Rajasthan
August 20, 2013
India never ceases to surprise with unknown risks for the industry. The wind turbine industry is facing a massive new risk of the theft of wind […]
February 20, 2013
Gujarat has the most amount of solar energy plants installed in India due to a very supportive state government. The government has managed to boost solar […]
February 8, 2013
The Indian Wind Farm association has come out strongly against a new wind energy policy in Rajasthan. The policy states that 300 MW of wind energy […]
December 3, 2012
India’s western state of Rajasthan which had won the lion’s share of solar panel projects under India’s central subsidy scheme has come out with a state […]
November 29, 2012
We have repeatedly highlighted the drawbacks of solar thermal energy vis a vis crystalline solar panel technology. Solar Thermal Plants are getting replaced or mothballed altogether […]
August 21, 2012
Solar Policy in Uttar Pradesh India’s largest state in terms of population Uttar Pradesh, is set to come out with a 5 year solar policy to […]
August 1, 2012
One of the crowning achievements (if you can call that) of the current Government in India was the pact with USA which removed India from the […]
July 30, 2012
Indian Wind Industry India is the 5th largest wind energy market in the world and installed a record ~3000 MW last year. The growth of the […]
July 26, 2012
Rajasthan India’s western state of Rajasthan which is home to India’s only desert and with one of the least population densities has come out with a […]
July 10, 2012
Solar Gold Rush The Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which is set to announce a solar subsidy policy soon, is seeing a massive gold rush. Note […]
June 28, 2012
Indian Solar Energy has received wide acclaim in national and international media for being a great success. However compared to other countries, the claims seem quite […]
May 28, 2012
Gujarat has leapfrogged far ahead of other Indian states in solar energy installations. This is despite the fact that Rajasthan had won the lion’s share of […]
February 27, 2012
The falling prices of solar panels has made almost impossible thought of solar electricity prices possible today. In a state auction of solar projects ,a small company Alex Green Energy bid only 14c/ KwH to win the auction. The price is lower than that seen in the Indian federal subsidy auction JNNSM. Note Rs 7/ Kwh that was bid is close to the Rs 6-7/ Kwh retail electricity prices in most cities in India.Note in the first phase of auction the lowest price was more than 50% higher at Rs 10/ kwh
January 30, 2012
Finding accurate Solar insolation data is a difficult problem faced in most countries except Europe and USA. The reason is that there is no history of solar radiation data in most countries as solar power is a relatively new technology. Most of the solar developers rely on data from NASA, DOE and European agencies which focus mostly on their domestic geography. This leads to faulty and inaccurate solar radiation data for other places which are seeing massive solar boom due to falling solar panel prices. India which installed 400 MW of solar power plants in 2011 and should see another 1000 MW in 2012 faces this problems also. There are no devices to record solar insolation in India with data coming from outside.
January 10, 2012
The Indian Desert State of Rajasthan in the West which borders Pakistan is planning to set up four gigawatt scale solar parks in 4 districts of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Barmer. Note under the first 2 phase of JNNSM , Rajasthan has got the lion's share of the solar farms being constructed. The reasons why Rajasthan has managed to corner 80% of the JNSSM solar projects is because
a) Solar Radiation is the highest in the country
b) Land is cheap and plentiful in the state with the government literally given them for free to solar developers. A huge plus in a country where land acquisition is a big industrial problem
c) Support from the government
January 9, 2012
Solar Power in India is growing by leaps and bounds with the federal and state governments heavily promoting solar energy production.India is set to become a gigawatt market in 2012 with around 400 MW already installed by 2011.The ancillary industries around the main solar power market are set to grow at a rapid clip as well.One of the unlikely sectors in solar products in India is the growth of solar cables.Note solar power plants require a lot of wire and cabling to connect thousands of solar panels to each other and to solar inverters.Besides solar power plants also require interconnection with the power grid.While today most of the solar cable is imported from outside,there is potential for a solar cable manufacturer to build a domestic capacity as well given the rapid growth expected in solar power.
May 29, 2011
Having good solar radiation data is essential for building solar power plants anywhere.USA and European Union have a well-developed insolation map so that developers and investors in solar energy have no difficulty in getting good data while planning an investment.However Indian developers are at a distinct disadvantage as there is no good primary data to go on.Solar Radiation data makes a huge difference to the economics of a project and no bank will give a loan based on incomplete data.For the inexperienced developers this has become another problem among a host of other problems.With little understanding of the technology and other factors,many of them jumped in and are now in a deep soup.However the prospects of the Indian solar energy are great even with these initial hiccups.The flushing out of the weak hands should help in strengthening the solar energy industry in India in the best traditions of capitalism.
April 6, 2011
Solar Energy in India represents one of the best Energy opportunities in the 21st Century.However the growth at least in the initial stages will be geographically unequal.This is due to the fact that Solar Power requires strong government support and subsidies currently.The Indian Federal Government has already given it a strong push targeting 1000 MW by 2013 and 20 GW by 2022 under the JNSSM.While the Subsidy Program is facing some initial hurdles due to debt financing and aggressive project bidding,individual States are forging ahead to push Solar Energy on their own.Gujarat has been a trailblazer in this regard with The State has already recieved proposals for setting up around 365 MW of Solar Power.Gujarat through its own RPS and Feed in Tariff incentives is targeting 1000 MW by 2013.Rajasthan too is trying to exploit is massive solar insolation potential but its state policies have little clarity or direction yet.The state has signed around 1524 MW of Solar Project with 49 Developers.The Solar Policy Draft Proposal is mostly vague with a target of 10-12 GW in 10-12 years with around 500 MW in the next 2-3 years.Rajasthan is set to see massive solar installation despite its government's vagueness from the Federal JNNSM subsidy.Other states in India like UP,Delhiand Maharashtra have recently started making some moves but remains to be seen how good they are at implementing.While the UP solar subsidy is clearly quite ridiculous,Delhi seems to be on the way to implementing a smart policy of promoting small roof top solar residential installations.