Solar Power in India

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All further news and updated related to Solar Power Generation in India will be posted here.
I'm kicking off the thread with a fresh article.
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SUNNY STATE HAS HUGE POTENTIAL: ISRO

AIMING FOR THE SUN: JNNSM has set an ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar power by 20
By: Mihika Basu
Study identifies high-density solar pockets in Karnataka, where it recommends setting up of energy plants

In a bid to scale up the country's solar energy harvest, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has identified Karnataka as one of the hotspots in the country for assured solar energy.
Most parts of Karnataka receive high assured solar energy annually (2,000-2,500 kilowatt-hours per square metre), while some pockets get very high — more than 2,500 kWh per square metre per year.
The finding is significant in the backdrop of fast-depleting conventional energy resources.
According to scientists from the Space Applications Centre of ISRO, Ahmedabad, quantification of assured solar energy potential is essential in selecting locations for solar photovoltaic (PV) and thermal power plants. The present assessment would help with "site selection for installation of new large-scale, solar-based power generation systems and also to compute roof-top solar energy potential" in urban and rural India.
"The over-consumption of the available conventional energy resources in the past few decades has brought in front the threat of energy crisis due to depleting non-renewable energy sources and increasing population. Moreover, it has also deteriorated the quality of the environment. The use of alternative forms of energy reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and serve better to complement national energy security. Among these, solar energy can be a good alternative and renewable energy source to fulfil the current energy needs," said the authors.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, launched in 2010, has set an ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar power by 2022 and aims to reduce the cost of solar power generation in the country.
While India receives one of the highest levels of solar energy in the world, it currently remains untapped and under-utilised. It accounts for only 0.8 per cent of the total power generation capacity in the country, said the authors.
The study helped in identifying solar hotspots through remote sensing observation from geostationary meteorological satellite. According to the results, high-density solar energy pockets were diagnosed in western, central and southern India, including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh, which had an annual solar energy exposure ranging from 2500 to 3500 kWh (kilowatt-hours) per square metre annually. The findings will be published later in the Current Science journal.
Out of the total assured solar energy over Indian landmass, grasslands receive about 39 per cent, followed by desert (29 per cent) land. The wasteland and shrub lands receive 21 per cent and 14 per cent of assured energy, respectively.
This information can prove to be highly valuable for the ministry of new and renewable energy or other state agencies as it can help in zeroing in on suitable sites to install solar energy plants.
"The country receives annual assured global insolation [solar radiation that reaches the earth's surface] up to 2500 kWh per square metre, which could meet the escalating power demand of the country in a decentralised, efficient and sustainable manner. Moreover, sustainable development is the only way to prevent climate change, and the use of renewable source of energy is a better alternative," said the findings.
 

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India adds 3.6 GW to solar capacity

In the initial phase of solar sector development in India, until 2014, bulk of solar capacity addition came up in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (57% of total).
KOLKATA: India's total installed solar capacity has grown by over 80% in the last 12 months to reach 8.1 GW. Out of the 3.6 GW capacity added in this period, 2.7 GW has come from four southern states with Tamil Nadu alone adding over 1.2 GW. These six states account for 80% of the capacity added in India.
Data compiled by Bridge to India indicates that Tamil Nadu now ranks number 1 for commissioned capacity in both wind and solar. Feed in tariff for solar has been about Rs 7.01 unit.
Including the current pipeline of 14 GW, 55% of total current and planned capacity will be located in four southern states; fresh demand from these states is expected to be muted.
Market growth beyond 2018 will depend on fresh demand coming from states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
As of date, three western and central states of Rajasthan (1,307 MW), Gujarat (1,112 MW) and Madhya Pradesh (756 MW) and three southern states of Tamil Nadu (1,368 MW), Andhra Pradesh (961 MW) and Telangana (923 MW) account for around 80% of India's total installed solar capacity as against only 38% of India's overall power consumption.
The remaining 23 states including some of the largest power consuming states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh account for just 20% of the installed capacity.
In the initial phase of solar sector development in India, until 2014, bulk of solar capacity addition came up in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (57% of total). But the southern states have taken decisive lead in the last year driven primarily by their growing power needs.
An analysis of recently completed tenders totalling over 14 GW shows that this trend is likely to continue over the next 2 years with the southern states accounting for 60% of this pipeline (8.7 GW). Karnataka has the largest pipeline of projects, 3.3 GW in total, under various stages of development.
"Such heavy regional concentration of solar capacity addition raises two key issues. First, where is future demand going to come from? This is a growing concern for the sector as India faces a unique problem of excess power supply and most of the big power consuming states seem understandably reluctant to set up new solar capacities," said Jasmeet Khurana, associate director - consulting, from Bridge to India.
"Second, grid balancing and management would become increasingly critical for sustainable growth of the sector. The government is planning upgrades of transmission infrastructure through its green energy corridor program, but such projects take much longer than the 12-18 months it takes to commission a solar project. States with high renewable penetration including Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are already facing significant grid curtailment upsetting project cash flows and return expectations of investors," he said.
READ MORE:
Wind Power|Uttar Pradesh|Tamil Nadu|Solar Power|Maharashtra|Karnataka|Bridge To India
 

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ABB India inaugurates new state-of-the-art factory

Robert Itschner, global managing director for Power Conversion Business, ABB Group (L) and Sanjeev Sharma, CEO and managing director, ABB India inaugurating the new solar facility.
MUMBAI: ABB India, the power and automation technology major, inaugurated a new solar inverter manufacturing facility. The facility is set to double the solar inverter manufacturing capacity of the company.
The factory was inaugurated by Sanjeev Sharma, CEO and Managing Director, ABB India and Robert Itschner, Global Managing Director for Power Conversion, ABB Group.
"ABB, a global leader in solar inverter technology, has also been powering solar projects across the country spanning the entire solar photovoltaic (PV) value chain, a key component of which has been our solar inverter technology, made in India," said Sanjeev Sharma.
In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the ambitious new target of 100 GW solar capacity by 2022 under the country's National Solar Mission - a five-fold increase over India's previous 20 GW target.
The targets will be supported by a mix of public and private initiatives, helping to raise India's energy security and meet annual demand increases of around 7 per cent.
India's current installed solar capacity is ~8GW out of which utility scale projects would comprise 6.5 GW to which ABB inverters are supplied.
Other ABB landmark solar inverter projects in India include the world's first fully solar powered airport, the world's largest single rooftop solar project, the world's longest canal top solar project, schools and solar installations at all of India's major airports.
 

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Adani Group launches world’s largest solar power plant in Tamil Nadu

Adani Group's power plant in Tamil Nadu
CHENNAI: The 'world's largest solar power plant' with an installed capacity of 648MW was commissioned at Kamudhi in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
Set up by Adani Group, the plant was formally commissioned by chief minister J Jayalalithaa. It was connected to the grid through a sub-station.
The plant was set up on an area of around 5,000 acres at a total cost of Rs 4,550 crore. The company sourced equipment and machinery from various parts of the world to set up the plant in eight months. A total of around 8,500 people worked in a day to set up the plant in the stipulated time.
The plant comprises 3.8 lakh foundations, 25 lakh solar modules, 27,000m of structure, 576 inverters, 154 transformers and 6,000km length of cables.
"This is a momentous occasion for Tamil Nadu as well as the entire country. We are extremely happy to dedicate this plant to the nation. A plant of this magnitude reinstates the country's ambitions of becoming one of the leading green energy producers in the world. I would like to express our deepest gratitude to the chief minister and the government of Tamil Nadu for their valuable support and guidance in achieving this gigantic feat," said the group chairman Gautam Adani.
 

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India's Rooftop Solar Power Capacity Crosses 1 Gigawatt Mark: Report

New Delhi: India's rooftop solar energy capacity has crossed 1 gigawatt (GW) mark this year with 513 MW generation capacity added over the past 12 months, says Bridge to India report.
"As per the report, titled 'India Solar Rooftop Map', India's rooftop solar capacity has crossed 1 GW mark this year," said consultancy services provider Bridge to India.
India has added 513 MW of rooftop solar capacity over the past 12 months, growing at 113 per cent over previous 12 months, reaching total installed capacity of 1,020 MW, according to the report released today at Intersolar Mumbai.
Last year's capacity addition is more than the addition of all previous years put together. 22 per cent of capacity added through PPA (power purchase agreements) based projects.
CleanMax, Amplus Solar, Cleantech Solar, Azure Power, Rays Expert and Hero Future Energies are some of the leading companies offering PPAs.
The rooftop solar market growth is directly linked to improving economics of rooftop solar. Most commercial and industrial consumers can reduce their power bills by 20-30 per cent with rooftop solar power.
It said this growth is expected to continue in the years to come and the market is expected to reach a total capacity of 12.7 GW by 2021.
The report also highlights that commercial and industrial consumers dominate the market with 63 per cent of installed capacity. Grid parity for these consumers has now been achieved in 17 out of the 19 largest states in India.
In states such as Maharashtra and Haryana, tariff differential between grid power and rooftop solar power can be as high as 30 per cent, it said.
This has been much steeper than what most analysts had earlier predicted and has helped in achieving the existing growth rate, it added.
Bridge to India MD Vinay Rustagi said, "Rooftop solar has been a side-story in the Indian solar sector so far but that is beginning to change now. The sector is growing rapidly and beginning to realise its potential, thanks largely to increasing cost competitiveness of rooftop solar power vs grid power."
Mr Rustagi further said,"We expect rooftop solar to outpace growth in the utility solar market in the coming years. The government has announced attractive policies such as net metering, subsidies for select customers and cheaper debt financing for the sector although there is huge scope for improvement on every front."
There is also substantial rooftop capacity being created in the government sector itself, he added.
Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat are leading in terms of total installed capacity. The government rooftop solar segment has grown to over 10 per cent in total installed capacity.
 

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By IB Times
World’s Largest Solar Power Plant Unveiled In India’s Kamuthi
India now boasts of the world’s largest solar power plant with the completion of its new facility in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu.
India’s new solar power plant in Kamuthi town has a capacity of 648 MW, spread over 10 square kilometers (almost 4 square miles). The area it covers has allowed it to surpass the Topaz Solar Farm in California — which has a capacity of 550 MW — taking the title of the world’s largest solar power plant at a single location.
Funded by Adani Green Energy, a part of India’s leading business house Adani Group, the solar power plant in Kamuthi entailed an investment of Rs 4,550 crore (approximately $679 million). Built in an impressive time frame of eight months, the plant is cleaned every day by a robotic system and charged with its own solar panels. It is expected to power 150,000 homes.
“This is a momentous occasion for Tamil Nadu as well as for the entire country. We are... happy to dedicate this plant to the nation. A plant of this magnitude reinstates the country’s ambitions of becoming one of the leading green energy producers in the world,” said Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, according to Indian news agency Press Trust of India.
India is expected to become the world’s third-biggest solar market — after China and the United States — from next year and the new plant has pushed its total installed solar capacity to cross the 10 GW mark, a feat that only a few countries can claim, Al Jazeera reported, citing a statement by research firm Bridge to India.
By 2022, India is aiming at powering 60 million homes through solar energy as a part of the government’s 2030 goal to produce 40 percent of its power from non-fossil fuels. While the efforts are being lauded by environmental groups, the country still needs to increase the emphasis on solar panels to be able to achieve the big targets set by the government.
Workers clean photovoltaic panels inside a solar power plant in Gujarat, India, in this July 2, 2015 file photo. Photo: REUTERS/Amit Dave/Files
 

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India Unveils World’s Largest Solar Power Plant In Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu
India on November 29 unveiled the world’s largest solar power plant at Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu and is now on its way to become world’s third biggest solar market by 2017.
Latest images released of the plant is enough to portray the sheer size of the new solar power plant, which has the capacity to generate 648 MW power, which will cover an area of 10sq km from the plant.
George-easaw
The capacity of the plant now also makes it the largest solar power plant at a single location.
The Kamuthi Power Plant has now taken the title of being world’s biggest solar farm from the US’s Topaz Solar Farm which is located in California and has the capacity to generate 550 MW of power.
Topaz Solar Power Plant Wikimap
To achieve the massive target of powering 60 million homes by the sun by 2022, India has also built this new solar plant in an impressive time of just eight months and set a very efficient way cleaning these solar panels daily by a robotic system which itself is powered by its own solar panels.
Once at full capacity, this solar plant is estimated to produce enough electricity which will power about 150,000 homes in the area.
Aljazeera
This plant has about 2.5 million individual solar modules and has been built at the cost of around $679m.
 

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@Indx TechStyle Good thread. Thanks.

Question: We had a target of setting up a certain percentage of India's overall energy needs in renewable energy by 2022. Do you remember that percentage? I read it somewhere, forgot.
 

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