a better quality of panels and equipment will be met with this change.”

For the long term impact, Mohua Mukherjee, Energy and Climate Finance Expert; Program Ambassador Pro-Bono at International Solar Alliance (ISA), clearly stated “I don’t think this objective will be met on a large scale. Some investors who would be willing to commit their funds to a project for a maximum of 18 or 24 months, but not longer, will now be absent from the pool of solar project funders. The long term impact could be to drive DOWN investment instead of helping the sector.”

Thus, looking at the broader fund raising numbers too, one can see that the move risks concentrating the industry further into a premier club of large developers, reducing overall competition in the long term.

Azure Power’s Ranjit Gupta’s words simply point to this risk, “we all need to appreciate that there are different types of investors who have different risk appetite and project return expectations. Most of the renewable energy firms work with the investors who are comfortable with the risks associated with a greenfield project but since capital is a limited resource,

they need to have an ability to churn their existing portfolio with a premium for operational portfolio and redeploy the proceeds towards implementation of incremental capacity.

The ability to churn the portfolio at premium without significant time constraints, allow a developer to aggressively participate in the bids. Any move that restricts this circulation of capital by greenfield investors will keep them from bidding, which will in-turn reduce competitive intensity in auctions, thereby leading to an increase in consumer tariffs and decrease in sector efficiency.”

On another category of brownfield investors Ranjit Gupta added “they like to invest for a long term, through structures like portfolio buyout, InvIT etc, which comprises of a pool of projects. These investors have not only played a critical role of ‘freeing up the risk capital’ that is provided by greenfield investors and have meaningfully contributed to the FDI over last few years.”

Rananjay Singh points out that “over the past 8 years, a bulk of greenfield investment in India has been made by Private Equity type investors through their investments in platform companies.

Further, there are provisions existing in the bidding documents (like bid/ performance bonds and net worth requirements) which hereby ensures that only serious investors participate in the India RE sector. Now, if we calculate for an aggregate time duration for which the money remained blocked in a particular project – it is not just three years, it will go up to five years. 2 years for construction plus 3 years Lock-in.”

In fact Rananjay Singh suggested that “the government has to consider, are they really achieving target requirement by such changes or not? With the help of longevity of tenure, government shall be only able to demonstrate stability in Owner ship change.”

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So, in such a scenario, where does the sector stand? Ranjit Gupta reckons that “the underlying fundamentals of Indian solar sector is very strong, therefore, the sector will continue to attract investments but it may reduce the spectrum of investors that can participate in the various stages of the sector’s life cycle, thereby impacting the flow of capital, and reducing total investment.”

However, Ranjit Gupta also expressed a worry that “it may also increase the return expectation of an early stage investor, who will see their investment as compulsorily locked for around 4-5 years (including construction period), irrespective of performance of the assets.”

On foreign investment in the solar sector, for P. Vinay Kumar, it seems to be a case of a step backward for every step forward.

“We have a very vibrant secondary market for solar assets now with significant interest from foreign investors. New structures like Renewable energy Investment Ttrusts (INViTs) are built on the premise that solar assets can be flipped into such vehicles offering the much needed liquidity to the developers who can recycle capital and release it to build new plants.” But now, he adds, “increasing the equity lock-in will impair the ease and efficacy of these investment vehicles in accessing solar assets. The existing equity lock-in restrictions of CoD + 1year itself poses a concern, when the developer wants to sell the assets within a year of commercial operation date.

Investors often resort to artificial and inventive structuring to skirt this equity lock-in condition in a seemingly compliant manner. This need for inventive structuring will only exacerbate with the prolonged equity lock-in period increasing the risk of transactions.”

Sanjeev Aggarwal stresses the need to not discriminate too much between investors, with each having a key role to play. “In order to ensure the sustainable and robust growth of this sector, it is necessary to have a balance of long-term and shortterm

equity investors, both of whom have a different risk appetite.”

As Manoj Gupta says “arranging non-recourse finance was always difficult for renewable energy projects. It was never an easy cake-walk. However, the kind of issues this industry is struggling now a days such as reopening of signed PPA, late payment, safeguard duty introduction, change in GST rate etc. have almost dried the financing for the Indian Solar industry. Private equity investment or bridge financing was somehow being used to fill this massive gap. The introduction of 3 years lock-in will make arrangement of equity financing even more difficult”.

It’s a contention Ranjit Gupta too agrees with, adding that “it has been a difficult task for developers to raise equity as well as debt in a market already facing a liquidity crunch. While this lock-in might not significantly affect debt by reducing exit flexibility, it may affect equity availability options in the market.”

If seeking better quality and commitment was the aim, were better options available?

In Manoj Gupta’s view “the better option was to remove the one-year lock-in and give more freedom to the investor and developer to raise their equity even during the construction of the project.”

It’s a view that finds some support from Mohua Mukherjee too, with her advocation to “leave things as they are, and let lenders and developers deal with each other. There should be no administrative interference.” Animesh Damani further suggested that “government should clearly define the quality standards for the panels and equipments being used.”

“Along with setting high standards of quality for equipment, government could have set up enhanced checks and stricter monitoring of these projects in the 1 year of lock-in. This could have ensured that more marketable and sustainable solar projects are developed in the country,” believes Sanjeev Aggarwal of Amplus Solar.

It’s a view that finds supporters across the board. In fact, it’s a common sense view, when you think about it. Ensure tight entry norms, and after that, allow the market to work. But like most cases where the government has multiple interests to balance, in this case, the pressure to drive down costs, yet maintain quality and ensure growth too, the government has simply struggled to arrive at a clear vision to allow the sector unfettered clarity for even a 3 year lock-in period. That, for India to meet its 2022, 2030 and even further vision, needs to change, and change fast. February 1, 2020, when the budget is being presented with high expectations of more ease of doing business, would be a great day to start.

-MANU@MEILLEURMEDIA.COM -PRASANNA@MEILLEURMEDIA.COM

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SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

EV UPDATES

EESL, HPCL to Develop EV Charging Infrastructure In a bid to promote electric vehicles (EV) under the National Electric Mobility (e-mobility) Programme, governmentbacked Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has entered into a two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to set up public charging infrastructure.

Further, the objective behind the MoU was synergising business development for setting up of public charging infrastructure to ramp up e-mobility in the country. As per the MoU signed, the two companies will collaborate for planning, development and installation of charging infrastructure at suitable locations for two, three, and four-wheeler vehicles.

It is also expected that with the installation of these public charging stations, the range anxiety of EV owners will reduce, and also help in increasing the adoption of e-mobility in India.

Commenting about building robust EV ecosystem, Saurabh Kumar, Managing Director of EESL said that “increased

access to charging infrastructure is vital for the uptake of electric mobility across the entire EV ecosystem of two, three, and four-wheelers. Along with addressing the range anxiety concerns that EV-adopters may have, our partnership with HPCL will also establish more visibility of charging infrastructure, sending a signal to the general public that India’s electric mobility vision is being realised in full potential.”

Meanwhile, it is also expected that this will bring down automobiles emissions, enabling a cleaner and greener environment, which in result, will safeguard the public from health risks. EESL is a joint venture between four national public sector enterprises under the Ministry of Power, Government of India.

Hyundai and Uber Planning for Electric Air Taxis

EVI Tech and BSNL Partner for EV Charging Infrastructure

Uber and Hyundai Motor Company have announced a new partnership to develop Uber Air Taxis for a future aerial ride share network and unveiled a new full-scale aircraft concept at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Hyundai is the first automotive company to join the Uber Elevate initiative, bringing automotive-scale manufacturing capability and a track record of mass-producing electric vehicles. The air vehicle concept Hyundai released was created in part through Uber’s open design process, a NASA-inspired approach that jump-starts innovation by publicly releasing vehicle design concepts so any company can use them to innovate their air taxi models and engineering technologies. In this partnership, Hyundai will produce and deploy the air vehicles, and Uber will provide airspace support services, connections to ground transportation, and customer interfaces through an aerial ride share network.

Both parties are collaborating on infrastructure concepts to support take-off and landing for this new class of vehicles. In preparation for this announcement, Hyundai has worked with Uber Elevate to develop a PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) model, S-A1, that utilises innovative design processes to optimise electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for aerial ride sharing purposes. The Elevate initiative based this process on NASA’s historical approach of putting design concepts out publicly to inspire innovation amongst multiple companies, spurring the development of common research models to investigate novel aerodynamic concepts and catalysing industry progress in wing design, noise, aerodynamics, and simulation verification. The Hyundai vehicle will be 100 percent electric, utilising distributed electric propulsion and during peak hours will require about five to seven minutes for recharging.

Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure provider EVI technologies (EVIT) has announced that it has inked a pact with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for setting up battery swapping and charging stations. As part of the 10-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) inked between the two entities, EVIT would install charging infrastructure at 5,000 locations of BSNL across the country, covering major cities.

Under the agreement, EVIT will make the entire upfront investment on services pertaining to the MoU, along with the operation and maintenance of battery swapping infrastructure, the company said in a statement. The state-owned telecom operator on the other hand would be responsible for providing the requisite space and power connections for installing the battery swapping infrastructure, it added.

"Our to-be-developed infrastructure at BSNL will reduce the range anxiety among electric vehicle (EV) consumers and accelerate the adoption of such vehicles across India," EVI Technologies CEO Rupesh Kumar said.

BSNL Maharashtra CGM Manoj Kumar Mishra said the initiative will help promote clean energy and reduce carbon emissions.

The first set of charging stations under the initiative are planned to open next month in Maharastra and Haryana.

In October, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BSNL (Punjab Telecom Circle) to install 100 public EV charging stations to boost e-mobility in Punjab. Both EESL and BSNL have entered this 10-year MOU with the objective of building electric vehicle infrastructure in the BSNL, Punjab Telecom Circle area and explore synergy for further promoting EVs, including electric two-wheelers in the state.

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EV UPDATES

Hyundai to Have 44 Electrified Vehicles by 2025, 11 Battery EVs Hyundai Motor Group has revealed its product strategy until 2025. The South Korean auto giant has announced that it plans to operate 44 electrified vehicles by 2025, including both BEV and plug-in hybrid models.

Outlining the product strategy for electrified vehicles, Euisun Chung, executive vice-chairman (EVC), Hyundai Motor Group, said, “To consolidate our leadership in vehicle electrification, we plan to operate 44 electrified models by 2025, including 11 dedicated BEV models, by bolstering the development of EV platforms and core components.”

There will be 13 hybrid cars, 6 plug-in hybrids and two fuel cell electric vehicles as well. The BEV lineup will increase to 23 cars by 2025, from 2019’s 9 models. The first dedicated BEV from Hyundai will launch in 2021. The company has the plan to invest around 100 trillion Korean Won over the next five years, with annual investment amounting to 20 trillion Korean Won. Furthermore, the auto giant is working on a new EV architecture development system, which will be applied to the cars from 2024. Apart from that, the auto giant is also betting big on fuel cell technology. It signed an agreement with Cummins in September last year to jointly develop and

commercialise electric and fuel cell powertrains, which are expected to go on sale this year only.

The group plans to supply fuel cell technologies to the transport sector. It aims to deliver around 2 lakh fuel cell systems every year by 2030. Also, the company has the plan to set up an FCEV manufacturing facility in South Korea that will have 5 lakh unit per annum production capacity.

Tata Motors, Prakriti E-Mobility in Pact to Deploy EVs in Delhi With an aim to accelerate the e-mobility drive in the national capital region, Tata Motors has entered into partnership with Prakriti E-Mobility, a city-based startup, to deploy 500 Tigor electric vehicles (EVs) in New Delhi.

As per the deal, Prakriti E-Mobility will deploy these Tigor EVs on its app-based electric vehicle cab services called ‘EVERA’, and will serve in Delhi/NCR. Moreover, the first batch of more than 160 Tigor EVs is likely to hit the road

by January 2020. Shailesh Chandra, President – Electric Mobility Business & Corporate Strategy, Tata Motors, said “Prakriti E-Mobility Solutions is a valuable partner on our path of social responsibility and environmental sustainability. We are confident that Tigor EVs will be a stellar addition to their company’s offerings as it aptly addresses the requirements of longer range applications and also provides higher revenue earning potential for our commercial customers. The induction of Tigor EVs will not only help the company achieve their business goals but also accomplish their objective of offering eco-friendly mobility solutions.”

“Keeping in line with our commitment to

offer ecofriendly mobility solutions, we are excited to begin offering Tigor EVs to Delhities and are very proud to partner with Tata Motors in this journey. We strongly believe in the inherent benefits of zero emission and lower operating costs of

EVs will be the ultimate game-changer for commuting in the city. We plan to deploy 500 Tigor EVs in New Delhi and bring EV solutions closer to our customers,” said Nimish Trivedi, Co-Founder & CEO, Prakriti E-Mobility.

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Delhi Cabinet Clears EV Policy for 5 Lakh Vehicles by 2024 In an attempt to help to help curb the capital’s pollution levels, the Kejriwal Government has cleared the Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy for Delhi. Under he policy, the government aims to register at least 5 lakh EVs by 2024 in order to reduce air pollution in the national capital region, announced Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

The vehicles will mainly include twowheelers and commercial vehicles. Thus, the government has stayed clear of the private vehicles market, where it cannot really play a significant influencer without bigger subsidies.

The government will also form an electric vehicle board and an EV cell within the transport department that will be responsible for implementing the policy. In a public announcement, Kejriwal also said that the Delhi government’s aim is to register at least 25 percent electric vehicles by 2024. According to the EV policy passed by the Delhi cabinet, the government will provide a subsidy to promote the EVs.

Under the policy, the government will offer a purchase incentive of Rs 5,000 per kWh of the battery capacity of the vehicles compared to Rs 5,500 currently offered by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.

Besides that, there will be a scrapping incentive of up to Rs 5,000, subject to evidence of matching contribution from the manufacturer or dealer. Additionally, it has also waived road tax and registration

fees for all battery powered EVs for the next three years. Keeping hybrids out of the picture.

Electric four-wheelers will get a purchase incentive of Rs 10,000 per kWh of battery capacity for the first 1000 cars subject to a cap of Rs 1,50,000 per vehicle. All the leased cars used for the commute of Delhi government officers will be transitioned to EVs within the next 12 months.

EESL Signs MoU to Promote E-Mobility in South India

28 JANUARY 2020

The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Baghirathi Sustainability India to explore the possibilities of promoting e-mobility and electric vehicles in India.

With this partnership, EESL seeks to deploy around 250 EVs and fast-track the adoption of e-mobility within private and government agencies located across India, starting with Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Baghirathi Sustainability is currently operating a fleet of around 131 EVs in India. Traditionally, a transportation solutions company that uses technology that efficiently delivers transportation solutions, the Baghirathi Group has ventured into electric cars in the year 2016 to help India mitigate GHG emissions.

Under EESL’s EV programme, to date, a total of 1,510 EVS have been deployed and another 500 are under registration. EESL has signed agreements with various Public Sector Undertakings, government departments, and state governments of Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gujarat, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, and others for deploying EVs. EESL is also working towards strengthening the charging infrastructure. To date, 65 Public Charging Stations (PCS) complying with DC-001 (15kW) have been commissioned in Delhi. Apart from these public charging stations, EESL has SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

installed a total of 470 captive chargers, out of which 170 are DC-001 fast chargers and 300 are AC-001 chargers. EESL has already signed MoUs with various ULBs such as Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), etc., for setting up public charging infrastructure across India. The objective is to set up at least 10,000 charging stations over the next two to three years across India.

THE CONVERSATION

MANISH GUPTA

Managing Director, Insolation Energy THERE IS HUGE POTENTIAL FOR CELL AND WAFER MANUFACTURING IN INDIA Indian solar market has an immense potential with an average demand of 10 GW per year. India has set an ambitious plan for solar with a target of 100 GW capacity by 2022. Currently, the wafer production capacity in India is Nil and cell manufacturing capacity is nearly 3.5 GW. Of this only 1.50 GW is operational. So, there is huge gap between demand and supply for wafer as well as cell. Hence, there is a huge potential for cell and wafer manufacturing in India, believes Manish Gupta, Managing Director, Insolation Energy, a domestic solar PV module manufacturer. In conversation with Manu Tayal, Associate Editor, Saur Energy International, Gupta shared his views on various topics which the power sector is currently dealing with along with his company’s future expansion plans in the renewable energy space. Following are the excerpts from that exclusive interview

Q

How much of the total module production figures touched is a huge potential for cell and wafer manufacturing in India.

by Insolation Energy till date? What are further targets for As 2020 has already been started, rooftop solar has failed 2020? to grow well. Where do you think we have missed the Till date we have supplied more than 100 MW of solar modules in various power projects across the country. Further we plan growth opportunity? to achieve 100 MW of solar modules in 2020, keeping in mind India has set an ambitious plan for solar projects installations with a target of 100 GW capacity by 2022 out of which 40 GW the expansion plans we have in next few months. is through rooftop. Till date the achievement is merely 4 GW. Do you have any further plans for expansion of your current Some of the probable reasons are:production line?

• Incoherency between State and Central Government Policies Currently our production capacity is 100 MW. We plan to • Lack of Long term Policy for Rooftop expand this further to 200 MW in a few months’ time. Our aim • Lack of Interest on the part of Discom is to have separate lines for big and small modules.

• Shortage of trained man power • Non- availability of easy funds As government issued some domestic manufacturing As per the rapidly changing technology, how do you linked solar tenders last year, do you think they help in ensure the technological upgradation of your products, increasing the demand for domestic products?

Yes definitely, more than 90 percent of solar panels used in machinery as well as staff? Do you see the Indian market shifting Indian solar projects are imported. Indian manufacturers are from poly to mono modules in a big way in 2020? facing tough time as they are running at low capacity. This We are upgrading and incorporating new equipments for technology upgradation. We have one of the best testing despite the fact that quality standards of Indian Modules equipments for quality assurance and product upgradation. are at par with International Standards. So, domestic Along with this we regularly organize the product and manufacturing linked solar tenders are a welcome process training for our staff by internal and external step in the right direction not only to support the agencies. As with international trends the Indian ailing domestic module manufacturers but also to market is also seeing a trend shift from poly to mono save the precious foreign exchange. perc modules.

How do you see the scope for cell and wafer Are you currently exporting or having plans manufacturing in India? for export of your made in India modules?

Indian solar market has an immense potential with an If yes, in which countries and what average demand of 10 GW per year. India has are further export plans? set an ambitious plan for solar with a target We are already exploring export of 100 GW capacity by 2022. Currently opportunities and are in touch the wafer production capacity in India with few overseas clients for is Nil and cell manufacturing capacity this. We are planning to is nearly 3.5 GW. Of this only 1.50 GW enter into Mid East, Africa is operational. So, there is huge gap and selected European between demand and supply for countries. wafer as well as cell. Hence, there

Q

Q Q

Q

Q

Q

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MILESTONE UPDATES

Over 1.03 Crore Smart LED Street Lights Installed: EESL Over 1.03 crore smart LED street lights have been installed till date, which led to an estimated energy savings of 6.97 billion kWh per year, Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has said. These lights have been installed under the Street Light National Programme (SLNP), which is being implemented by state-owned EESL -- a joint venture of PSUs under the Power Ministry.

"Under the SLNP programme, over 1.03 crore smart LED streetlights have been installed till date, enabling an estimated energy savings of 6.97 billion kWh per year with an avoided peak demand of 1,161 MW," EESL said in a statement.

LED street lights have been installed in various states across the country, helping generate approximately 13,000 jobs to support government's Make in India initiative. Through the government's zero subsidy Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) initiative, over 36.13 crore LED bulbs have been distributed across India. This has resulted in estimated energy savings of 46.92 billion kWh per year,

avoided peak demand of 9,394 MW. "Five years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the energy efficiency revolution in India by launching UJALA & Street Lighting National Programme.

Energy efficiency is vital for India's efforts in mitigating climate change and achieving a sustainable future," EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar said.

In June, EESL had issued a tender inviting

bid for 24W LED Street Lights contract for all Gram Panchayats in the state of Jharkhand. This tender was issued under the Street Light National Programme (SLNP).The scope of tender includes designing, manufacturing, testing, supplying and five years on-site warranty of 24W LED Street Lights and other related works for all Gram Panchayats in Jharkhand.

Zero Carbon Electricity Outstrips Fossil Fuels in UK in 2019

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2019 was the cleanest year on record for Britain as, for the first time, the amount of zero carbon power outstripped that from fossil fuels for a full twelve months, data released by the National Grid shows.

This historic milestone comes as we enter the mid-point between 1990 and 2050 – the year in which the UK has committed to achieve at least a 100% reduction in emissions based on 1990 levels.

Data released by National Grid shows a combination of wind farms, solar and nuclear energy, alongside energy imported by subsea inter-connectors, delivered 48.5 percent of Britain’s electricity in 2019 compared to 43 percent generated by fossil fuels. The remaining 8.5 percent was generated by biomass.

National Grid CEO John Pettigrew said: “As we enter a new decade, this truly is a historic moment and an opportunity to reflect on how much has been achieved.

“At National Grid, we know we have a critical role in the acceleration towards SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

a cleaner future and are committed to playing our part in delivering a safe and secure energy system that works for all.”

In December, National Grid set out plans to invest almost GBP 10 billion in the United Kingdom’s gas and electricity networks over five years, of which almost GBP 1 billion has been ear-marked to enable the

transition to Net Zero electricity sources including investments in new equipment and technology to help the electricity system operator (ESO) to operate a Net Zero carbon electricity system by 2025.

GBP 85 million has been allocated to support the decarbonisation of heat within the gas transmission network.

MILESTONE UPDATES

Grundfos Feted for Work in Emerging Markets With Solar Pumps Based on its recent analysis of global emerging markets for solar-powered water pumps for economic development, Frost & Sullivan has recognised Grundfos with the 2019 Global Emerging Market Innovation Award.

With superior test and design tools, equipment, and installation facilities and an expansive network of partners, distributors, and sub-dealers, Grundfos has established itself as the market leader in solar-powered water pumps. Its products are widely accepted in more than 150 countries, most of which are emerging economies. Their easy installation, quick repair and maintenance, and remote monitoring services have made them the ideal water supply solutions in emerging economies.

“Grundfos ensures affordable products and services by minimizing the total lifecycle and deployment costs and

offering its unified solutions under the Lifelink Water Solutions line, developed specifically for emerging markets,” said Anamika Risal, Research Analyst.

“For instance, AQtap, a Lifelink product, combines smart payment cards called WaterCards, a water ATM (dispenser) unit, and a water management system

to supply water securely. The cloudbased water management system receives and publishes all transactional and operational data from each water dispenser so local committee members can manage the revenue for community welfare.”

In rural areas, especially in off-grid areas, the AQtap system draws groundwa ter through the SQFl ex submersible and CRFlex surface water pumps, which are fitted with permanent magnet motors for highenergy efficiency operations. These pumps are used for larger irrigation and livestock applications in countries like Nepal and India, where electricity and diesel supply is limited. In emerging markets, Grundfos works with local partners such as NGOs, INGOs, and other governmental bodies to install suitable solar-powered water pumps.

Growatt now the Top Supplier of Rooftop Inverters in India In the twelve-month period ending Sep-2019, India added a record 1,853 MW rooftop solar capacity, which is 17 percent higher than the same period last year according to the latest report released by Bridge to India. PV inverter suppliers from China are the top players in the solar rooftop sector. Growatt, one of the TOP 3 rooftop solar inverter brands in China, has become the No.1 solar rooftop inverter supplier in India according to the report.

Growatt entered the Indian solar market around eight years ago. It provides a wide range of solar inverters with capacity from 1 kW to 80 kW for the rooftop sector and is planning to launch an advanced 200 kW inverter model next year for groundmounted and utility-scale solar farms.

The company’s growth momentum has been very strong over the past years.

Rucas Wang, Growatt regional director attributed the achievement to the company’s strong foundation built upon its product reliability and professional service. “Growatt is a global leading inverter brand in the solar rooftop sector.

Our advanced PV technologies and

product reliability are very well recognized by clients and end-users around the world,” said Wang.

The company pursues a strategy of localization and has established a service center and warehouse in Hyderabad.

Additionally, it has hired local Indian sales representatives and now has more

than 20 Indian service engineers in 8 major cities to provide on-site services across India.

“Growatt provides advanced and reliable products and has been increasing investments in India. That’s why we stay ahead of the solar rooftop competitors in India,” added Wang.

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Tata Power Solar Keeps Top EPC Spot in Rooftop Solar Segment Tata Power Solar, one of India’s largest solar energy company and Tata Power's wholly-owned subsidiary, has maintained its number one position among EPC rooftop solar players for the sixth consecutive year in a row as per the recently published India Solar Rooftop report 2019 by Bridge to India.

Commenting on the report findings, Vinay Rustagi, Managing Director, BTI, said that rooftop solar provides a rare dose of positive news in the Indian renewable sector. It has been growing consistently when other areas have suffered with all sorts of execution and financing challenges.

“However, recent policy pullbacks don’t augur well for the market as investors and consumers need policy certainty. We expect rooftop solar to continue to grow robustly and account for a significant share of total solar capacity in the country.

The industry remains highly competitive and dominated by small, regional players but Tata Power Solar has successfully retained its leadership position in the EPC business owing to strong branding and large distribution network.”

Ashish Khanna, MD & CEO, Tata Power Solar and President, Tata Power (Renewables), speaking on the ranking said, “We are delighted to have retained this leadership position for the sixth year in a row and contributed to the solarisation of the country in a big way.

This is a testimony to our capabilities and trusts the consumers have on our quality and brand. Backed by 30 years of experience we have been able to successfully deliver some prominent and diverse rooftop product offerings to cater to the ever-evolving and challenging needs of our customers. We are confident that with more initiatives on policy framework including quality aspects there will be enormous growth particularly for Tata Power Solar in the rooftop segment.”

Denmark Sets Record With 47% Share of Wind Energy

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Denmark got half its power from wind and solar last year in what its grid operator hailed as an important milestone in its hugely ambitious energy transition push. Of the 50 percent, Wind alone accounted for more than 47 percent of Danish electricity demand in 2019, setting a new record.

State-run energy operator Energinet announced its new wind record on Twitter.

The renewable energy source now makes up 47 percent of the country’s energy consumption, heating the previous record that was set in 2017 at 43 percent.

The increase in the power provided by wind sources was largely due to the commissioning of the country’s largest offshore wind farm in the North Sea, the 407 MW Horns Rev 3 wind farm complex generates enough energy to power about 425,000 Danish homes. Overall, Denmark’s wind parks produced 16 TWh of electricity in 2019, up from 13.9 TWh in 2018 and 14.8 TWh in 2017.

Denmark – historically a leader in the global wind sector – has recently announced major initiatives in offshore SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

wind and green hydrogen production as it attempts to hit that goal, and push its energy transition into harderto-decarbonise areas like heating and transport.

Energinet said of the 2019 record: “Once we thought that the power system could handle the maximum of 5 percent of the power being produced as the wind blew

and the sun was shining. Fortunately, we have become smarter!”

While 2019 was considered "an average wind year” by Wind Denmark’s CEO Jan Hylleberg, the contribution of new offshore wind capacity is expected to help the country meet 50 percent of its electricity consumption with wind power during 2020 or by 2021.

Magenta Power

Maxson Lewis Co-Founder & MD

Total employees: 29 Key operational areas (Products, Regions, Clients) It’s key operational area is Mumbai specifically. However, it has marked presence in the major cities in India such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Baruch, Nashik, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.

Under its aggressive expansion plan, the company is aiming to reach pan India in the New Year 2020.

Founding Members detail Magenta Power Co-Founders are Maxson Lewis and Darryl Dias. Maxson is having approx. four years of experience in the automotive sector with global firms like Saint-Gobain and Bosch. Besides, he is also having fifteen years of experience in the electricity sector in India and overseas countries like Canada, Singapore, Australia, Hongkong, Indonesia, Thailand and Europe. In Maxson Lewis views “In hindsight, auto meets electricity and hence electric vehicles were destined to happen to me.”

Another Co-Founder Darryl Dias is an engineer with hands-on knowledge in Research and Development (R&D) and extensive experience in renewable space. He was born in India and brought up in Middle East (ME).

Darryl Dias Co-Founder & MD

Turning Point for the firm The turning point for the firm was when Magenta Power team signed HPCL as its marketing strategist partner. The company is having few more original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s) joining hands whose names will be disclosed later this year by them.

Plans in next 3 to 5 years The company is inclined towards covering pan India level from its presence of current 53 locations. In Maxson Lewis words – “Magenta Power is a very structured company we kept 2017 to study, 2018 to understand the business, 2019 is to develop, 2020 is to grow and 2021 is to export as it will be going to the international market that’s how we have defined our growth strategy.”

Biggest Attraction in the sector The single biggest attraction in the sector is the ability to define the industry and industry standards. Since, the industry is evolving and we are considered pioneers in this space.

Present State of Mind We are satisfied with our team pace but what we feel that slow is the pace of the growth of the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem.

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OPED

Lighting up

India’s

hinterland

NEERAJ SHARMA

President & MD – Wartsila India India has emerged as the fastest growing energy market in the world. Investments in the sector grew at 12 percent last year with spending on renewable energy (RE) exceeding fossil fuel-based power. The country aims at being a power surplus nation and RE can play a big role in the transition.

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In April 2018, the Indian government announced that Leisang in Manipur was India’s last village to be electrified. With this, the country had reportedly achieved near-universal electrification.

Despite this, more than 30 million people reportedly still did not have access to electricity. The reason why 100 percent village electrification did not result in 100 percent rural households electrified is because a village is considered ‘electrified’ when power cables from the grid reach its transformer and 10 percent of households and public places (schools, hospitals etc.) are connected. Today many rural households in India continue to use traditional fuel sources like wood or kerosene for their energy requirements that take a toll on both their health and the environment.

We understand that access to electricity in rural India is a critical factor. Affordable renewable energy can not only help raise the living conditions in rural areas but also free up SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

the more expensive electricity to be supplied to cities where affordability is higher. This will also help in better management of government’s subsidy burden.

Bridging the gap in access to electricity in rural India is vital because nearly 70 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion people live in villages. Its energy deficit last year was at 1.49 GW or 0.8 per cent of the total 177.02 GW demanded. Experts say India still remains in power deficit despite having a total installed power generation capacity of 356 GW because of its state-run distribution companies that are saddled with dues of USD 6117 million and, are unable to buy power to meet demand. This leaves several regions in the country with little or no power.

The clean energy drive India is currently dependent on thermal power for a bulk (63 percent) of its generation followed by renewables (22 percent), hydropower (13 percent) and nuclear generation (2 percent). However, RE generation is increasingly playing a significant role in energising India, growing by 17.26 percent last year versus conventional generation that grew at 4.85 percent. While the two are not comparable as conventional generation has a bigger base value, it is indicative of the

OPED

“I didn’t know what was happening outside my little world.

After becoming a Solar Saheli, the veil got lifted away from my face and I could provide for the small needs for my children," says Kamlesh Meena.

Meena is amongst the many thousand women working in the ‘Solar Saheli’ program of Frontier Markets. It is a womenfocussed last-mile distribution company for rural customers providing access to clean energy solutions. This programme has touched the lives of 3.5 million people by distributing 700,000 solar lights, appliances, and cooking stoves to more than 500,000 households. It claims to have replaced 75,750 kerosene lanterns with clean energy solutions thereby preventing 500,656 tonnes of carbon emissions.

While small companies like these are making a big change in India’s transition towards renewables, it is the utilities sector that will also have to think differently by mitigating inherent issues like variability that is associated with RE generation.

general direction in which the country wants to move.

It is a well-known fact that India imports around 80 percent of its crude oil and 10 percent of its coal to meet domestic requirements. The growth of renewable energy, along with our bid to move towards electrification of our transport sector, will result in lower reliance on expensive fossil fuel imports, thereby improving the energy security of the country.

It will also have a significant impact on carbon emissions.

The Indian government realises that and wants to increase the share of RE in its power mix from the current 22 percent (excluding hydropower) to 40 percent by 2030. It has also raised the country’s renewable energy target from 175 GW to 225 GW by 2022. The government is also subsidising off-grid and decentralised Solar PV applications. India targets adding 118 MWp off -grid solar PV capacity by 2020 by installing 300,000 solar streetlights throughout the country, having individual solar power plants of up to 25 kWp with an aggregated capacity of 100 MWp in areas where grid power has not reached or is not reliable and providing 25,00,000 additional solar study lamps. It is estimated that besides increasing self-employment, this plan is likely to help it generate employment opportunities for 8.67 lakh man-days for skilled and unskilled workers.

New beginnings Take the case of 28-year old Kamlesh Meena for instance. A homemaker in Laukpura village, Dholpur District in Rajasthan, she was amongst the many rural women in India who have little or no interaction with society because of traditional customs and gender roles. In 2016, Kamlesh joined an entrepreneurship program of a Self-Help Group (SHG) for women called ‘Solar Sahelis’ (friends) which sought to replace old kerosene fuelled lamps, coal and wood fired cooking with clean energy solutions like solar lights, appliances and cooking stoves.

A smart and flexible future Most of the installed capacity in India consists of large inflexible coal-based generation plants. If the entire renewable generation has to be absorbed, it leads to cycling in the coal plants which increases the wear & tear and in turn the operation & maintenance (O&M) expenses. Ideally the transmission grid as well as generation mix needs to be supported by gas engine-based power plant and battery energy storage systems which can infuse the necessary flexibility in the power system. In the absence of such flexible capacities, there is a need to curtail the renewable energy which defeats the very purpose of setting up RE plants.

This is where better power system modelling and planning come in. They allow stakeholders to assess variables in the system and develop solutions that are more efficient and effective.

Wärtsilä has delivered more than 250 power plants to India with a total output of over 3,500 MW over the past 3 decades.

The company is working with Finland’s Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) to develop energy transition pathways towards a low cost fully sustainable energy system for India in 2050. The modelling exercises in the project will help provide key insights on the role played by each sector (electricity, heat and transport) in the energy basket and allow central and state level actors to take a system level view for better planning and to develop solutions that can enable a smooth transition towards a carbon free future.

Wartsila’s modelling software helps capture an inter-play among different variables like supply and demand, capital cost, running cost, electricity price etc. and offer planners, system operators among other stakeholders a menu of options for designing and managing a system that can absorb as much renewable as possible and yet is affordable, reliable and sustainable.

As India charts its ambitious journey towards more renewables it is smart and flexible solutions like these that will help ensure that the lights never go out for the men and women on the last mile. n

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Boson Robotics

Sees opportunity In India

PK SHARMA VP - International Sales & Marketing and India Operation Head, Boson Robotics

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One of the biggest challenges in maintaining a solar farm is the issue of cleaning. Keeping the panels clean can make a huge difference to productivity of solar power, especially at utility scale. That has led to the emergence of firms specialising in the job. It wasn’t long though, before a Chinese firm started to make an impact in this area too, considering how dominant the country’s firms are in the solar supply chain. One of these is Boson Robotics Limited, a firm focused on solar cleaning solutions. The firm is up against European rival Ecoppia, which has had significant success with its own water less cleaning technology, and a headstart in terms of client acquisition, besides many other players. The firm has tied up with PS Greentech, a Bhilai based firm for its operations in India. It claims total installations of over 400 MW in China so far, even as it doubles down to tap into the growing Indian and Middle East regions next. Speaking to Saur Energy, PK Sharma, VP International Sales & Marketing and India Operation Head, Boson Robotics, says "At Boson Robotics, our goal is to develop solutions for various different solar farms. ‘From W to GW’ is our vision for our existing products and those in R&D pipeline reflect this focus."

The firm claims that clients in India and the Middle East are already designing to ensure they get the best out of their cleaning systems too.

“Many solar farm developers in India and Middle East already appreciated the value of robotic cleaning and are designing SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

solar farms facilitating robotic cleaning, that is to say, longer rows and fewer obstacles of gaps between panels to save CAPEX in robotic cleaning system. With longer arrays, cleaning robots today can clean up to 4000 panel per trip, or about 1.5 MW worth of panels. In this case, robotic cleaning CAPEX investment could only take 0.2% of the total investment for setting up the solar farm, with cleaning cost per MW as low as 3-5 USD, that is a huge cost saving and good return on investment.”

But keep in mind that this is a sector where prices have actually been falling every year. Thus, for any supplier in the cost chain, increasing prices is almost impossible, forcing most to look at squeezing out other efficiencies. Boson Robotics is quite clear that it is about more than just costs.

“Most of the existing solutions for solar panel cleaning are still relying heavily on human labor, manual or water tanker spray. First of all, they are very costly, let alone the huge consumption of water, which is hardly ample or available in most solar farm sites, secondly, it is very difficult to inspect the result and quality of the cleaning job, especially when soiling problem is severe. Our robotic cleaning also offers a cost-effective solution with very high quality and long lifetime in harsh outdoor environment. We realize that despite this we have a high threshold to overcome before developers opt for our systems, which makes us focused on making improvements all the time.

THE CONVERSATION

In fact, the firm has been so focused on conserving both power and land, that besides being ultra-light and equipped with very sophisticated self-charging system, their systems have a separate Panel, on top of the Robot to charge the Robot Battery to conserve space.

So is there a minimum viable size for a solar cleaning solution that is automated? Especially with rooftop solar catching on in a big way now? Boson would like you to believe they have it all covered.

“We even have very cheap automated cleaning solution for one panel, which we now use for cleaning the 50W solar panel carried by our robot for self charging purpose. The solution can obviously be used in other applications such as solar lamps, solar pumps or solar powered telecommunication substations too.

If its automated, can AI (Artificial Intelligence) be far behind?

Boson Robotics claims that even here, they are moving ahead of the curve.

“Boson robots are integrated with a self driving algorithm to overcome obstacles gaps between panels. The robot will make self alignment and posture adjustment at a 0.3 second interval to maximize gripping force of wheels on panel frames so that it will have no risk of getting stuck and the impact on panels could be minimal. This method also extends the lifecycle of motors and batteries considerably while at the same time extends the mileage of the robot a lot”.

How does the firm see the solar cleaning market evolving

in the near future, with so much pressure on the land use, conserving water etc?

“The awareness of soiling problem by solar farm developers and the cost-effectiveness of robotic cleaning solutions are two key factors for the market. According to Global Market Insight, the overall solar panel cleaning market will be 1.2Bn USD by 2025 with a CAGR of 14%, while automated cleaning solution grows 4 times faster than the average rate, and taking more market shares from manual cleaning during the course.

And more cost effective automated cleaning solutions will definitely be more widely applied by clients due to the obvious benefit it can bring.”

The issue of water shortages in high irradiance areas is one that the firm gives it a definite advantage over manual methods, for instance.

“Most automated cleaning solutions operate without water, saving the valuable water resources for those dry regions, where manual cleaning consumes 7-12 tons of water to clean a MW solar farm, and also the fuel to transport that water.

Low cost and very high quality is the goal we never cease to pursue as a robotic cleaning solution provider. We work closely with solar farm developers, panel makers, and tracker makers to achieve the goal.

Boson robots are designed with the vision that we never use extra power and land (for docking of robot) in the solar farm to minimize the negative impact on environment.”

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MARKET UPDATES

Report Shows Potential of Renewables in Refugee Settlements On-site renewable energy solutions can cost-effectively supply refugee communities with low-cost, reliable electricity, according to the findings of a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in cooperation with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. There are currently almost 26 million refugees in the world.

Unreliable energy exposes them to additional and associated risks that renewables can serve to overcome.

The report “Renewables for refugee settlements: Sustainable energy access in humanitarian situations”, released at the Global Refugee Forum currently taking place in Geneva, examines the energy needs at refugee camps and identifies renewables-based solutions for four sites in Iraq and Ethiopia. Solar mini-grids in particular, are highlighted as being able to boost the efficiency of humanitarian operations, avoid costly diesel consumption, and support recently arrived refugees with immediate, reliable electricity access.

The report was launched as both organisations agreed in a new

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their existing cooperation on promoting renewable energy solutions for the improvement of the humanitarian situation for millions of people displaced from their homes today.

“In line with our Global Strategy for Sustainable Energy, we aim to ensure that refugees can meet their basic energy needs in exile while also minimizing environmental degradation.

Sustainable energy access will bridge this gap, enabling refugees to pursue education, supporting businesses and

social enterprises, spurring innovation and exponentially enhancing the safety and well-being of people and communities, until such time that they can return home,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.

“This report and this new partnership between IRENA and UNHCR, is the beginning of an important alliance to mainstream access to energy for refugees and displaced people as well as their local communities, ensuring that they are not left behind.”

Carbon Tax Waiver Risks Renewables Growth in India: Fitch

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Fitch Solutions has said that it believes that the centre's proposed carbon tax waiver on coal may pose substantial downside risks to India's renewable sector growth. In a bid to alleviate significant debt levels in the power industry, India has proposed to waive carbon taxes on coal (Rs 400 rupees/tonne), it said. This comes at a time where aggressive bidding and rapid fall in tariff prices in country's renewable power auctions have squeezed profit margins for project developers and threatened the economic feasibility of the project pipeline in the renewables sector.

The proposed carbon tax waiver on coal will "weigh on renewables growth," Fitch Solutions said, adding that the carbon tax waiver was likely to make coal-fired power cheaper, increasing the use of coal. It expects coal to continue dominating India's power sector, making up a share of slightly under 70 per cent of the total power generation mix by 2029, with non-hydro renewables at 15.6 per cent.

"We stress that the continued push for lower tariffs in the tender process have already resulted in the undersubscription and cancellation of a few auctions across FY'18 and FY'19," it said.

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for the time being due to undersubscription in the previous two.

Coal-powered projects had faced some headwinds in recent years, noted by multiple project cancellations and stiff competition from non-hydro renewable sources, as the cost of renewables in India has fallen below that of coal and gas.

MARKET UPDATES

Sharp Drop in Solar Installations in China After Policy Change In 2019, China transitioned from a feed-in tariff system to auctions for solar projects on a national level. The market responded with a sharp decrease in solar installation after the significant policy change, Rishab Shrestha, solar market analyst at Wood Mackenzie has said. According to China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), 15.99 gigawatts (GW) were installed in the first three quarters this year. Q3 saw just 4.6 GW of solar installation capacity, way below the quarterly peak of 18.6 GW in Q3 2017. The analysis details that solar developers remain cautious about proceeding with their plans as equity returns are already low due to subsidies being reduced since May 2018. In 2019, the average utility-scale solar PV levelised

cost of electricity (LCOE) hit USD 61.2/ MWh, higher than the average utilityscale bid price of USD 56/MWh. With the deficit in the government’s renewables fund reaching billions of renminbi, subsidy payments are likely to be further delayed.

As a result, capacity growth has slowed.

Among the 28 GW of subsided auctioned

projects and large-scale grid parity solar projects this year, 93 percent are targeting Q4 for commission. However, some of these projects risk being delayed.

WoodMac expects 23 percent of the pipeline projects to miss the deadline and face further subsidy cuts or the risk of eventually being cancelled.

The agency further revealed that it has downgraded annual installation in 2019 to 30.5 GW in its latest research, with 14.4 GW expected for the last three months of the year. A substantial pipeline in southern, central and eastern China is expected to support the new addition. If a large number of projects are delayed into 2020, there is a risk that annual installation could drop to around 20 GW.

Energy Transformation Can Sustainable Debt Issuance Create 40Mn Renewables Jobs Records 78% Growth in 2019

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The Renewable energy sector could employ more than 40 million people by 2050 under the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) climate safe energy path, according to a new report published by the Agency during its 10th Assembly.

The report finds that total energy sector employment can reach 100 million by 2050, up from around 58 million at present, should the international community utilise its full renewable energy potential. Entitled ‘Measuring the socio-economics of transition: Focus on jobs’, the report offers detailed insights on how the energy transition will impact employment at both global and regional levels. The analysis highlights the potential of regional disparities in job creation with job gains in some parts of the world outpacing losses in others. The identification of policies to balance the impact of the transition while maximising the socioeconomic opportunities is noted as key.

IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera spoke of the importance of the Agency’s work to understand the socioeconomic benefits associated with the energy transition.

“Everybody is talking about a just transition but not many know how to make it happen. We all have to work on this subject to present a clear voice that supports an inclusive transition.

The report findings were presented at the launch of a new joint platform during the IRENA Assembly. The Sustainable Energy Jobs Platform brings together a number of development actors in pursuit of an inclusive and just transition for all. The crosssection of international public and private sector organisations involved seek to present and promote an integrated approach to the achievement of sustainable development goals seven and eight.

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A new record was set in 2019 for the volume of sustainable debt issued globally in any one year, with the total hitting USD 465 billion globally, up a remarkable 78 percent from USD 261.4 billion in 2018. Last year also saw all-time, cumulative issuance of sustainable debt smash through the $1 trillion barrier, and reach USD 1.17 trillion by December 31,2019, based on the latest figures of the comprehensive sustainable debt universe captured by research company BloombergNEF (BNEF).

Jonas Rooze, lead sustainability analyst at BNEF, said that “our data show sustainable finance continuing to power ahead on a global basis. The steep increase is fuelled by end-investors’ concerns about the threat of climate change, and the desire of many big company, bank and government leaders to be seen as behaving responsibly.”

Sustainable debt covers a variety of instruments, from the well-established area of green bonds to the fast-emerging category of sustainability-linked loans. Green bonds, constituting more than half of the entire sustainable debt market in 2019, saw USD 271 billion issued – up from USD 182 billion in 2018.

Green bonds are securities with proceeds used entirely for environmentally friendly projects, like renewable generation or marine habitat conservation.

The report also saw an almost-threefold increase in the volume of sustainability bonds issued last year, to a record USD 46 billion. “This is the biggest jump for sustainability bonds ever, showing interest from borrowers and investors in securities that combine support for both social and environmental activities,” said Mallory Rutigliano, green and sustainable finance analyst at BNEF.

MARKET UPDATES

Renewable Investments up 1% YoY in 2019, India Drops 14% Investments in renewable energy capacity worldwide was USD 282.2 billion last year, up 1 percent from 2018’s USD 280.2 billion, with the world’s biggest market (China) slipping back, but it's second-largest (the US) hitting a new record. India, on the other hand, saw an investment of only USD 9.3 billion, into green energy, 14 percent less than in 2018.

The latest data from research company BloombergNEF (BNEF), shows how what had been a subdued first few months of 2019 gave way to a busier second half, with the highlights including US onshore wind and, in particular, offshore wind in China and Europe.

Tom Harries, head of wind research at BNEF, said, “offshore wind developers in China brought forward 15 projects to beat a scheduled expiry of that country’s feed-in tariff. We expect the sector’s global momentum to continue in 2020, with the focus on gigawatt-scale projects in the British North Sea and the first commercial

arrays off the U.S. East Coast.”

The late surge in offshore wind financings took a capacity investment in that sector to USD 29.9 billion, up 19 percent on 2018 and USD 2 billion more than in the previous record year of 2016. Among the offshore projects reaching financial close in the fourth quarter was the 432 MW Neart na Gaoithe array off the Scottish coast at USD 3.4 billion, the 376 MW Formosa II Miaoli project off Taiwan at USD 2 billion and the 500 MW Fuzhou Changle C installation in the East China Sea, at USD 1.5 billion. The first of France’s offshore wind projects to be financed, the 480 MW, USD 2.5 billion Saint Nazaire, got its go-ahead in the third quarter. Looking at the overall renewable energy capacity investment figures for 2019, wind (onshore and offshore) led the way with USD 138.2 billion globally, up 6 percent. Solar was close behind, at USD 131.1 billion, down 3 percent. Falling capital costs in wind and solar meant that the two combined are likely to have seen

around 180 gigawatts added last year, up some 20 GW on 2018.

China was yet again the biggest investor in renewables, at USD 83.4 billion in 2019, but this was 8 percent down on 2018 and the lowest since 2013. It saw a 10 percent rise in wind investment to USD 55 billion, but solar fell 33 percent to USD 25.7 billion, less than a third of the boom figure reached in 2017. The US was the second-largest investing country in renewable energy capacity, at USD 55.5 billion, up 28 percent on 2018. Instrumental in this was a rush by wind and solar developers to qualify for federal tax credits that were due for scale-back in 2020.

BNEF’s wider-definition of total clean energy investment, which includes money going into research and development, and into specialist companies via public market share issues and venture capital and private equity deals, was USD 363.3 billion in 2019, fractionally up on the previous year’s revised USD 362.5 billion.

US Renewable Energy Consumption to Increase 4% Annually The consumption of renewable energy is set to increase by 4 percent annually in volume terms through 2024, according to a new report. Renewable Energy: United States, a report recently released by Freedonia Focus Reports has revealed that the capacity expansions are projected to continue underpinning market gains, driven by government incentives and intensifying renewable portfolio standards. In addition, expected declines in costs per Btu (British thermal unit) will improve the competitive position of renewable energy capital investments.

An uptick in the average price of crude oil and natural gas to 2024 will also favour increased consumption of renewable energy. Further, continued economic expansion – including increased industrial output – is projected to boost total energy consumption. Nevertheless, further growth will be restrained by the adoption of energy-efficient appliances, electrical equipment, and motor vehicles.

Increasing competition from alternative technologies, such as electric vehicles

and natural gas power plants, will also weigh on growth in consumption, as will relatively high capital costs, the report stated. Recently, we had reported that the United States (US) residential solar market reached record highs in the third quarter of 2019 with 712 megawatts (MW) of solar installed, according to the latest US Solar Market Insight report from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and

the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). The market added 2.6 GW of solar photovoltaics in the third quarter, swelling total US solar capacity to 71.3 GW. The report has revealed that the increase in residential installations helped the US solar market grow 45 percent year-over-year and contributed to 15 states having their best quarter ever for residential solar.

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Global Offshore Capacity to Reach 142 GW by 2030: Report The global offshore wind market is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.2 percent between 2019 and 2030, reaching a cumulative capacity of 142 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, compared to 23.2 GW at the end of 2018, according to a new report.

Currently, the largest markets in wind offshore development are the UK, Germany, China, Denmark and Belgium – representing almost 93 percent of the installed offshore wind capacity, the report by GlobalData has revealed.

The UK, which has around 35 percent of global offshore wind capacity installed, represents the lion’s share in the largest offshore projects list, followed by the Netherlands, China, and Germany.

Among the top ten largest offshore

projects, seven are located in the UK, representing over 74 percent of the total capacity of these projects. The world’s largest project, Hornsea One, still not fully commissioned, had the first turbine installed and grid-connected in early 2019 and now has an active capacity of over 1 GW.

Denmark and Belgium rank third and fourth, respectively. However, both of these countries do not have representation in the list of top ten projects. The largest offshore wind project in Denmark is the Horns Rev 3 (407MW) and in Belgium, Norther Wind (370MW). However, by 2030 there will be a significant change in the ranking with China securing top position, followed by the UK, Germany, the US and the Netherlands.

Ankit Mathur, practice head of Power at GlobalData, said that we are witnessing the start of the offshore wind industry becoming truly global and stretching beyond European markets. There are ambitious plans lined up by a number of budding countries to make a mark in the global wind offshore industry.

C&I Renewable PPAs in India Dipped by a Third in 2019: Report

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A new report has revealed that India was the second-largest growth market for corporate renewable Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) after the US in 2018, with an addition of 1.6 GW of capacity (BloombergNEF, 2019). However, despite retaining the second place, estimates suggest that annual corporate PPA renewable additions in the country in 2019 will be about 30-35 percent or a third lower than installations in 2018, due to changes to policy and regulation at the state level. The report finds that several key market trends have positively contributed to growth over the past six months, including: Two northern states – Haryana and Uttar Pradesh – have emerged as important markets, with more than 1 GW of group captive solar projects approved.

The Indian corporate renewable PPA market has transitioned from predominantly third-party PPA models to group captive PPA models, led by the withdrawal of open access waivers for new third-party PPAs in most states.

Over the past six months, the Indian government has withdrawn several exemptions for open access charges and banking provisions. While some of these changes may negatively impact SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

financial viability for new installations in affected states, these changes do bring open-access renewable power up to par with regulations for traditional sources, removing uncertainty arising from short-term support mechanisms, thereby making cash-flow projections for renewable contracts more predictable and stable. In addition, the increased viability of solar projects due

to continued cost reductions should help counteract part of the negative impact of these policy and regulatory changes. For 2020, the report predicts a bounce-back for capacity additions in India – the country has a development pipeline of almost 2 GW for corporate renewable PPAs, with a significant proportion expected to be installed in the next financial year.

FINANCE UPDATES

Discoms Faced Losses of Rs 27k Crore in FY19: RK Singh Power Distribution Companies (Discoms) in India suffered losses amounting to Rs 27,000 crore in the 2018-19 financial year, Union Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh has said.

The government is planning to reduce electricity transmission and distribution losses in the country to 15 percent in the next two years, Singh said. He met Goa Power Minister Nilesh Cabral at the Power Grid Corporation’s facility at Colvale, located about 20 km from here.

After the meeting, Singh said, “The total loss of all power distribution companies in the financial year 2018-19 was Rs 27,000 crore. That is huge. Because of the losses, the discoms are under stress.”

He noted that the discoms were facing issues related to purchasing power,

maintenance, and others. “I have to help the discoms of all states to make them viable by reducing their losses,” he said.

Listing the targets for 2020, Singh said in some states the transmission and

distribution losses were very high. In addition, there were also commercial losses, related to metering, billing and bill collection.

“Overall, last year the aggregate transmission and distribution loss for the entire country was 18.5 percent. We want to bring it down to 15 percent in the next two years,” the minister said.

Talking about the achievements of the NDA government, Singh said the power sector has undergone a huge transition. “Before our government came to power, we had a power deficit. We did not generate enough power for our requirements before 2014. There used to be load-shedding. We have made the country surplus in power generation,” he said.

Discoms Dues to Generators Sterling and Wilson Solar Pays Rises to Rs 81k Cr in November Rs 1000 cr in Outstanding Loans

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Power producers' total outstanding dues owed by Discoms increased around 45 percent to Rs 81,085 crore in November 2019 over the same month previous year, reflecting stress in the sector. Discoms owed a total of Rs 54,834 crore to power generation companies in November 2018, according to portal PRAA (Payment Ratification And Analysis in Power procurement for bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators). The PRAA portal was launched in May 2018 to bring in transparency in power purchase transactions between generators and discoms. In November 2019, the total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 60 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 71,782 crore as against Rs 41,503 crore in the same month of the preceding year. Power producers give 60 days to Discoms for paying bills for the supply of electricity. After that, outstanding dues become overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most cases. In order to give relief to power generation companies (Gencos), the Centre enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1, 2019. Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply. According to the latest data on the portal, outstanding dues in November has increased over the preceding month. In October 2019, total outstanding dues on discoms stood at Rs 80,635 crore. The overdue amount in November has also increased over the preceding month. The total overdue amount was Rs 70,477 crore in October 2019.

Overdues of independent power producers (IPPs) amount to over 26 percent of the total overdue of Rs 71,782 crore on discoms in November 2019.

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Sterling and Wilson Solar, the solar engineering and construction subsidiary of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, has reported that thanks to its promoters the company has paid Rs 1000 crore in dues of its outstanding loans.

The company reported that its outstanding loans before the company paid Rs 1000 crore stood at Rs 2563 crore with an additional Rs 81 crore in interest accrued from date of listing till December 31, 2019, for a total of Rs 2644 crore. After the payment made by the firm, its outstanding dues now stand at Rs 1644 crore.

This payment consists of the principal amount and the interest from the date of listing of the company’s shares in August until December 31, 2019. The company finalised the repayment schedule based on the recommendations of the audit committee, the board of directors, in a meeting held on December 31, 2019.

The promoters of the company have also proposed the repayment of the outstanding dues in a phased manner. The company will repay Rs 500 crore of the outstanding balance before March 31, 2020, and another Rs 500 crore by June 30, 2020. The remaining balance amount will be paid by September 31, 2020. According to the regulatory filing, the company’s debt from the date of the listing of the company’s shares until December 31, 2019, has now reduced by a net amount of Rs 1340 crore The company has also paid an interest of Rs 680 crore on such external debt during the said period.

Recently, the company had announced that it has commenced the construction of a 200 MW solar power plant in Australia. The Wellington solar farm is being developed by Lightsource BP.

FINANCE UPDATES

Renewable Energy Certificates Sales Down 10% in December Sales of Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) fell around 10 percent to 5.04 lakh units in December as compared to 5.59 lakh in the same month a year ago due to lower supply, according to official data issued by the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange of India (PXIL), the two power bourses in the country which are engaged in trading of RECs and electricity.

The trading of RECs is conducted on the last Wednesday of every month. But due to the Christmas holiday, the trading this month was done the last Thursday.

According to official data, IEX saw a total trade of 3.6 lakh RECs in December as compared to 3.83 lakh in the same month last year. Similarly, PXIL recorded the sale of 1.44 lakh RECs in the month as compared to 1.76 lakh in December 2018.

The IEX data showed that both non-solar and solar RECs continued to see low supply situation, with buy bids exceeding sell bids due to low inventory. There were buy bids for 13.43 lakh RECs against sell bids for 4.12 lakh RECs for the month of December 2019. Similarly, there were buy bids for 5.74 lakh

RECs and sell bids for 1.49 lakh units for the month at PXIL. Under the renewable purchase obligation (RPO), bulk purchasers like discoms, open access consumers and capacitive users are required to buy a certain proportion of RECs. They can buy RECs from renewable energy producers to meet the RPO norms. The proportion of renewable energy for utilities is fixed by the central and state electricity regulatory commissions.

ADB to Invest $1 bn for Renew- AfDB Okays $21.8 Mn Grant able Transition in the Pacific for Solar Pumps in Sudan The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will invest over USD 1 billion worth of energy projects in the Pacific from 2019 to 2021 to increase renewable energy generation and improve access to affordable and sustainable electricity in the subregion.

ADB’s Pacific Energy Update 2019 details how the bank is helping its Pacific developing member countries undertake a structural shift away from fossil fuel-based energy sources and towards renewables. The report provides a countryby-country snapshot of energy needs and opportunities, and profiles how 29 ADB-supported projects are enabling governments, communities, and the private sector to improve energy security, lower the cost of power, and reduce carbon emissions. “Between 2007 and 2018, ADB-financed projects in the Pacific installed 62 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy generation capacity, constructed or refurbished 1,600 kilometers of power lines, and connected 10,000 households to electricity grids,” said ADB Pacific Department Energy Division Director, Olly Norojono. “Over 2019 to 2021, we are building on these achievements by helping install new sources of renewable power, improve supply-side efficiency, and integrate battery storage. We are also providing support to better manage and regulate countries’ energy sectors.”

The report highlights that many Pacific countries are implementing plans to run on 100 percent renewables, with the transition to cleaner, more efficient power reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels, increasing access to affordable and reliable electricity, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The bank is currently supporting 14 active energy projects in 10 countries in the Pacific worth USD 371 million.

The African Development Bank (AfDB), a multilateral development finance institution, has approved to provide a grant of USD 21.783 million to the Government of Sudan. Through this grant, AfDB aimed to accelerate the adoption of solar-powered irrigation pumps in the Sudan’s West Kordofan and North Kordofan states. Under this project, farmers will be encouraged to adopt renewable energy technology via installation of 1,170 solar (PV) irrigation pumps. Besides, maintenance and repair workshops will also be established for pumps, and equipments will be supplied for a pump testing laboratory in order to provide certification and training. Explaining about the grant benefits, Paul Baldeh, AfDB’s Director for Power Systems Development, said that “by extending farmers a grant covering 75 percent of installation costs, the government, with Bank support, will overcome the most significant hurdle of adopting clean PV technology: high upfront costs.” Furthermore, the remaining 25 percent cost amount will be payable in installments over 3 years. Baldeh added that the project will conduct a ground water survey and sustainability assessment that will inform the development of subsequent projects in Sudan. The Bank said in a statement that, project meets the Sudanese government’s renewable energy and poverty reduction objectives as well as the Bank’s high five and energy sector policy. Additionally, the project has strong potential to be replicated and scaled up in other parts of Sudan, it added. Agriculture plays a significant role in Sudan’s economy. In 2016, about 40 percent of it’s GDP came from farming. This project offers significant and numerous knock-on benefits both for the sector, as well as for the wider economy.

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SPG Plans to Invest $250 mn in Brazilian Solar Market Canada-based Solar Provider Group (SPG) has announced that it has arranged a team to enter the Brazilian solar market with the goal to complete investments totaling USD 250 million over the next five years.

The solar market in Brazil is growing exponentially, with 3.3 GW deployed in 2019 alone, 44 percent growth since 2018, and an estimated 126 GW by 2040.

Public opinion and support have been essential for this substantial growth.

In a recent survey by Ibope Inteligencia, 93 percent of Brazilians want to produce their own renewable electricity at home.

Additionally, in a 2015 survey done by DataSenado, 85 percent of Brazilians supported more public investments in renewable energies, such as solar and

wind. The Government’s goal is to attract USD 8 billion in private direct investments, generating more than 160,000 new jobs.

SPG believes that the Brazilian market has the right set of opportunities that fit perfectly into the company’s global strategy. With a track record that spans 11 countries and over a dozen US states, the company excels at executing in young, fast-growing solar markets.

To achieve its ambitious goals, the firm is looking for local development partners in Brazil, as well as corporate buyers of energy.

The team will be led by Cesar Frota. “I am excited at the opportunity the Brazilian market represents, for both Solar Provider Group and the global solar industry. We look forward to building strong partnerships and providing clean, sustainable energy to my home country of Brazil,” said Frota.

“With its financing, structuring, engineering and development expertise, SPG is looking to build relationships with Brazilian solar companies that excel at permitting and development on a local level. SPG has experience in forming strong partnerships and executing at scale, thus increasing deployment speed and adding value.”

Equinor Hikes Stake in Scatec Solar With 6.5 mn Stock Buy

Fortum to Acquire Battery Recycling Specialist Crisolteq

Equinor has acquired 6,500,000 shares in Scatec Solar, corresponding to 5.2 percent of the shares and votes, at a total purchase price of NOK 754 million (USD 84 million). The purchase price per share is NOK 116 which compares to the closing price on December 19, 2019, of NOK 110.5 and to Scatec Solar’s equity issuance price on 24 September of NOK 116. Following the transaction Equinor owns a total of 18,965,400 shares of Scatec Solar, raising its total shareholding to 15.2 percent of the shares and votes. Pål Eitrheim, executive vice president for New Energy Solutions in Equinor said that through this acquisition of additional shares in Scatec, Equinor further strengthens its exposure to the fast-growing solar energy sector.

“Since acquiring a 10 percent interest a year ago, we have continued to work effectively with Scatec’s management and now we are capitalising on an opportunity to acquire an additional stake in this high performing company. “Our shareholding in Scatec Solar remains an important long-term investment for Equinor and reinforces our strategy to develop a strong position in renewables to secure lasting value for our shareholders. Scatec has a very capable management team and a proven strategy for value creation. We look forward to continuing to engage with the company.” Partnering with Scatec Solar, Equinor entered its first solar development project in 2017 via the Apodi asset in Brazil, followed by a second joint project in June 2018 with the Guanizul 2A in Argentina. Recently, Scatec Solar has been awarded three solar power plant projects in Tunisia totaling approximately 360 MW, following an international tender launched by the Tunisian Ministry of Industry and SMEs earlier this year.

Fortum has announced its acquisition of the entire shareholding in the Finnish company Crisolteq, a specialist in the recycling of valuable metals in lithium-ion batteries. The investment strengthens Fortum’s position in the recycling of high-value materials in Europe. Crisolteq employs 23 people and sales amounted to EUR 2.1 million during its last fiscal year. The parties have agreed not to disclose the acquisition price.

Crisolteq has developed a unique hydrometallurgical recycling process that enables a recycling rate of more than 80 percent for lithium-ion batteries compared to the current recycling rate of about 50 percent. In the hydrometallurgical process cobalt, manganese, and nickel are recovered from the batteries. “The electrification of our society will significantly increase the demand for batteries in the future. We strongly believe in the hydrometallurgical process developed by Crisolteq. We see a very promising future for the technology and see it as an important part of our recycling business. The recycling of valuable metals decreases an environmental load of EV batteries by reducing the need to excavate valuable metals,” said Kalle Saarimaa, vice president, Recycling and Waste, Fortum.

Crisolteq has an industrial-scale hydrometallurgical recycling facility in Harjavalta, Finland. Additionally, Crisolteq has a production plant in Tornio, and research and development activities in Raisio.

The Finnish state-owned energy company will retain a 20 percent minority stake in this wind energy portfolio. Also, it will continue to manage the construction of the wind portfolio and will serve as a long-term asset manager.

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FINANCE UPDATES

India Extends $75 mn LOC to Cuba for Solar Projects India has extended a line of credit (LOC) of USD 75 million (Rs 500 crore) to Cuba for financing solar projects. An agreement signed between Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and Banco Exterior De Cuba in July last year came into effect from December 12, the RBI has said in a statement. Banco Exterior De Cuba is a nominated agency of the Government of Cuba. "Exim Bank has entered into an agreement dated July 16, 2019 with Banco Exterior De Cuba, for making available to the latter, Government of India supported Line of Credit (LoC) of USD 75 million for the purpose of financing installation of 75 MW Photovoltaic Solar Parks in the Republic of Cuba," it said.

Under the LoC, the terminal utilisation period is 60 months after the scheduled completion date of the project.

As per the agreement, financing of export of eligible goods and services from India would be allowed subject to their being eligible for export under the Foreign Trade Policy. Out of the total credit by Exim Bank under the agreement, goods, works and services of the value of at least 75 per cent of the contract price can be supplied by the seller from India, and

the remaining 25 per cent of goods and services may be procured by the seller from outside India, the statement added.

In December 2019, we had reported that India had extended LOCs for two solar projects in Guinea. The agreements were exchanged in the presence of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Guinean counterpart Mamadi Toure.

Solar Projects, City Gas & Infra Bright Funding Spots: SBI

Mahindra Gets IFC-Backing for 250 MW Project in Rajasthan

State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Rajnish Kumar has stressed that there is adequate availability of funds with the banking system but he does not find enough projects where investment is being sought. He said even if there are projects, those are mainly in solar power, city gas projects and to some extent in the roads sector and infrastructure.

“Our first indication is that we are the largest financier of projects, we have a very big team for project finance and currently it is under-utilised,” Kumar said at the 92nd Annual Convention of industry body FICCI here.

“Last year, we did only two financial closures which can be said to be large tickets. One was HPCL refinery in Rajasthan where the project size is almost Rs 50,000 crore and the other was Mumbai Nagpur Super Communication Expressway where the project size is again Rs 50,000 crore and half of the money has come from the bankers. “Other than that, I don’t have a project where funding demand is more than Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 crore today. So I want to ask you (industry), where are the projects? And if there are no projects then how do I lend and to whom I lend?” Kumar asked the industrialists present at the convention. The State Bank today has loan sanction limits of up to Rs 8 lakh crore, but the utilisation (demand) is of only Rs 5.5-6 lakh crore, the SBI chairman said.

He also nudged the industry to enrich their borrowing capacity so as to boost investment in the economy, asserting there is no dearth of funds and most of the banks will be in a better position by March-end as far as stressed assets and nonperforming loans were concerned.

Mahindra Renewables Private Limited (MRPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra Group cleantech arm Mahindra Susten Private Ltd (MSPL) has announced that it is planning to invest around USD 171 million to set up a IFC-backed 250 MW solar power project in Rajasthan around 1200 acres at Bhiv ji ka gaon Village in Bap Tehsil, Jodhpur District.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the financial arm of the World Bank, has announced that it plan to lend USD 36 million for the 250 MW solar project by Mahindra Renewables in Rajasthan. The project involves an IFC ‘A’ Loan investment of Rupee equivalent of the USD 36 million to the company and assistance in mobilisation of the syndicated parallel loan of Rupee equivalent of USD 93 million for the development, financing, construction of the Project.

The IFC will provide fixed interest rate local/Rupee currency loan with long term maturity of up to 20 years. This will improve Project viability against interest rate fluctuations.

The project is part of the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) 2 GW interstate transmission system (ISTS) connected solar project that was auctioned in 2018.

In that auction, Mahindra Susten, along with ACME Solar, Shapoorji Pallonji, Hero Solar, Mahoba Solar (Adani), and Azure Power, emerged as the winners. Mahindra was awarded 250 MW capacity in the tender with a bid amount of Rs 2.53/kWh. MRPL is an existing portfolio client of IFC having committed a 20-year local currency loan in February 2018 for development of a 250 MW solar project within the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Park in the State of Madhya Pradesh.

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MODULE UPDATES

JA Solar Planning to Invest $947 mn to Build 2 PV Plants China-based leading manufacturer of high-performance photovoltaic (PV) products, JA Solar has announced that it is planning to invest CNY 6.6 billion (USD 947.7 million) for the establishment of two new solar PV manufacturing plants in China with a combined annual production capacity close to 15 GW. The company has signed a framework agreement with the management committee of a local industrial zone in China’s Zhejiang province regarding the proposed investment, it said in a bourse filing. The firm intends to build a production facility in Yiwu city where it will be able to make 5 GW of solar PV cells per year, while a new 10-GW factory will produce PV modules. According to the manufacturer, the construction of the two new bases is expected to take around four years but this will not have an impact on its current revenue.

Recently, it was reported that the firm had won the bid for supplying 490 MW of high-efficiency modules for Huanghe Hydropower’s ultra-high voltage (UHV) Transmission Project in Qinghai Province, China. Huanghe Hydropower is a subsidiary of SPIC (State Power Investment Corporation), one of the

biggest power investors in China. The project, with a scale of 3.1 GW, is the world’s leading UHV demonstration project.

This is also of great significance for the application of new technologies and the exploration of deploying renewable energy projects with UHV.

Vikram Solar Modules in 300 Solar Pumps Across WB & Odisha

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Vikram Solar, one of India’s leading module manufacturers and a prominent EPC and rooftop solar solutions provider, has announced the installation of over 300 solar water pump projects in West Bengal and Odisha using the company’s solar modules.

The leading module manufacturer supplied solar modules to the Water Resource Department, Government of West Bengal for the installation of 140 pumps. These solar-powered pumps were installed with the objective of minor irrigation. Solar modules for 80 solar pumps were supplied to the Public Health Engineering Department, Government of West Bengal, and another 80 to Zila Parishad, amounting to the successful development of sustainable irrigation through 300 projects across rural West Bengal and Odisha.

Devendra Verma, head of Channel Sales, Vikram Solar said, “due to the unpredictable nature of rain in India, people in rural parts of the country have to work additionally hard for water.

Solar water pumps are therefore an economical solution enabling farmers and residents in these areas to spend SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

more time on their livelihood, rather than worrying about water on a daily basis.”

He further added “Vikram Solar believes that India’s solar pump scheme can make a positive impact in agricultural economics through better, faster, and dependable irrigation systems.

Therefore, this is our attempt to bring reliability in such projects by offering best-in-class solar modules. Our humble

contribution to this sector is a testament to the commitment we uphold to aid in India’s solar mission.”

Recently, we had reported that the firm had commissioned three new solar power plants for the Airport Authority of India (AAI). These solar energy plants were commissioned by the company at AAI airports of Dibrugarh in Assam; Gaya in Bihar; and Gondia in Maharashtra.

PROJECT UPDATES

Waaree Breathes Easy: Gets MERC Approval for 184MW Project Waaree Energies Limited (WEL), which had emerged as the sole bidder in the much postponed tender for 184 mw of solar power in Maharashtra can finally get started on the project. This follows the approval of its bid of Rs 3.05 per unit under the tender by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC). The tender had been called for

by Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MSPGCL), which along with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited ( MSEDCL) was handling the same, under the state's Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vaahini Yojana’. A scheme targeting renewable energy specifically for agricultural activities. A second request before MERC, to consider the power generated under the state's RPO obligations, was also accepted.

For the Mumbai-headquartered Waaree, the order will be a very useful addition to its pipeline, considering its own stated 2 GW manufacturing capacity for solar PV modules. The firm is led by Hitesh Joshi, its Chairman and Managing Director.

Here is what the final order states.

Maharashtra State Power Generation

Company Ltd and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd. are allowed to procure 184 MW Solar Power at the rate of Rs. 3.05/kWh discovered through Competitive bidding under Section 63 of the Electricity Act, 2003 from M/s Waaree Energies Limited for 25 Years under Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana.

Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Ltd and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd. to make necessary changes in the Power Purchase Agreement and Power Sale Agreement and submit the same to the Commission.

The Solar Power procured from these projects shall be counted towards fulfillment of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd.’s Solar RPO for the respective periods.

The key issue that came up, as readers will notice, is the peculiar situation of a single bidder despite many attempts,which made a final reverse bidding process between bidders as mandated, impossible.

Not just that, Waaree, by quoting Rs 3.23 per unit in case it was to produce

receipt of having paid safeguard duty, had also created a need for a deeper look at the pricing, since land and associated costs were being provided

by MSPGCL. Finally, the firm agreed to a valuation of 18 paise on the safeguard duty, while land and other related costs were valued at Rs 0.057 for the life of the 25 year projects. Making for minimal impact, and a final price of Rs 3.05.

Another issue that had been considered is the fact that the commission had approved a rate of Rs. 2.99/kWh for 50 MW of Solar Power as recently as 23 December 2019 under Case No. 310 of 2019 with similar provisions, which was jointly filed by MSPGCL and MSEDCL. It decided that the rate of Rs 3.05 was close enough to that rate.

In any case, with Waaree a manufacturer itself of key components, with a strong domestic sourcing record, the price of Rs 3.05 for every Kilowatt hour is being taken as a given, clearly.

With the project spread over multiple districts and sites in Maharashtra, the minimum bid quantity had already been reduced from 5 MW to 2 MW by the commission in an earlier order.

PGCIL Tenders for Transformer Package for Kurnool WEZ/SEZ

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The Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) has issued a tender for setting up of a 400KV transformer package TR-25 for 4 x 500 MVA, 400/220 kV, 3-Phase ICTs at Kurnool-III PS under the transmission system for the Kurnool Wind Energy Zone/ Solar Energy Zone in Andhra Pradesh.

The scope of work covered under the subject package shall include the supply, erection, testing & commissioning of auto transformers along with all fittings, accessories including the Marshalling box for each auto transformer, cables and mandatory spares as per Technical specification for the four numbers of 500 MVA, 3-Ph, 400/220/33 kV auto transformer at the 765/400/220 kV Kurnool-III substation.

The last date for bid submission is January 22, 2019, (January 20, 2019 for online submission of bids) and the techno-commercial bids will be opened on January 22, 2019. A pre-bid meeting has been scheduled for January 8, 2019, to address the concerns raised by the prospective bidders.

All bidders are required to submit an Earnest Money Deposit of Rs 1.008 crore along with their bids.

In December 2019, The Andhra Pradesh Solar Power Corporation (APSPCL) had issued a second tender, inviting SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

bids from eligible parties for carrying out the operation and maintenance (O&M) services for the 1000 MW Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park located in the Gani and Sakunala villages in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

This was the second such tender that the APSPCL has issued.

The first tender was issued for carrying out the operation and maintenance (O&M) services for the 1500 MW Ananthapuramu Ultra Mega Solar Park in the state.

PROJECT UPDATES

Tata Power Solar Bags 250 MW Solar Project from NTPC Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd, India’s largest solar energy company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power, has received Letter Of Award (LOA) from NTPC for a 250 MW solar project under the CPSU scheme.

The total value of the order is Rs 1,505 crore and the completion period is 20 months. With this order, the order book of Tata Power Solar stands at approximately Rs. 7600 crore including external and internal orders.

“It is Tata Power Solar’s biggest single order from a third party. Aligning with the Government’s ‘Make in India’ mission and bringing together our core strengths in domestic manufacturing and EPC services over the last two decades” said Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power. Under the CPSU scheme, only domestically manufactured cells and modules would be used for the project.

“This is a prestigious project for us and we are thankful to NTPC for reinforcing

their confidence in our capabilities. It consolidates our commitment towards “Make in India” and underscores our competitive & quality offering as a leading EPC player in the country,” said Ashish Khanna, President-Renewables.

In November 2019, Tata Power Solar had also received a Letter Of Award

from NTPC to develop a 105 MW floating solar project in Kayamkulam, Kerala.

This Rs 343 core project, required to be commissioned not later than 21 months, includes three-years O&M component.

Kayamkulam project is one of the most prominent floating solar projects in the country.

MSEDCL Retenders for Procurement of 1350 MW Solar Power The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has issued its tender for the procurement of 1350 MW solar power for a second time. The projects which are proposed to be developed across 30 districts in Maharashtra had yielded only one bid for 5 MW the first time the tender was issued.

The scope of work for the selected developers will include setting up of the solar projects, including the transmission and distribution network, up to the delivery point at their own cost. It will also include acquiring necessary approvals, permits, and clearances. The tender adds that the selection of projects would be technology agnostic within PV technology. This implies that projects would be selected regardless of the technology used in the solar modules and irrespective of whether they come with trackers or not.

The last date for bid submission is January 29, 2019, and the techno-commercial bids will be opened on the same date.

All bidders must submit an Earnest Money Deposit of Rs 1 lakh per MW of quoted

bid capacity. As per the new Request for Selection (RfS) the MSEDCL has raised the ceiling tariff for the projects from Rs 3.15/kWh to Rs 3.30/kWh. The tender document further states that projects of 50 MW capacity would be developed in 24 districts or circles. Projects of 25 MW

capacity will be installed across six districts.

To be eligible for participating in the bidding process, the bidders must have a net worth of at least Rs 5.5 crore/MW per quoted capacity and a minimum annual turnover of Rs 2.5 crore in the last financial year.

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PROJECT UPDATES

Solar Power Makes An Impact at Mumbai Suburban Stations Now Even as utility, and even rooftop solar continues to have a somewhat bumpy journey in India, dis-tributed solar continues to make progress. Now, 15 stations on the Western Line of Mumbai’s sub-urban train system have got a special solar powered facility. A solar powered phone charging system. These 100% solar powered systems can charge upto 8 phones at a time, and 100 during the day. The Western Railway division of Indian railway, which manages this line, has provided the facility free of cost to its users, available 24X7.

The panels for the charging kiosks have been mounted on the station rooftops, with an LCD display on the ground giving real-time information on the solar power generated, CO2 saved and battery status.

Starting from Churchgate station, to Grant Road, Mumbai Central, Lower Parel, Dadar, Santacruz, Andheri (W), Kandivali (W), Borivali (E), Borivali (W), Vasai (W), Nallasopara (W), Virar, Boisar

and Palghar have been provided this for now. Another 5 stations are in line to get the facility soon. The facility, while bound to be welcomed by commuters in the city, where over 4 million of them use the western line train services every day. Thus, chances are, a single kiosk at

every station will probably be too little, even if a good start. One also hopes that the central Railways managed central line and the Harbour line also move quickly to emulate the western railways in the initiative. The company that has partnered on this initiative is Mumbai-based Funsolar, a not for profit firm focused on delivering solutions based on renewables. The firm seems to be focused on a CSR led model of products that can be installed in public places. Its an interesting option taken up by quite a few firms in the space, particularly when it comes to distributed solar products, which seek to bring energy access to the poorest, or in public spaces.

According to Shri Ravinder Bhakar – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, the cost of each of these kiosks is Rs 1 lakh, but these have been provided to the railways under a CSR pro-gramme.

He did not specific the name of the corporate.

SECI Invites EoI for Buying & Blending Power with RE

Inox Wind Bags 250 MW EPC Bid from Continuum Power

With an aim to blend power generated from various sources with renewable energy (RE), state-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI) has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from various power generators.

As per the SECI notification, “invites Expression of Interest from the interested Generators involved in the field of generation & supply of power from hydro, pumped storage, gas, battery storage, and thermal generating stations (including group captive plants) to supply power to SECI at their nearest STU/CTU substation in order to enable SECI to blend it with different renewable sources like wind energy, solar energy & hybrid (wind & solar).”

The last date and time for submission of response to this Eol is January 31, 2020 till 5:30 pm. The motive behind blending is to make it round the clock and firm in order to meet the requirements of various Discoms and/or Commercial and Industrial(C&I) consumers, it added.

Notably, the inputs received from this EOI will be used by SECI to prepare the tender for procurement of power from other generators to balance the RE power purchased by it and to supply firm power to its customers. However, the power purchase agreements (PPA) will be signed by SECI with other generators at a tariff arrived via competitive bidding process for a period decided upon with the beneficiary, which may range from 1 year to 25 years.

Inox Wind has secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of 250 MW of wind energy projects from Continuum Power Trading (TN) Pvt Ltd, an arm of Continuum Wind Energy group. As per the signed term-sheet, the Noidaheadquartered company will supply, erect and commission 250 MW of wind power projects comprising of its 2 MW and 3 MW turbines. Further, the project will be commissioned in two phases of 126 MW and 124 MW respectively. It’s 2 MW wind turbines comprised of with 113 metre rotor diameter turbine combined with 92 metre hub height, whereas 3 MW wind turbine comprised of 145 metre rotor diameter turbine combined with 120 metre hub height.Continuum Power had won this 250 MW wind project in Gujarat in a tender issued by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).Kailash Tarachandani, executive director & CEO of Inox Wind Ltd, said “we are glad to once again partner with Continuum for its 250 MW SECI project in Gujarat. 170 MW of Inox’s turbines are already operating at Continuum’s wind farm at Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh since 2015 and such repeat orders demonstrate customer’s confidence in us and our products.”

He further added that “the project will be commissioned in two phases and will comprise of 2 MW and 3 MW turbines, the most efficient and cost effective indigenous wind turbines of the country. We are one of the few selected players ideally positioned to grow in this market scenario and we are focusing on ramping up operations and increasing execution.”

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OPINION

2020 Could Be Africa’s Arrival As A Solar Market With Size

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After a long wait, 2020 could well mark a decisive shift in the energy availability graph for countries in Africa, as multiple approaches and tactics finally make a case for a stronger push.

For long, Africa has suffered from the world’s lowest electrification rate. Figures from 2017 state that Its power consumption per capita is just 613 kilowatt-hours per year, compared to 6,500 kWh in Europe and 13,000 in the United States. take out relatively industrialised South Africa, and the figures become even worse. In figures that have been cited regularly, electricity consumption per person in large African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria is less than one-tenth that of Brazil or China. In poorer countries such as Mali, a typical household uses less electricity in a year than a Londoner uses to boil a kettle each day. And nearly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity altogether — with the result that whole communities live in the dark, come night time.

Republic, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo. Funding is critical to cover the high initial capital costs, as well as cover for lack of adequate information on key parame-ters like credit history of customers etc.

The World Bank funds include $150 million in credit and grants from the International Develop-ment Association – a unit of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries – and a $74.7 million contingent recovery grant from the Clean Technology Fund of the Climate Investment Funds, which are also administered by the World Bank alongside regional development banks. Con-tingent recovery grants must be repaid if other lenders go on to supply funding to ROGEP. “The project is expected to benefit about 1.7 million people currently living without electricity con-nections or with unreliable supply, as well as businesses and public institutions who will use modern standalone solar systems to improve their living standards and economic activities,” the World Bank had said in a statement announcing the funding.

It’s a story that is repeated in country after country in the massive continent, with lack of transmis-sion infrastructure to blame usually. This is a legacy of the blighted way in which most borders were drawn up by colonial countries, as well as issues with terrain, political instability, and lack of financing. All this has coalesced to create a big opportunity in the continent today, for renewables, as well as distributed or off grid solar, in fact. The efforts are finally beginning to show results, in fact.

Back in April this year, the African Development Bank started a campaign to “light up and power Africa”. It has committed $12 billion to energy projects between 2017 and 2022, and aims to attract a further $50 billion in private sector investment.

The World Bank has agreed to bolster the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP) with access to USD 225 million in cash and credit.

The project improves off-grid access to electricity through standalone solar systems in 19 countries in West Africa and the Sahel including Benin, Cameroon, the Central African

Taking the cue is a new breed of African innovators that is harnessing mobile money, along with advances in solar power and battery storage, to leapfrog the continent’s gaps in electric power gen-eration. One example is Kenya-based M-Kopa, which provides solar-powered electricity generation and storage solutions to households that lack access to the grid — and finances payment over a twelve-month period via mobile money accounts. Since its founding, in 2011, M-KOPA has sold more than 600,000 household kits and garnered investments from multinationals including Japan’s Mitsui. {Three months after their purchase, 86% of customers are using the Solar Home Systems as their main source of light.

Most customers using a different main source of light are using the grid or a generator (Figure 12). However, SHS are also replacing generators and, to a lesser extent, the grid as a main source of light- Gogla} Another example is Uganda-based Fenix, which has sold 140,000 solar power kits, also enabled by mobile money.

SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

OPINION

In late 2017 Fenix was acquired by Engie, a major global energy company based in France, as part of a drive to use digital technologies to provide 20 million people around the world with decarbonised, decentralized energy by 2020.

Yet another pioneer is UK-based BBOXX, which distributes its solar kits through agents in ten African countries — and uses remote monitoring technology to improve battery life and users’ experience.

The fact that most off grid suppliers have to compete with diesel powered captive power, and barely any central grid, makes the opportunity, and the battle more even. The drop in solar power costs means that they find themselves very competitive versus captive power today, without adding to the pollution or logistics of fuel transport too. That means, even in larger economies like Nigeria, there is a market. Firms like Lumos, a big provider of off grid power in Nigeria, claim that their monthly costs are $15 per household, as compared to $70 for captive power.

While a variety of technologies and products are considered part of the off-grid ecosystem, solar home systems have been the favoured option from an investment perspective, and particularly those sold under a pay-as-you-go (paygo) model.

Under this model, residential customers in remote areas are provided with a solar-generation unit, usually backed up with a battery, and the homeowners make lease payments over time as they bene-fit from the electricity. Paygo allows solar companies to tap into a vast base of potential customers that cannot pay for a system upfront, but it means the companies must carry that debt on their bal-ance sheet. Of course, the

model requires scale, which itself requires funding. The good news? Funding has become much more cheaper and widely available for firms with a proven model and technology, enabling some to grow faster.

Firms like Engie are also investing in a big way in mini-grids, which seek to power entire villages with renewable systems upto 5 MW in capacity. With many such projects and pilots launched in the past 18 months, 2020 might just be the year when the next level of push happens. Another example of the unconventional partnerships taking shape in the continent is that be-tween telecommunications operator Orange payas-you-go solar power provider Greenlight Planet, to provide Orange customers with access to clean energy solutions in several African coun-tries.These countries include Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone etc.

The partnership involves both companies deploying Greenlight Planet’s Sun King range of off-grid energy systems available to the hardest-to-reach regions, especially to the households who live off-the-grid.

Greenlight Planet’s solar systems first become available for Orange’s eight million customers in Burkina Faso from November 2019 onwards.

Thus, even as total capacity number projections or the continent vary between 3 to 4 GW from var-ious estimates, these probably ignore the possibilities for off grid solar, which can contribute mas-sively. 2020 will hopefully being both clarity and direction, to make it even easier for firms to con-sider the continent’s countries in their plans.

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OPINION

Can Surplus Renewables Production in West Rajasthan Build A Big Battery?

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Back in 2017, when Tesla set out to make the 129 MW lithium ion based battery installation in Australia at the Hornsdale Wind Farm, many people scoffed at its usefulness. However, it proved its role as a load balancer to stabilise the grid in case of sudden drops in power generation else-where. So much so that the French renewables firm that runs the plant has contracted Tesla to ex-pand capacity at Hornsdale Power Reserve to 150 megawatts. The Australian government has pledged up to A$72m in grants and loans to support the expansion.

Hornsdale has the capacity to supply about 30,000 homes for one hour. The operator claims that the battery saved consumers A$50m in its first year of operation and that those savings would grow when the expansion is completed this year.

It said the facility would become the first large-scale battery in Australia to provide inertia and fast frequency services — important elements needed to maintain grid stability — to the national elec-tricity network.

The news from Western Rajasthan is that in Jaisalmer region, where the total installed wind power capacity is 3933.52 MW and solar energy production is 113 MW, production has delivered a surplus over consumption for the 10th consecutive year.

In fact, the Jaisalmer Wind Park is among India’s largest operational onshore wind farms today. This project, originally developed by Suzlon Energy, was initiated in August 2001.

That, and subsequent installations have clearly delivered on their promise. “On an average, the windmills generate 25 to 30 percent of the total installed capacity,” a discom official said. Current installed wind capacity is over 3900 MW, while solar Capacity is close to 115 MW. Solar Power took off only from 2015 onwards, as prices started moving down, and transmission infrastructure improved. At current rates, solar has become attractive enough to make Rajasthan a front runner state for capacity addition for the next few years. {Image Caption - Technological SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

advancements have drastically driven down the costs of ener-gy storage to almost match the rates of onshore wind and ground-mounted solar projects in 2019, and with further advancements and research ongoing the prices will come down even further. Making energy storage systems a smart investment decision in almost all geographies.} This surplus has reduced the dependence on thermal based energy. However, with a battery storage system in place, there is an opportunity to reduce dependence on thermal to zero, and in fact, supply a much wider area with power from renewable sources.

Not only would this be a green move, it would also make sense to consumer renewable power pro-duced locally, as it reduces further transmission and distribution losses, not to mention possible cur-tailment when production is too high for the grid to take.

At the current consumption of 130-140 MW’s in Jaisalmer region, experts opine that even a 30MW storage facility might be enough to ensure power at all times

for the region. The facility could also support further development of solar hybrid models such as the ‘agri-voltaic’ model developed by the Central Arid Zone Research Institute, which have had some success in combining solar energy production with agriculture, sustainably.

The key aspect being to use and harvest the water in solar panel cleaning for agricultural activities on the same plot of land. With surrounding districts of Bikaner and Barmer also producing energy on their own now, there is an even stronger case for the region to consider a battery storage option. The giant oil extraction facilities of Vedanta Limited owned Cairn India in Barmer, now India’s largest single private sector oil extraction site, could handily contribute to such a mission from its CSR funds possibly.

Here’s hoping that relevant stakeholders will look at making the region an even bigger part of the map by placing India’s largest storage battery there, and looking at making all of Western Rajasthan, self sustained and free of fossil fuel electricity soon.

OPINION

Will ADITYA Succeed Where UDAY failed?

Based on the stories that have come out so far, the following aspects of the proposed new scheme to clear India’s discom mess have emerged.

Called ADITYA (Atal Distribution System Improvement Yojana), the new scheme could be announced as early as February 1, with the union budget presentation.

First, the scheme will reward performing discoms with central grants, with a total corpus of Rs 1.10 lakh crores available .

That’s close to $15 billion dollars.

Secondly, discoms that are unable to meet targets for improvement will have to privatise, to cut the risk of draining future taxpayer funds on them.

Finally, the big expectation from the scheme would be a massive overhaul of the distribution network, from network overhaul, to expansion to importantly, the seeding of smart meters across the systems consumers, including its 250 million households. this is the part that excites the government right now, with the possibility of attracting almost 3 lakh crores into the sector upto 2024 by its estimates. Yes, that’s close to $43 billion for the power sector to reform for good.

Now lets look at why this move could provide the renewable energy sector with fresh momentum over a period of time. Quite simply, it has to, otherwise we will never meet our targets, both short term (10 GW in 2020), medium term (100 GW total by 2022), and long term (500 GW by 2030). Thus, leaving the discom mess unfixed would imperil the country’s complete national climate goals , one of which is to reach 40% share of renewables by 2030. So how will it help?

Straightaway, the availability of central support will mean a fresh opportunity for discoms in the richer states to clean up when it comes to their dues owed to the power producers (almost Rs 81,000 crores at last count) to Renewable energy providers (almost Rs 6,000 crores).

The entry of these dues back into the system would go a long way in pushing key projects ahead again. For industry majors like Renew Power, Avaada, Acme Solar and Azure power, timely payments have become THE issue today.

Next up would be the impact of smart

metering. As more and more households across the country are brought in, it means much better data quality for suppliers to plan ahead. Increasing share of renewables in the grid will benefit a lot from this better data, as issues of grid stability and future grid planning are more data led. Issues like the actual cost of subsidies to agriculture and other consumer categories, where supply is on a fixed cost basis, will also help weed out discom inefficiencies. Right now, subsidies frequently serve to cover up poor practices elsewhere.

Better discom health could also lead to far reaching changes, in the form of more progressive policies on open access sales of renewable power, besides sticking to progressive policies on rooftop like net metering. We have seen an alarming regression to a push towards positively harmful policy changes recently, including gross metering, which has arrested rooftop solar growth.

Changes under the new policy, when taken in conjunction with the many trackers that have been built for tracking power policies and progress across

states, be it the Saral Index or the State Energy Efficiency Index, could ensure a much more streamlined power sector in a matter of 2-3 years, a time frame that isn’t really long for the staid sector.

But as always, the move comes with a strong caveat.

The biggest is of course the previous record of attempts to reform the power sector, almost all of which have floundered. While power being a state subject has been one of the reasons, clearly the pressure was to deliver quick improvements without taking the long term sustainability into the picture. That is one reason why the current UDAY scheme (Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojna) is set to be declared a failure, with overall distribution losses barely budging by 3%from the time it was introduced.

Some states are also likely to resist the idea of privatising discoms fiercely. In fact, getting all states on the same page for reforms could be a task almost as big as GST reform. But hope we must, because not taking any step is no longer an option.

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PRODUCTS

Slim Smart Wallet with Solar and USB Recharge

PRODUCT BRIEF: The Slim smart wallet is the World’s first wallet that comes with solar and USB recharge and two way tracking for phones OR wallet.

PRODUCT FEATURES: The wallet has a RFID chip that is used for the two way tracking of the users phone or the Walter itself. The wallet comes with a retrofitted panel that can be used to power devices like mobile phones, bluetooth headphones on the go with the use of sunlight.

APPLICATION: Wallet/ Wireless Power Source PRODUCT BENEFITS: Solar Wallet is a modern interpretation of the classic bi-fold wallet, providing +10 extra hours of charge and tracking features when you need them most. And most importantly: without taking up any of your personal space.

AVAILABILITY: The product has been backed by 1421 people tasing USD 177,151 for the project, and the product is now available for preorder.

SolarGaps Smart Solar Blinds

PRODUCT BRIEF: The smart solar blinds by SolarGap are the most economical and efficient solution for for those who can't or don't want to install rooftop solar panels to reduce their monthly power bill.

PRODUCT FEATURES: SolarGaps smart blinds automatically track the sun throughout the day, adjusting position to the optimal angles to generate solar electricity to power devices in your home, apartment or office. Built-in solar panels can generate up to 100W-150W of renewable energy per 10 sq. ft. of a window, enough to power 30 LED light bulbs or three MacBooks.

APPLICATION: Window Blinds and Solar Power Panels PRODUCT BENEFITS: With apartment renters in mind, the interior wall brackets are designed as a non-permanent, plug & play solution with additional installation options for homeowners to maximise energy production. In addition to generating solar energy, the window blinds also save energy by shading your home interior and reducing air condition cost by up to 80 percent.

AVAILABILITY: The firm raised USD 102,354 through its kickstarter campaign and has since moved to production phase.

SolarPuff Solar Light

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PRODUCT BRIEF: This award-winning solar light is engineered with an origami inspired, self-inflating design and creates beautiful, clean light in 3 colours: bright white, warm and multicolour.

PRODUCT FEATURES: It's light weight, just 2.5 ounces and it floats and can withstand complete immersion under water.

For as many hours as you charge it in the sun, it will provide light for just as long. For example, 5 hours of charging in the sun will provide illumination to light up a 10 X 10 room for 5-8 hours.

APPLICATION: Lighting PRODUCT BENEFITS: Made from eco-friendly, recyclable PET sailcloth, the SolarPuff™ is lightweight, collapsible, waterproof and durable, even in extreme weather.

AVAILABILITY: The product has moved from a $446,940 kickstarter campaign to full scale production and is available for purchase on the firms website. https://solight-design. com/products/solarpuff SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

PRODUCTS

Soliom Solar Powered Wirefree Video Doorbell

PRODUCT BRIEF: The Soliom solar power video doorbell is a completely wire free, self sustainable doorbell with video camera that can be installed in under 5-10 minutes by the user on any surface.

PRODUCT FEATURES: The product completely self-sustainable with its built-in solar power panel and a 5000 mAh lithium battery. With the panel strong enough to charge the battery even on cloudy days. The doorbell camera also records video in the dark with night vision feature.

APPLICATION: Video Doorbell Security PRODUCT BENEFITS: The product has a 1080P HD quality live streaming feature. And also allows users to remotely interact with people who press the doorbell using the two-way talk feature that is accessible from the mobile phones. The doorbell also has motion tracking feature and IP65 weatherproof rating.

AVAILABILITY: The product is available for purchase through the firms website for USD 159-250. https://soliom.net/products/soliom-solar-door-bell

RokPak: Solar, Battery Pack, Drybox All in One

PRODUCT BRIEF: The Pioneer Series is the world’s first and only product to combine solar charging, battery charging and rugged waterproof storage into an all-in-one lightweight solution PRODUCT FEATURES: The product features dual smart USB charging ports with 2.4A output (each) allow for fast charging of any USB device including smartphones, tablets, cameras, GPS, etc. with the 12,000-mAh lithium ion battery.

APPLICATION: Off-grid Power Bank and Storage Box PRODUCT BENEFITS: Built for the toughest conditions passing Military Standard 810G drop testing and IP67 waterproof certification, RokPak gives the user the freedom to go anywhere in the world with power. Despite being sturdy the product is lightweight and floats on water, and works in a wide temperature range.

AVAILABILITY: The kickstarter campaign saw 624 backers raise USD 103,075 for the product. The product is now available for purchase on the firms website.

Lumos Thrillseeker Solar Backpack

PRODUCT BRIEF: With a built in Solar Fabric, the Lumos Thrillseeker solar backpack is a 12-litre hydration bag has been designed for great stability and clings to the wearer even during the roughest of trail rides.

PRODUCT FEATURES: The Solar Fabric charges a proprietary Lithium-based battery inside the bag which can be used to charge GPS devices, Bike Lights or Smart-phones.

APPLICATION: Adventure/Travel Luggage PRODUCT BENEFITS: The curved profile of the backpack fits the rider snugly, thereby reducing the strain of carrying a backpack during activities. The lithium based battery can be used to charge any USB compatible device on the go, and the water rating of the backpack and solar fabric make it easily the preferred choice on adventure trails. The solar fabric is curved to maximise the solar exposure and is also lighter than conventional solar panels.

AVAILABILITY: The backpack is available on select e-commerce websites like amazon.in where it retails for Rs 4000.

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OPPORTUNITIES

Renewable Power Developer - Shell

Shell New Energies focuses on two areas new fuels and power. New Fuels consists of investments in hydrogen, biofuels, and electric vehicle charging. The company is looking for a Renewable Power Developer with the ability to bring their expertise and excitement for solving complex problems.

Location of job: San Francisco - California Type of job: The position is full-time.

Number of position: One Last date to apply: February 09, 2020 Eligibility Criterion: • Bachelor’s Degree preferred.

• Minimum 10 years of experience required. In which at least 5 years of experience in development of PV, PVS, wind, and/ or storage assets.

• Record of success in greenfield utility scale PVS, and/or wind development.

• Expertise executing land campaigns and all early stage development activities including interconnection and environmental permitting.

• Fluency in transmission and distribution planning. Experience working with utilities and/or grid authorities.

• Strong network within utility scale renewable power & storage generation.

Job Description: • Own and drive greenfield development activity for large scale renewable power and storage projects in the US. Nearterm focus on photo-voltaic & storage (PVS) development.

• Lead land campaigns from strategy through execution. Work with division leadership to establish performance benchmarks and lead cross-functional team to exceed them.

• Establish best-in-class greenfield development process and tools via deep understanding of site acquisition, as well as US transmission infrastructure, transmission planning process, interconnection process and permitting for renewables & storage assets.

Apply here: https://bit.ly/36MXGna

New Homes, Project Manager – Sunrun

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The Project Manager is responsible for New Homes community launch and execution as well as individual project fulfillment from job release to interconnection / service transfer to the homebuyer. This position is the primary contact and safeguard regarding project operations and job flow for the home builders as well as Sunrun sales and field operations.

Location of job: California - Sacramento Type of job: The position is full-time.

Eligibility Criterion: • 3-5 years of previous project coordination experience.

• Solar and/or production building experience preferred.

• Demonstrated customer service skills.

SAUR ENERGY INTERNATIONAL | VOL 4 l ISSUE 05

• Strong verbal and written skills.

• Excellent organizational and time management skills.

• Detail-oriented and enjoys working in a fast-paced environment.

• Strong computer skills including proficiency in MS Word, Excel, Outlook, Salesforce and internet use, Oracle experience a plus.

Job Description: • Create and manage builder community launches in partnership with the Sunrun Builder Account Manager.

• P repare internal stakeholders for builder/community onboarding and lead the cross functional builder/community onboarding process.

• Analyze builder process and procedure, analyze viability, and implement new processes amongst internal operations stakeholders as applicable.

• Be subject matter expert for all aspects related to builder/ community performance within the assigned communities • Provide thorough analysis and recommendations to business stakeholders including department executives for program management improvements Apply here: https://bit.ly/2NnjXAt

Residential Solar Construction Manager - SolarCraft

SolarCraft has been committed, for more than 35 years, to providing solar and clean energy solutions that deliver the highest financial and environmental benefits possible to our North Bay community.

SolarCraft is seeking an experienced, highly motivated Residential Solar Construction Manager (CM) to join its Residential Projects team.

Location of job: Novato - California Type of job: The position is full-time.

Eligibility Criterion: • Good leadership and people management skills.

• Strong time management, organizational and problemsolving skills.

• Self-starter with the ability to work well in a fast-paced work environment both independently and as part of a team.

• Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills, and demonstrate the ability to provide and receive feedback, and be an effective listener.

• Consistently works in a professional and presentable manner appropriate with role and technical scope of work, both in the office and in the field.

Job Description: • Manage and work with various departments and field teams to ensure accurate and timely completion of one or more projects at a time, often at different stages of development and deployment.

• Maintain project cost tracking and manage project schedules and costs.

• Review, approve, and help to create project Scope of Work (SOW) documents for contracts and then execute to SOW to optimize mutual results for SolarCraft and clients.

• Conduct weekly project management meetings and maintain consistent and clear communications with clients.

Apply here: https://bit.ly/2FHaakx

EVENTS SIGMA SUMMIT 2020

INTERSOLUTION 2020

website : https://sigmasummit.com

website : www.intersolution.be

START DATE : 09-JAN-2020 END DATE : 11-JAN-2020

Location : New Delhi, India Phone : +91 82879 33633

START DATE : 15-JAN-2020 END DATE : 16-JAN-2020

E-mail : events@sigmasummit.com

E-mail : info@intersolution.be

INTERSOLAR NORTH AMERICA 2020

THE ENERGY EXPO

website : www.intersolar.us

website : www.theenergyexpo.com

START DATE : 04-FEB-2020 END DATE : 06-FEB-2020

Location : California, USA Phone : +49 761 38813800

START DATE : 12-FEB-2020 END DATE : 13-FEB-2020

Location : Ghent, Belgium Phone : +32 9 3857719

Location : Miami, USA Phone : (305) 412-0000

E-mail : bregazzi@intersolar.us

E-mail : mail@TEE2019.com

MIDDLE EAST ELECTRICITY 2020

THE SOLAR SHOW MENA 2020

website : https://www.middleeastelectricity.com

website:https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/solar-show-mena

START DATE : 24-APR-2020 END DATE : 25-APR-2020

Location : Dubai, UAE Phone : +971 4 4072470

START DATE : 13-APR-2020 END DATE : 14-APR-2020

Location : Cairo, Egypt Phone : +971 4 4402535

E-mail : Info@middleeastelectricity.com

E-mail : Abdelbasset.hfd@terrapinn.com

RENEWX 2020

POWERGEN INDIA 2020

website : www.renewx.in

website : www.powergen-india.com

START DATE : 24-APR-2020 END DATE : 25-APR-2020

Location : Hyderabad, India Phone : +91 98707 46073

E-mail : sheetal.rathod@ubm.com

Location : New Delhi, India Phone : +91 97114 33860

E-mail : pr@itenmedia.in

SNEC 14TH (2020) INTERNATIONAL PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER GENERATION AND SMART ENERGY

6TH SMART CITIES INDIA 2020 EXPO website : www.solarindiaexpo.com START DATE : 20-MAY-2020 END DATE : 22-MAY-2020

START DATE : 05-MAY-2020 END DATE : 07-MAY-2020

Location : New Delhi, India Phone : +91 11 4279 5000

E-mail : ravim@eigroup.in

website : www.snec.org.cn

START DATE : 25-MAY-2020 END DATE : 27-MAY-2020

Location : Shanghai, China Phone : +86 21 33685117

E-mail : info@snec.org.cn

THE 16TH SOUTH EAST ASIA'S RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE

THE 9TH (CHINA) SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTED ENERGY AND BIOMASS POWER

E-mail : info@annexhibition.com

E-mail : power@ronco.com.cn

website : www.asew-expo.com/Home.aspx Location : Bangkok, Thailand START DATE : 11-JUN- 2020 Phone : +86 10 65262861 END DATE : 13-JUN- 2020

website : www.distributed-energy.cn Location : Shanghai, China START DATE : 16-JUN- 2020 Phone : +86 21 50185270 END DATE : 18-JUN- 2020

www.saurenergy.com

SAUR ENERGY

DECEMBER 2019 | Rs. 200

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

DCP LICENSING NO. F.2(S-29) PRESS/2016 l VOL 4 l ISSUE 04 l TOTAL PAGES 64 l PUBLISHED ON 1ST OF EVERY MONTH

2019

Thankfully Over

AQUEOUSS | GREENFUEL ENERGY | LITHOS MOTORS | SUNALPHA ENERGY | BERGEN

700 MW+ Solar Project TM

10 MW+ Rooftop Installations

FASTEST

GROWING

TURNKEY

SOLUTION PROVIDER

Complete Solution For Ground Base & Rooftop

EV Charging Station/ Infrastructure Provider

PAN India Presence

A-48, 3rd Floor, Sector-67, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201301 Mobile: +91-9871115441 | Email: pawan@raditeenergy.com | Web.: www.raditeenergy.com