India Plans 26 Gigawatts Of Solar Capacity In Agricultural Sector By 2022
India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has reiterated its commitment to set up nearly 26 gigawatts solar power capacity in the agricultural sector by 2022. Minister RK Singh informed the Indian parliament that a large portion of this capacity will be installed in the form of conventional land-based projects. 10 gigawatts of capacity will be installed at barren or fallow land available with farmers. These projects will have 2 megawatt of capacity each. Farmers will be able to sell power from these projects to retailers and earn additional income. Financial support in the form of capital subsidy shall be offered to farmers. The government shall also support installation of off-grid solar pumps. Solar pumps are conventional irrigation pumps integrated with solar panels. Irrigation is among the most energy-intensive activities in the agricultural sector and taking its substantial load off the grid greatly improves the financial condition of retailers.
India Has Over 1922 MW Installed Rooftop Solar Capacity Says RK Singh
The total installed capacity of Rooftop Solar capacity in India is around 1922 MW and over Rs. 1,874 crore worth of Central Financial Assistance (CFA) has been released towards installation of these capacities in the sector, RK Singh, Minister of New and Renewable Energy reported to the Parliament. According to MNRE’s data the minister said that until March 13, 2020, the total rooftop solar power plants capacity has reached 1,922 MW in the country, out of which 346 MW constituted of installations in residential sector. He further quoted that, “so far as on 12.03.2020, an amount of approximately Rs 1874.39 crore has been released to various implementing agencies, i.e; state nodal agencies, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), power distributing companies (Discoms), PSUs (public sector undertakings), government departments, etc. under the rooftop solar programme as CFA/ incentives inclusive of CFA towards residential sector.”
ACME Solar Holdings Ltd Might Soon Have Gail Ltd as an Investor
GAIL Ltd is in exclusive conversation with ACME Solar Holdings Ltd for becoming a potential invester as reported by ET Reports. GAIL is currently undertaking due diligence and is possible to make an offer for a stake of anywhere between 49% and 74% in ACME Solar. An executive has put the fact into limelight that the proposal has not yet been taken up by GAIL’s board. ACME Solar currently has almost 3 GW of installed solar capacity divided between plants in 12 Indian states. In addition, it has some 2.8 GW of solar projects. The company could be valued at more than USD 1.6 billion (EUR 1.49bn), according to industry sources quoted by the ET.
Tata Power to Provide Rooftop Solar Service To 90 Cities Across India
Tata Power is trying to bring a big change by encouraging the adoption of Clean Energy by providing its Solar Rooftop Offerings to 90 Cities. Tata Power announced that they have built utility scale projects across 13 states in India which are of a total capacity of about 2.76 GW. Praveer Sinha, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Power quoted “With the increased adoption of rooftop solar by consumers, we are confident that our solutions will play a big role in improving energy access across the country, in both urban and rural parts.” Ashish Khanna, President of Tata Power (Renewables), quoted that the company aims to achieve the company’s objective of Lighting up Lives.
JinkoSolar Announces Fourth Quarter and 2019 Financial Results; Reports $4.3 bn Profit
The firm has reported that Technological transformation driving margin expansion – gross margin during 2019 was 18.3% compared to 14.0% and 11.3% in 2018 and 2017 respectively. Total solar module shipments were 4,538 megawatts which showed an increase of 36.4% from 3,326 MW in the third quarter of 2019 and 25.4% from 3,618 MW in the fourth quarter of 2018. Total revenues were US $ 4.27 billion, an increase of 18.8 percent from USD 3.57 billion for full-year 2018.
APERC Issues Public Notice of Amendment to Modalities for Implementing Solar Rooftop Policy, 2018
Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) accorded approval for the Modalities (Guidelines) for implementing Solar RoofTop Policy, 2018 vide order dated 25-05-2019. A public hearing will be conducted on the above subject by the Commission on 24-03-2020 at 11:00 AM and any interested person or stakeholders or organizations desirous of being heard in person may appear before it on the said date of hearing. The DISCOMs made a representation to make appropriate amendments to the existing Solar Rooftop Policy. The amendments proposed by DISCOMs to the existing Solar Rooftop Policy, 2018 consist of :(i) The metering will be done either on the Gross/Net metering method.
