EQ Magazine December 2021 Edition

Volume- 13 | Issue- December 2021 | Dt. of Publication- 10 December 2021 | Dt. of Posting- 15 December 2021 | Rs. 5/- | Page- 01

India’s Oldest & Leading Solar Media Group

Rooftop PV Inverter Supplier in India

Shenzhen Growatt New Energy Co., Ltd. Service Hotline:1800120600600

Email:info@ginverter.com

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

OWNER :

FirstSource Energy India Private Limited

PLACE OF PUBLICATION :

95-C, Sampat Farms, 7th Cross Road, Bicholi Mardana Distt-Indore 452016, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA Tel. + 91 96441 22268

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EDITOR & CEO :

ANAND GUPTA anand.gupta@EQmag.net

PUBLISHER :

ANAND GUPTA

PRINTER :

ANAND GUPTA

TRENDS & ANALYSIS

SAUMYA BANSAL GUPTA saumya.gupta@EQmag.net

PUBLISHING COMPANY DIRECTORS: ANIL GUPTA

ANITA GUPTA

CONSULTING EDITOR : SURENDRA BAJPAI

HEAD SALES & MARKETING : BHANU YADAV sales@EQmag.net

MARKETING MANAGER: GAZALA KHAN hayat@EQmag.net

SR. GRAPHICS & LAYOUT DESIGNER : RATNESH JOSHI

GRAPHICS DESIGNER : ABHISHEK SARAI

SUBSCRIPTIONS :

RISHABH CHOUHAN rishabh.eqmag.net@gmail.com

CONT EN T

VOLUME 13 Issue #12

Disclaimer,Limitations of Liability While every efforts has been made to ensure the high quality and accuracy of EQ international and all our authors research articles with the greatest of care and attention ,we make no warranty concerning its content,and the magazine is provided on an>> as is <<basis.EQ international contains advertising and third –party contents.EQ International is not liable for any third- party content or error,omission or inaccuracy in any advertising material ,nor is it responsible for the availability of external web sites or their contents

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OPINION CHALLENGING TIME FOR SURVIVAL OF INDIAN PV MANUFACTURERS

24 FEATURED ECE India Energies bags India Green Energy Award 2021

23 PV MANUFACTURING

RE MANUFACTURING IN INDIA HAS A CRUCIAL ROLE TO PLAY IN ACHIEVING RE TARGETS OF 175 GW BY 2022 AND 450 GW BY 2030

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The data and information presented in this magazine is provided for informational purpose only.neither EQ INTERNATINAL ,Its affiliates,Information providers nor content providers shall have any liability for investment decisions based up on or the results obtained from the information provided. Nothing contained in this magazine should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sale any securities. The facts and opinions stated in this magazine do not constitute an offer on the part of EQ International for the sale or purchase of any securities, nor any such offer intended or implied Restriction on use The material in this magazine is protected by international copyright and trademark laws. You may not modify,copy,reproduce,republish,post,transmit,or distribute any part of the magazine in any way.you may only use material for your personall,NonCommercial use, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. want to use material for any non-personel,non commercial purpose,you need written permission from EQ International.

INDIA

INTERACTION WITH STAKEHOLDERS ON THE PROPOSED PILOT PROJECT OF SETTING UP OF 1000 MWH STANDALONE BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM (BESS) UNDER COMPETITIVE BIDDING

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INDIA INDIA

MISSION 500 GW BY 2030

ORIANO SUCCESSFULLY COMMISSIONS 26 MWAC 36 MWP CAPTIVE OPEN ACCESS SOLAR PARK IN RAICHUR KARNATAKA

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12 INTERVIEW

MR. KRISHNENDU MUKHARJEE

SOVA SOLAR

BUSINESS & FINANCE OHMIUM SHIPS ITS FIRST “MADE IN INDIA” HYDROGEN ELECTROLYZER UNIT TO THE UNITED STATES, ESTABLISHING INDIA AS THE GLOBAL HUB FOR HYDROGEN

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INTERVIEW

MR. VENKATESH GS

AVI SOLAR

TECHNOLOGY

SERVING THE ENTIRE RENEWABLE ENERGY ECO-SYSYEM FROM GENERATION TO ENERGY STORAGE

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EQ NEWS Pg. 14-40 INTERVIEW Pg. 10-12

Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd ("Sungrow") is the world's most bankable inverter brand with over 182 GW installed worldwide as of June, 2021. Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters, with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions. With a strong 24-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power installations in over 150 countries. Sungrow has also 10 GW manufacturing unit here in India. The Sungrow India is now inching towards 11 GW shipment also. It has been supplying inverters from India factory to various markets including India, Middle East and other overseas markets to cater the demands. Sungrow has also been contributing its technical expertise and suggestions for standardisation and testing protocols on various forums for Indian market

INTERVIEW

MR. VENKATESH GS CEO, AVI SOLAR ENERGY PVT. LTD.

EQ: Please tell our readers in brief about Avi Solar Energy and its journey.

VG: Avi Solar Energy Pvt Limited is an ISO9001 Company founded in 2010 with its headquarters in Bangalore and with a vision to contribute to environment and society by harvesting energy from sunlight. Avi Solar Energy entered the solar O&M services as well as solar EPC businesses in 2015 and in its first year itself, Avi Solar was manging the O&M services of more than 100 MW solar power plants across India and it also completed a couple of EPC projects as well. In its last 5 years journey, Avi Solar has provided its O&M services to more than 2.2GW solar power plants cumulatively across 11 states in India. Today Avi Solar specializes in providing O&M, EPC & PMC services for solar PV plants & rooftops.

To ensure team working at height is sufficiently protected against any fall, we have implemented rope grab system apart from other conventional safety measures. Rope grab means a fall arrester that is designed to move up or down a lifeline suspended from a fixed overhead or horizontal lifeline, to which the full body harness is attached. In the event of a fall, the rope grab locks into the lifeline rope through compression to arrest the fall. Rope Grabs are designed as a means of fall arrest between a worker wearing a compatible full-body harness and a suitable fall arrest anchorage. Applications include roofing, ladder climbing, general construction and tower climbing.

EQ: What are the various solar O&M services provided by Avi Solar?

VG: Currently we are providing O&M services to both ground mounted & rooftop solar power plants across India and providing remote monitoring and asset management services as standalone value-added services. Our O&M activities are system driven by annual and monthly O&M plans for each project with day-to-day maintenance activity strictly driven by standardized check list and SOP’s which ensures uniform and highest quality of work. Our O&M scope of work varies from customer-to-customer, but includes preventive, breakdown and predictive maintenance of the solar plant with end point of our service varying from switch yard within the solar power plant to incomer bay of the interconnecting substation. Our O&M services also includes services like module cleaning, module tilting, thermography, security services etc for the solar power plant based on customer requirement.

EQ: What are the advantages of your O&M services?

EQ: What are some of the key advantages of having good quality maintenance systems? Can you tell us about your Operations and Maintenance services?

VG: Good Quality Maintenance leads to: • Higher uptime, higher generation & better project ROI • Longer equipment life and reduced OPEX Our O&M activities are system driven by annual and monthly O&M plan for each project with day-to-day maintenance activity is strictly driven by standardized check list and SOP’s. Highest priority is accorded to safety with continuous training of our team on all safety aspects. We are enforcing strict implementation of all EHS guidelines of our company as well as our of customers to ensure safe work across all sites. Very shortly we will be completing our ISO 45001 certification too. Some of the best EHS practices includes HIRA, PTW, Toolbox talk, Work at height training etc.

EQ: What are the additional safety measures you practice for O&M services of Rooftop solar power plants?

VG: All our Engineers and Technicians are trained as per well-defined training calendar for work at height, Electrical hazards, FIRST AID, Environmental Awareness and some important Do’s and Don’ts in Rooftop Sites, etc.. . including our customers safety compliances/ requirements.

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VG: • Highest safety norms, compliance, and track record • Centralized Remote Monitoring & Performance analysis • Quality & system driven maintenance activities.

• Trained & qualified engineers & technicians.

• Statutory compliance.

EQ: Please let us know about your customer base.

VG: We have provided / providing our O&M services to Renew Power, Sun Edison, Tata Power, Terraform, Lanco Power, Shapoorji & Pallonji, Virescent Infrastructure, Mytrah Energy, Hero Future Energy, Oriano Power etc for ground mounted solar power plants. In roof top segments, we are providing our O&M services to major roof top players like Cleantech Solar, Cleanmax Solar, Renew Power, Bosch, Berkeley Energy, Atria Power , Solar Square etc EQ: Please tell us about your major projects and future projects in the pipeline?

VG: Currently we are providing our O&M services to around 430+ MWp solar power plants and with many more projects in our pipeline, we intent to add another 200 to 300 MW to our portfolio in next 3 to 4 months’ time and will be operating around 600 to 700 MW solar power plants by end of this FY. EQ: What are your plans for growth for the upcoming year 2022?

VG: Though available market for independent solar O&M service providers is very large, at Avi Solar, we are very careful in selecting contracts which can provide us reasonable value for our services and also which are with reasonable commercial terms. With these aspects as guiding principles, we will be achieving a portfolio size of around 650 MWp by end current FY and our portfolio size planning for FY 22-23 will be around 900 MWp in the current highly price sensitive market condition. With any positive improvement in market conditions, our guidelines for the next FY will also have positive increment.

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EQ

DECEMBER 2021

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INTERVIEW

MR. KRISHNENDU MUKHERJEE

CEO, SOVA SOLAR

EQ: Please share your Product Road Maps – Pricing, Technology etc…

VG: We are proud to proclaim that we are one of the earliest if not the first to commercioalise 500+ Wp M10 cell modules in the country. Our recently comissioned Fab2 is future proof to handle HJT, TopCon, PERT technologies.

EQ: When will Module Prices stabilise .. What will be likely the pricing and tech roadmap?

VG: Prices have been volatile mostly because of the covid induced disruptions in the supply chain, I feel the prices should inch higher til;l March’22 and on the tech front large size cells will be the mainstay for the next couple of years and poly would phase out.

EQ: What are the biggest challenges in India’s goal of 175 GW by 2022 and 450 GW … How much can we really achieve by 2022, 2025 and 2030?

VG: Out of the 175 GW target 100GW + has already been achieved even under the pandemic situation and I believe that with GoI’s proactive role in supporting the industry, India has the potential to not only reach but surpass the milestone of 450GW of RE by 2030.

EQ: World Market Scenario and its impact on pricing and availability of modules in this year. Expected Pricing & Availability in this year and next year ?

VG: 2020-2021 has seen the markets in shortage mostly due to covid induced restriction in the various parts of the world, prices have gone up as a result. But availability and prices should moderate in the coming months with the covid situation under control as well as new capacities coming up worldwide. But China’s 100GW project and policies like BCD etc by GoI may cause some tightness.

EQ: How much modules have you supplied to India till now, what is the target/expectation in this year and next year?

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VG: We have supplied 1GW + modules worldwide in our last 12 years of business, in FY23 we expect approx600 MW and FY24 at 1.5 GW+.

EQ: Kindly enlighten our readers on the performance of your modules in India in various geographic locations, customer feedback,.

VG: We SOVA SOLAR have always stuck to the motto of “Quality First” which has paid trmendous dividends in the way of less than 1% complain rate and less than 0.2% replacement.

EQ: Present some noteworthy projects, case studies of solar plants built using your solar modules.

VG: We have been fortunate to have been selected by leading EPCs and Developers to supply to various projects across India, like Bhadla, Rewa, Pavagada, Ananthapura, as well as globally to Germany Italy and Japan.

EQ: Kindly comment on policies and regulatory aspects like BCD, BIS, ALMM etc…

VG: As already discussed BCD is a welcome step for the domestic manufacturer, so is ALMM and BIS, which not only monitors the manufacturing but also supports the consumers and users by ensuring quality.

EQ: What are your plans to ramp up or set up or grow your manufacturing base in India in light of the Proposed BCD? VG: We have already commissioned our state-of-the-art 4G and AI enabled Fab2 with a capacity of 550 MW per year taking our present capacity to 800 MW, and we plan to expand this to 1.25 GW by Sept’22 and 2.5 GW by March’23.

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OPINION

Challenging Time for Survival of Indian PV Manufacturers In an interview with EQ Magazine Manish Gupta, Founder & President of NIMMA said, “...if the government doesn't put a barrier to rumours and come up with the clear notification on basic custom duties, the survival of Indian manufacturers will be very difficult.

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ndian module manufacturers especially from the SME and MSME sector conglomerated in 2017 to form the North India Module Manufacturer Association (NIMMA). Registered in Delhi, this association has become the voice of SME related requirements, raising their issues with the government. To discuss the current solar market in India, Manish Gupta, Founder & President of NIMMA joined EQ in an online interview. Here are the insights:

ISSUES ADDRESSED BY NIMMA IN THE PAST: BIS, 2018: Talking about the initiatives and achievements of NIMMA, Gupta mentioned the BIS incident in 2018. He mentioned, “BIS was made compulsory and the companies that didn't have valid IEC certificates were also supposed to take the BIS, which is a money intensive process. For BIS, one need 25-30 lakhs, each for BIS and IEC from the same lab with almost the same process and at the same price.”

He added, “We presented our case to MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy). Shri Anand Kumar was secretary at that time, he understood our problems and requirements. Then the MNRE issued a notification that companies with 50 MW manufacturing capacity, if they have a valid IEC, they will be exempted from BIS.” ALMM: The association also addressed the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) issue at MNRE that resulted in the government issuing a notification reducing the costing for SME and MSME. It happened when ALMM was made compulsory, the initial inspection fees per inspection, per factory and per module or unit was very high.

Safeguard Duty: NIMMA along with two other organizations shared their view on the safeguard duty and the MNRE and Director-General of Trade Remedies’ (DGTR), who applied the duty, reviewed it thoroughly . As a result now this duty was removed.

PROBLEMS AT PRESENT:

Talking about the current issues, he mentioned that the import of solar equipment is free, there is a lack of barriers in the system. He said, “We are strongly opposing this from NIMMA and other associations to ensure timely enforcing the application of the proposed basic custom duty w.e.f. 01-04-2022. Anti-dumping duty or entering duty is to be imposed to discourage free import.”

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NIMMA is in regular conversation with the government for the policy related framework, strongly working to strengthen indigenoius manufacturing industries.

While discussing the PLI (production-linked incentive) schemes, he mentioned, “Although we wanted the government to include the SME and MSME sector under the PLI scheme, but that didn't happen.” He added, “We convinced the government to come up with an incentive scheme for manufacturers so that Indian manufacturers are encouraged for indegenous production and dependence on other countries is reduced.”

LOSS TO SMES DUE TO DUTY-FREE IMPORTS: The cost of raw material has increased exponentially in the past few months across the globe. Solar industry is no exception to this rise, be it wafers or cells.

When asked about the Bloomberg study stating the cost of raw material might come down, he mentioned that the way the cost of raw material has increased, he does not believe that the old study will be applicable now because of the upping of the cost. Including the steel or chemical industry, the cost of everything has gone up with a major difference in the last six months.

The global pandemic, lockdown following it and subsequent economic slowdown might be cited as the reason. Along with this, the withholding of supply from China across the globe could be partially responsible for the rise in prices. A major reason could be an extreme growth in the sea grid, by around five times, which is why the prices have increased.

He further stated, “Along with the prices of raw material, the availability of raw material is also a cause of concern. Although December onwards the demand starts increasing gradually, so probably in future the situation might get better.”

KEY CONCERN: “The price of raw material has increased, but the cost of finished products has not increased much. There are many raw materials that have doubled or increased by three times in cost but as a finished product- solar panel's cost has not increased much.” -Manish Gupta, Founder & Director of NIMMA

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OPINION BIG CHALLENGES:

From October 1, the government has increased the GST from 5 per cent to 12 per cent. Clubbed with GST, the cost at which the endusers get the product has drawn a big difference, and this is why the demand for panels has decreased in the last two months.

WAY FORWARD:

On talking about initiatives by NIMMA, Gupta said, “NIMMA as an organisation cannot contribute to the global pricing trends, but we can request the government to put as many barriers as possible on the imports.”

Gupta expressed his concern and said, “Due to no barriers on imports, Chinese modules are flooding the market. Earlier the share of Chinese imports was 80 per cent, now it has increased to 95 per cent.

So, if the government doesn't put a barrier and the 2022 notification does not mention necessary duties, the survival of Indian manufacturers will be very difficult.”

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH:

To address this issue, NIMMA recently had conversations with MNRE ,various ministries, including the labour ministry because if the manufacturing units work on less capacity, there will be a loss of jobs. He shared, “Solar manufacturing industry harbours around 2 lakh direct and 10 lakh indirect jobs in India but no industry is working beyond the capacity of 50 per cent right now.”

GOVERNMENT’S TAKE:

The conversation was also joined by Dr. Akhilesh Kumar Jain, Domain Expert & Director Insolation Energy and Former Managing Director, Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments Limited. Expressing his views on the net zero emission by 2070 target at COP26, Jain said, “The commitment of the PM is not just from today but this commitment is from 2014-15. His visionary leadership increased the target from 20 GW to 100 GW, and now he is talking about 450 GW by 2030. As far as his commitment is concerned, it is very strong for the nation and the world. But the implementation of the leader's commitment requires industry, institutions, state government and related union ministries to work in coordination.”

He added, “The gaps that are coming are due to inconsistent policies. NIMMA emphasised that a period with no safeguard duty will come, and the custom's duty will be applied and implemented nine months later. This is what the inconsistency is. Honourable PM always desired the issues coming on realising the RE vision to be timely resolved that we are also addressing through NIMMA.” He claimed, “For example, GST implementation is a good step, but this GST should be also applied across the value chain including at PPA being signed so that the GST is distributed across the value chain.”

TAKE ON GST

“For example, GST implementation is a good step, but this GST should be also applied at PPA being signed so that the GST is distributed across the value chain.” -Dr. Akhilesh Kumar Jain, Former MD, Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments Ltd.

SOLUTION:

He claimed, “For the high cost of raw materials, the organisations who have taken and executed the tenders , they have challenges . So, in such situations what they normally do is to go into defer mode.

Defer meaning that the speed of execution will slow down. Here, the penetration of the ecosystem is to understand the situation, and accordingly take decisions in dynamic mode.

He added, “If we want 450GW till 2030, we need to increase the annual installation capacity to over 30-35 GW every year. As per our current speed, it is around 10-11 GW. So, it is very important to dynamically handle the situation . Post-pandemic, we are facing issues related to fare, transport costs are high, factories are not running 24*7 in China and other places causing an increase in labour cost…

Overall, the cost impact has harmed the already suffering industry.”

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Talking about Indian industry, Jain believes that the MSME sector plays a major role in the solar sector in enhancing the reach to rural areas or the common man.

REDRESSAL MECHANISM: Directing the conversation towards the employability, he appealed for the immediate intervention of major stakeholders for the current crisis. Jain said, “First, all government contracts, PSU contracts of solar power and the ones under execution require to be reviewed as directed

by MNRE instead of slowing them.

Second, the gazette notification related to the announced customs duty needs to be in place , providing the market the clarity on the direction they need to proceed in.”

He concluded, “Ultimately, price, execution, implementation, Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat… are governed from the commencement of the contracts. The contracts start from the tendering, which is done by PSUs , Corporates or Government owned such as discoms . The bidders should be clear on the situation in the next two months, six months and a year. The vision is clear in the mind of the Honourable Prime Minister and honorable Minister but when it comes to implementation level, industry level, and a larger perspective for the benefit of the people, I think, there are challenges. They need to be critically dealt with.”

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS: There is a lot of research going into the technology sector. The modules manufactured are 350 /400/450W. Indian companies such as INA manufactures modules of 400/450 W, and the factory to manufacture higher wattage is in the pipeline.

Jain said, “ Industry will be manufacturing 550/600/650 W modules, the highest wattage module currently in the world. Innovation and R&D is a consistent process however the basic crystalline technology , currently being used, is the most proven and sustainable across the globe. Solar industry has seen four decades of this technology of implementation. Efficiency in similar technology can be increased by doing Mono, PERC, Bifacial and other methods... but the basic technology remains the same.”

CHINESE INFLUENCE ON INDIAN MANUFACTURERS: Talking about the impact of China on the trends, policies and pricing, Jain mentioned that it is a challenge. He said, “Earlier, it was expected to take 2-3 years, but now things will be better in another few months.

However, this will happen once the manufacturers build more trust in the long-term policies. It is believed that the manufacturers will be in position to perform better with the support of the government, policies, developers and other stakeholders.

DEALING WITH CHALLENGES: Commenting on the challenges faced by the manufacturers, Gupta informed, to achieve the target of 450 GW, the government needs the manufacturing base, land for solar manufacturing.

Manufacturing of solar panels requires more than 20 raw materials. In China, complex systems like development and working, the country has developed a complex system in a 100Km area near Shanghai. This is where most solar panel and raw material manufacturing industry factories are located, which is why their manufacturing system operates on-time.

Further stating, Gupta said, “In India, the major challenge is managing, purchasing and storing of raw materials. Raw materials are made available from China and India. Thus, the lead time of 45-60 days is what we have left. If the government works on this as a regulatory framework, makes parks dedicated for the solar equipment manufacturing in different states, assigns land at one location... (and) panel manufacturers and raw material industries are set up at the same location, it will lead to employment generation and benefit the states. This will also help bring down the pricing in comparison with China.”

PLI SCHEME: Other than the PLI Scheme, no incentive-based facility to borrow loans from banks or governments is available. When looking at the situation practically, under the PLI Scheme the government is not providing any incentive or subsidy for the establishment of panel, cell and wafer industry.

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OPINION Gupta stated, “The PLI scheme says once you have set up all industries, manufacturing (is done), the government will provide an incentive on the sale. There is no benefit during the manufacturing. Capital and funding has to be managed from the (manufacturer’s) pockets. This becomes a major challenge. Setting up of factories and bigger units in this industry becomes a challenge for the MSME sector, because as a finance or funding, no (subsidy) is provided by the government.”

CONCLUSION: As an added suggestion Gupta iterated the example of the pharmaceuticals and textile sector where the loan is granted on interest. If the same happens for this sector the chances of ramping up or advancing the manufacturing increases, one can (prepare) the manufacturing in India in competition with our neighbouring country China.

Gupta said, “To achieve the target of 450 GW, the Indian government requires focus on the entire manufacturing chain and introduction of an incentive based manufacturing base policy for the benefit of the overall sector, not only for the major industries.”

Adding to this, Dr AK Jain added, “As far as the manufacturing is concerned, I think the central government should fix a quota for all the state governments that if they want to do 10 GW in India then they must have manufacturing so that you can offset 2 GW in the state. So, Rajasthan and Gujarat, which are the most promising states followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala… If they are mandated to develop those clusters of manufacturing industries related with cell, module, structure, and storage...

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Till the time that is done, if the centre asks the state, the state will provide all the help. Land will be provided free of cost, the finance would be provided, some state subsidy will also (be provided). The lead is to have a comprehensive scheme. Second point, the comprehensive scheme should take care of the MSME sector. State and Centre, both should work together. Everybody needs it and the manufacturing supporting policies.”

As the concluding remarks, Gupta said, “India is the second largest market…

Today, before 28 July 2021, more than 80 per cent solar panels were imported with the existence of safeguard duty. During the no duty period, 95 per cent solar panel is imported in India.”

He concluded, “Solar power generation and solar power equipment manufacturing are two different business models. Government requires focus on power generation but without manufacturing, how will we generate power? How long will we be dependent on other countries for our requirements?”

Article Prepared by: Aishwarya Puranik EQ Magazine

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TECHNOLOGY

What Entails a Robust Solar Module?

JA Solar DeepBlue 3.0 provides a practically applicable, technically advanced, and cost-effective outlook to give your solar panel that extra boost

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f choosing the right module is getting in your way to set up your personal solar plant, this is just the article to look for. This article will provide clarity over key parameters to watch out for while selecting that long-lasting and efficient solar module. Solar modules are crucial to the process of solar power generation.

This makes the need to select the best from the best in the market even more pertinent to selecting the right module. Module power, advanced module encapsulation, and enlarged wafer size are some aspects that need to be taken into account. During a webinar with EQ magazine, Mr. Xuepeng Sun, Technical Manager, JA Solar introduced the viewers to JA Solar’s DeepBlue 3.0 solar module. The main focus of the webinar was to better understand the clean solar key products, which are premium designs for solar farms from a technical perspective.

While talking about the design idea of the product, he presented a graph and explained, “This graphic shows the module increments in the last three years. From blue parts between 2009 and 2020, we could obtain the information (about) the module power increment is mainly (to) contribute to the buyer selling efficiency increasing annually, and integrated technology... Ten years ago, the module power was around 290, (it) was simple, with about 16 per cent module efficiency. Now, the module power achieved (is) more than 500 watts, with the module efficiency (being) more than 21 per cent. Part of the biggest power change that I have merely started from the year 2020, which is the last year because of the low PVA incentive and module supply point wheel to launch the cupboard all kinds of products for meeting these market requirements.”

Besides the demand in the market, the factors influencing the acceptance of the solution include its design, cost-efficiency, practicality, and technological superiority. Here is stating a few:

1. SIZE DOESN’T MATTER? Mr. Xuepeng Sun, Technical Manager, JA Solar explains, “Besides module power and efficiency, we also need to consider the module application practically. Is the module the larger, the better? Could the larger module maintain the mechanical property? After the module is delivered to the product site, can the workers or operator easily hand (it) over and install (it) smoothly? Because for the module itself, the larger, the heavier. At the same time, could the current district system be compatible with this large plus module? Especially in the high wind lower region. From a technical point of view, all these factors, need to be verified” Contrary to the belief that the larger size ensures better performance, the oversize module does not contribute more BOS savings on the system side but brings more potential risks. In fact, excessively increasing solar module power through bigger wafer sizing will be valueless. It increases mechanical load risk, transportation, and installation challenges, and affects structure loading capability (a challenge for mounting systems, like high wind load region).

2. Voltage & Current a) Module Electrical Property Comparison: It is crucial to note that in case the voltage drops, the current will be increased significantly.

Low voltage can add the string capacity and decrease the system cost, but the impact from the large current on the system and module itself should be noted.

High voltage, low current: 78/182 (1/2 cut); 50/210 (1/3 cut) Low voltage, high current: 60/210 (1/2 cut)

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b) Module Operation Loss Comparison: A larger module current implies more CTM loss and extra module production cost. Large current results in resistance loss increment, meaning that if the module operating temperature goes up, module power generation will be decreased. This could result in more potential risks for connectors and junction box diodes burning out.

This is some data between the bus bar number and module power, which is also the reason why we are using the bus bar for the physical principle. c) Irradiance Data: Resistance loss and low power generation & PR can be caused due to higher temperature of the solar module temperature if Isc is higher. A recording from a thirdparty report, compared with a larger current module (Isc 18.5 Amp), the power generation of the JA DeepBlue 3.0 (182mm wafer) module is more than 1.5% higher, and LCOE is significantly better. It is imperative to match the module property with solar system configuration, pursuing low voltage and high current is not ideal. Module design should be designed so that not only BOS savings but also LCOE are factored in.

WHY IS THE M10 (182MM) SOLAR MODULE PREFERRED? The size of this solar module is determined by the whole industry chain including production, installation, transportation, and solar system configuration. Its salient features include suitable dimension and electric property, and premium LCOE (the design principle of the JA Deep Blue 3.0).

Length: ~2278mm Breadth: ~1134mm Voc: ~50V Isc: ~13A

Proof of Quality: Withstanding the Test of Time This solution can withstand the test of time, so attests the many awards claimed by this product. DeepBlue 3.0 won simulation data- TUV Rheinland “All Quality Matters” Award. It was awarded “Energy Yield Simulation AQM Award 2020 - Monofacial Mono Group” and the “TUV NORD Outdoor Yield Performance Awards”.

JA Solar in cooperation with TUV NORD conducted a oneyear-long (February 2021 ~ February 2022) outdoor solar project monitoring plan at the National PV experimental center, Yinchuan (northwest China).

The observations suggest that during a high-irradiance period, the average module operation temperature gap between the 182mm module and the larger current module is about 1.7 degrees Celsius, and the maximum temperature gap is up to 4-5 degrees Celsius, indicating effects of weather (especially summer).

Additionally, the power generation of 182 modules (per watt) is about 1.8% higher than the larger current module from February to July 2021.

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TECHNOLOGY Besides this, during the PV module energy yield simulation the results were found to be promising in favour of the above-mentioned solution. This simulation involved randomly selecting five samples from 1000 pcs mass production modules. The electrical performance of the module was then tested under different irradiance, temperature, and light incidence angles. This was followed by determining the PAN file parameters of modules. The geographical and meteorological data of five typical areas were selected to simulate the outdoor power generation of the modules. The modules were finally ranked based on the data gathered from the tests and the power of the modules.

The solution also provides technical insights into the existing technology. Here are some technical highlights of DeepBlue 3.0’:

1. Module Configuration:

182 Wafer; 547278 Model; 1/2 Cut Cell Wafer sizing upgrade; mature production facilities, workmanship, material; compatible with production line; current production yield.

2. A solution to best LCOE:

- PERCIUM cell technology - Wafer size upgrade - M10 Gallium-doped wafer - 11 bus bar technology - Half-cut technology - Higher reliability (all certification including a PI certificate for the Indian market)

3. Upgraded PERCIUM Cell:

- Upgraded PERC technology with the better long-wavelength spectral response and low-irradiation property - Low-temperature co-efficiency - The cell and module substructure are fully upgraded accompanied by the extra 2-3% power generation performance

4. M10 (182mm) Ga-doped wafer:

- It is the first solar company to deploy Ga-doped wafers on all high-efficiency cells with IP rights globally - Lower degradation - 2% degradation in the first year - Single glass 0.55%/year: Linear degradation (2-25 years) - Double glass 0.45%/year: Linear degradation (2-30 years)

5. Multi-Bus Bar Technology & Round Ribbon

- The 11-busbar pattern, shorter current transmission distance, and lower resistance loss enhance higher energy yield - Reduce the risk of cell cracks and broken fingers on the module - Round ribbons improve optical utilization and module power - Better performance at oblique incidence - The 11-busbar design and thinner ribbon reduce stress effects and improve reliability - Enhance durability under temperature and load fluctuation, reducing TC and dynamic load power loss

6. Half-cell technology

a) - Lower internal resistance loss - Improved photoelectric conversion efficiency b) - Lower NOCT, 2-3 degree C lower than fuel-cell modules during operation - Lower temperature co-efficiency c) - Ultra excellent circuit design reduces module current mismatch loss - Temperature is 10-20 degrees C lower than the full module under a hot spot situation d) - Excellent mechanical load capacity - Less shading impact

DeepBlue 3.0 Pro - DeepBlue 3.0 Upgrade - GFI (Gapless Flexible Interconnection) Technology of JA Solar - Higher efficiency, better production yield, lower LCOE (Power can increase ~ 10W, efficiency can increase ~ 0.4%) - Strict reliability test, ensuring the reliability of Pro module 11 BB; Half-cell; Gapless Flexible Interconnection

EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY While this solution stands as an incredible product, there have been successful attempts to make it even better by making technological adjustments. DeepBlue 3.0 upgrades include: - GFI (Gapless Flexible Interconnection) Technology of JA Solar - Higher efficiency, better production yield, lower LCOE (Power can increase ~ 10W, efficiency can increase ~ 0.4%) - Strict reliability test, ensuring the reliability of Pro module 11 BB; Half-cell; Gapless Flexible Interconnection.

MOMENT OF TRUTH: BOS Cost & Factors Affecting It Module efficiency and power corresponding to BOS cost need to be factored in too. What enhances the practicality of the module includes easy transportation and installation. Whilst these features are rare to be found in one product, JA Solar makes it easy with its DeepBlue 3.0 solar modules to do so.

With a six per cent increase in the efficiency of mono-crystalline cells from 2009 (at 17 per cent) to 2020 (at 23 per cent), DeepBlue 3.0 comes with enhanced solar module power achieved through cell efficiency increment. The implementation of PERC technology further boosts up cell efficiency.

Its advanced module encapsulation includes AR coating glass, thicker extra soft ribbon, high transmittance EVA, half-cut cell, multi-bus bar, and shingle, paving, and high-density. Enlarged wafer sizing promotes module power achieving more than 500 watts. The sizes have evolved from 125mm to 156mm/156.75mm/158.75mm to 161.7mm/166mm and finally to 182mm/210mm.

While taking BOS cost and solar module power evaluation into account, the base on power efficiency is apparent. The larger module with a higher power output will significantly reduce BOS cost. When the size is big enough, for example, for 182 mm (72 cells) with 590 watts, this 590 watts is higher, however, it does not contribute too much for BOS. The trend of the BOS deduction effect becomes less when enlarging wafer sizing.

You can find various module power and the congruous variable BOS in the table below.

On the other hand, when we look at BOS cost and solar module efficiency evaluation, it is a far more superior and widely accepted parameter. Efficiency contributes more to BOS cost reduction compared with wafer sizing. The following table suggests module efficiency/power to variable BOS.

During the webinar, Mr. Sun also presented the value analysis of DeepBlue 3.0. Here are some figures: 1. This is the cost comparison under a fixed structure from a thirdparty EPC company.

2. This is the cost comparison under the single-axis tracker from the top three-tractor manufacturers.

3. These are LCOE evaluations compared with 182 products. DeepBlue 3.0 products, so, we all reduced by 5-7% LCOE, which were very high numbers Deep Blue 3.0 72-cell, 78-cell: - -0.35%/ degree C: Temperature coefficient - 98.5%: Low light performance - 2278*1134mm: Module size - 2%/0.55%: Single glass warranty - 2%/0.45%: Double glass warranty - 28.6kg single glass weight; 31.6kg dual glass weight Article Prepared by: Aishwarya Puranik, EQ Magazine

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Utility-scale Solution 225-250kW

Compatible with High-power Modules

Power Line Communication 2.0

I-V Curve Diagnosis

Internal Humidity Detection

40 mw

SVG Function Available

Shandong, China HT Series

www.goodwe.com GoodWeSolarEngine

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GoodWeSolarEngine

DECEMBER 2021

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ENERGY STORAGE

Deye Revolutionizes Residential Energy Storage System With six programmable time periods for battery charging and discharging, compatibility with a diesel generator, smart load application, and more…

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he Deye Residential Energy Storage System consists of a PV array, hybrid inverter, battery, electrical equipment, and grid or diesel generator. The aim of this design is to store the surplus energy in the battery. This then supplies the load when needed. It improves energy independence and reduces electricity bills. The intelligent monitoring platform enables one to get live information about the status of their system.

Additionally, it supports setting parameters and updating firmware for inverter, working as per the requirement during the day (bears load and charges simultaneously) and at night (discharging).

In case of excess energy generation, it can be sold into the mains grid too. The battery storage is triggered (UPS) during a grid outage to power the household appliances. There are time-dependent electricity tariffs in most countries. Deye hybrid inverter is your go-to solution to regulate electricity usage and reduce electricity bills as it has six programmable time periods for battery charging and discharging (stated in the table below):

Time 08-10:00 PV and battery supply the load together 10-15:00 PV powers the load and charges the battery; the excess energy flows to the grid 15-18:00 PV and battery supply the load together 18-23:00 The battery powers the load 01-05:00 Grid charges battery and powers the load simultaneously 05-08:00 The battery powers the load This energy storage system ensures the smooth function of electrical appliances including air conditioners with its four milliseconds automatic switching time in case of grid failure.

Deye hybrid inverter is completely compatible with a diesel generator and capable of starting and stopping it (under certain conditions). This avoids the wastage of diesel oil and unpleasant noise caused due to long time running.

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Smart Load Application: This hybrid inverter supports a ‘smart load application’, implying that the diesel generator can provide output directly to the load. When the PV power is sufficient and the battery bank SOC exceeds 95%, ‘Smart Load Port’ will switch on automatically and power the load connected. When the battery bank SOC is less than 90%, the ‘Smart Load Port’ will switch off automatically.

Grid Peak Shaving Application: This helps reduce your electricity bills.

These inverters allow the users to set the maximum amount of grid power, and the surplus energy is directed to PV or the battery bank. In cases like these, the mains grid electricity rate witnesses a dramatic drop.

Deye Hybrid Inverter can be used to retrofit existing solar systems with its air conditioner couple feature. Micro-inverter plant and energy storage system can be integrated without burning a hole in your pocket for covering power station renovations costs via the diesel generator port of the hybrid inverter. Deye Hybrid Inverter can increase the capacity of the system to 80kW/128kW by fitting in one system with up to the maximum of 16 pieces in parallel. The cherry on the top is the compatibility of a parallel system with different grid types (230/400VAC, 120/208VAC, and 127/220VAC). The parallel system does not need an additional control device due to its advanced control algorithm and provides a system, which is both stable and reliable.

Main Features: - Max charging current and discharging current of 120A for 5k model, 190A for 8k model - Backup power 5kW for 5K model and 8kW for 8K model - Max charging efficiency > 95.5% - Peak startup power 10000W 10S for 5K model, and 160000W for 8K model - Backup switch time 4ms - Equipped with x2 CAN port for BMS and parallel, x1 RS485 port for BMS, x1 RS232 port for remotely control, x1 DRM port - Built-in overcurrent switch, saving investment - Approved by IEC, CE, VDE4105, AS4777, EN50549, CEI, G98/G99, NRS2017, XP C15-712-3, ABNT NBR 16149/16150 - Colorful touch LCD, IP65 protection degree - Zero-export application.

Article Prepared by: Aishwarya Puranik EQ Magazine

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PV MANUFACTURING

RE MANUFACTURING IN INDIA HAS A CRUCIAL ROLE TO PLAY IN ACHIEVING RE TARGETS OF

175 GW BY 2022 AND 450 GW BY 2030 Adani Solar being India’s largest integrated solar Cell & Module Manufacturer, is geared up to ensure the Energy Security of the country with planned expansion up to 3.5 GW of solar Cell & Module Manufacturing capacity from current 1.5 GW. Adani Solar’s cutting-edge technology, scale of operations, cost leadership and reliability, sets up apart from all other global competitors and supporting utilities.

Let’s take an in-depth look at the technologies, behind the innovations of its recently announced High Efficiency ultra-high-power modules designed for applications in small to utility-scale power plants with • Power output up to 540W and 660W • 21%+ efficiency • SHINE Series - Module size of 2266×1135mm with 182mm Cell • PRIDE SERIES - Module size of 2390mm X 1303mm with 210mm cell.

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dani Solar’s R&D and Technology team has optimized the gallium-doped M10 standard silicon wafers (182mm) and G12 standard silicon wafers (210mm) that produce P-Type Mono PERC module with the lowest LID and LETID performances. It has also been proven that Gallium-doped silicon wafers shows lower LID performance with stable, long-term power generation as compared to boron-doped ones. Adani Solar’s Galliumdoped wafers are coupled with Non-Destructive cell cutting Technology that delivers superior performance. With these gallium-doped cells, Adani Solar modules have increased annual generation performance, power performance and long-term reliability. The 1st year power warranty is an industry-leading 98% and linear annual degradation is within 0.45% after Year 1.

Adani Solar has also adopted a superior soldering technology on its modules that has increased the module conversion efficiency by 0.3%. This technology uses wires that maximize light capture and reliably connect cells with reduced gap distance. More importantly, soldering reduces the tensile stress of the cell and ensures higher reliability.

Adani Solar modules come with “Double glass with frame" design that provides exceptional strength for high load capacity. The strength of the frame negates the need for a crossbeam, hence no shading losses at the back of the module. In terms of BOS simulations using fixed brackets and centralized inverters, Adani Solar modules can reduce BOS costs by more than (US$1.5 cents/W) when compared to mainstream products in the market. With string inverters, Adani Solar modules can improve the capacity ratio of the power plant, reduce AC equipment cost, and bring about the lowest LCOE for large power plants. Adani Solar is partnering with more than 20 global customers to verify the BOS savings, lowest LCOE and high performance of its Elan (Bifacial)/ Eternal (Monofacial) modules in real world applications.

Driving the Solar PV industry forward with breakthrough innovation in volume production Adani Solar firmly believes in continuous innovations that can be quickly brought into volume production delivering true value for its partners and customers. The module production capacity of Adani Solar is expanding from 1.5 GW to 3.5 GW in 2021.

Elan (Bifacial) and Eternal (MonoFacial) series will be produced in volume and receive IEC/UL certification shortly in the next few months during 2021. The Company is also planning to expand its manufacturing capacity to up to 6 GW in 2023-2024.

Adani Solar Product Portfolio

If we see the current trend in India’s Solar industry, many Indian manufacturers are still trying to migrate from Poly/ Multi manufacturing to Mono manufacturing, while our overseas contemporaries have already migrated to high efficiency Mono. Adani Solar has already developed the infrastructure to manufacture the M10 (182mm) and G12 (210mm) design with high efficiency cells of 23% and above reaching power class bins of 540Wp and above, making it an early adopter in Global Solar technologies in India.

Product design based on industry insights and real-world applications The initial point in the development of Adani Solar modules was well planned after extensive insights from the PV industry and analysis of customer inputs and voices globally. Adani Solar further considered realworld applications to come with its new – Elan Pride (Bifacial modules with G12 cells) & Elan Shine (Bifacial modules with M10 Cells) and Eternal Pride (Monofacial modules with G12 cells) & Eternal Shine (Monofacial module with M10 cells) modules in the logistics chain. The new world class modules from Adani Solar save 4.1% on BOS cost, 20% on Labour, 5% on Land & Logistics and 3% on LCOE. The working current of Adani Solar modules are as high as 13-17A, including the bifacial gain.

The operating current remains within the maximum input current range of the inverter, with no power generation losses. The module length is compatible with 1P and 2P horizontal single axis tracking systems.

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Adani Solar‘s Elan and Eternal range includes 66C and 72C formats, in bifacial and monofacial applications. The 72C (M10) version deploys the traditional 6 rows design in a 72-cell layout with front-side power up to 540W, which is the optimal choice for the ultra-large power plants worldwide. The 66C (G12) module has front power of 660W and a smaller footprint that broaden its applications. Currently, Adani Solar’s Elan Pride & Shine (Bifacial Modules) and Eternal Pride & Shine (Monofacial modules), launching in 2021, will continue to enhance its product portfolio and are the most competitive products suited for residential, C&I and utility-scale power plants.

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FEATURED

ECE India Energies bags India Green Energy Award 2021 ECE India Energies Pvt Ltd has won the prestigious India Green Energy Award 2021 in the category of Outstanding Renewable Energy Equipment Manufacturers & Technology Developers - Solar. The award was received by Amit Arokar, Managing Director, ECE India from Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways. The award ceremony was also attended by Shri Bhagwant Khuba, Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

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he Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) has been organizing IGEA since 2019. This was the 3rd year for the India Green Energy Awards (IGEA). IFGE is a partnership of committed group of visionaries and stakeholders from diverse industries, business and services for creating a sustainable energy ecosystem and mitigating challenges and concerns. Being an umbrella organization, IFGE represents the interests of the national renewable energy sector in its totality - bio energy, solar, wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, etc. ECE India was placed among the Top-10 Solar Manufacturers in the country by Industry Outlook - a leading magazine on Indian Manufacturing & Industrial Products. Our Hon. Chairman Dr. V.T. Ingole

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& Managing Director Amit Arokar were lauded with the prestigious ‘Leaders of Change’ title by the Times of India in August 2021. One of the leading Solar Panel Manufacturer in Central India, ECE India was established to provide fruitful services to the stakeholders through value addition with an eye for quality, clean environment, and safe life. The Company was founded by mit Arokar in 2010 and currently it is handled by him with his four hard working friends with a mission to provide sustainable energy to Mother Earth, alongside becoming an employment generator in small town attracting expertise around the globe.

Though the region of Vidarbha is lacking industrial environment and employment, ECE India has managed to become an employmentcreator starting from a handful people in 2010.

Manufacturing of Indigenous Solar Module, Solar Energy & Road Safety based products formed the initial base of the company, which later on went on to become a multi-faceted enterprise of green and solar energy products as well as services. Solar PV Modules, Solar Blinkers, Solar Water Pumps, Solar Fencing, Solar Street Lights, Road Safety Systems like Traffic Signals, Traffic Controllers, Graphical Countdown Timer, etc. were the innovative products which company manufactured from the start

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FEATURED After successful installations of solar power projects throughout the country, in 2019 we have ventured into State of the Art - Solar Panel manufacturing unit of capacity 100 MW at Amravati (MH) Industrial Area. ECE India’s Solar Panels have been successful in keeping up with world standards and they are certified by BIS, IEC and other major organizations like MEDA, CREDA, SECI, NISE, REIL, Indian Railways, PWD etc. ECE Solar Panels range from 20 Wp to 525 Wp.

ECE India’s 100 MW state of the art Solar Panel manufacturing unit in Amravati (MH) is spread over 55000 square feet and houses all the necessary equipment’s & tools required for Raw Material Quality Checking, Cell Cutting & Testing, Stringing, Ribbon Cutting, Bussing, IV Testing, Quality Control, EL Testing, Lamination, Framing & most importantly Panel Testing. ECE India is wellequipped with competitive back-office and HR teams which has helped to sustain and compete in the ever-growing solar industry.

ECE forms a solid ground with 50 MW+ satisfied customers and successful consultancy services in EPC projects being provided to some well-established conglomerates like Tata, Adani, Reliance, Aditya Birla Group, IRB, Shakti Pumps, Pitambari, Junna Solar, etc.. ECE India has a customer base of more than 2000 customers.

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Owing to the good quality of our products and post-sale support to customers with transparent & ethical business practices, we have been successful in earning the faith of our clients”

ECE Solar Panels & Solar Kits make ECE India - a complete one stop shop for the dealers & distributors in order to provide the best solution to their end customers. These entrepreneurial, strikingly aspirational and customer centric efforts have led ECE India to expand its distribution network to more than 18 states in India.

ECE India Energies is committed to becoming a multi-billion venture with a vision to excel holistically, upholding our society and nation’s interests at its heart.

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INDIA

MISSION 500 GW BY 2030

India takes one more step to reduce carbon emission and reduce the cost of power to consumers. Ministry of Power allows bundling of renewable to replace thermal power under existing PPAs

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nder the guidance of Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy, the Ministry of Power and New & Renewable Energy have issued revised guidelines providing for thermal generation companies to set up renewable energy generation capacity either by themselves through developers by open bids and supplying it to the consumers under the existing PPAs. This will enable the replacement of fossil fuel based energy by renewable energy under the existing PPAs. As the cost of renewable energy is less than the cost of Thermal energy, the gains from the bundling of renewable energy with thermal will be shared between the generator and Distribution companies/other procurers on a 50:50 basis. As the renewable energy will be balanced with thermal energy, therefore, the DISCOMs will now not need to acquire any separate capacity for balancing of renewable energy. This is a very significant step towards achieving the goal of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030.

DECEMBER 2021

The distribution companies will be able to count the renewable energy supplied under the scheme towards their renewable purchase obligation and this will be without the financial burden of separate PPA. This step by the Central Government will lead to a faster energy transition and will be beneficial for both the Generators and the Distribution Companies. Under the direction of the Hon’ble Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy, the Ministry of Power and New & Renewable Energy are poised to take some additional steps for achieving 500 GW by 2030, for which orders are to be issued shortly.

Source : pib

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FEATURED PROUD MOMENT...!!!

One more feather has been added in the crown of Insolation Energy.

"Youth Icon Award 2021" has been awarded

by FORTI to Founder Directors, Mr. Manish Gupta & Mr. Vikas Jain.

The award was presented by Sh. Narayan Rane, Hon'ble Cabinet Minister, MSME Govt. Of India, Sh. Ram Charan Bohra, Hon'ble Member of Lok Sabha, Sh. Satish Poonia, Hon'ble Member of Raj. Legislative Assembly and Sh. Rafeek Khan, Hon'ble Member of Raj. Legislative Assembly.

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Delivering true value 丨 Higher power, Lower LCOE

Shaping the future.

Once again.

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DECEMBER 2021

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INDIA ORIANO SUCCESSFULLY COMMISSIONS 26 MWAC 36 MWP CAPTIVE OPEN ACCESS SOLAR PARK IN RAICHUR KARNATAKA

Oriano has commissioned 26 MWac/36 MWp Solar Park at 110 kV in Raichur, Karnataka under Group Captive Open Access Mechanism for one of the Global Pharma Power Off-taker.

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riano was awarded for the Project with scope of Captive PPA/SHA acquisition, Third Party Legal Land due diligence & 100+ Acres Land acquisition, All Land & Development and Project related approvals including Solar Park Govt. Order, Sub-GO, Evacuation Approval, Bay Allocation, Project NOCs, CEIG, Interconnection Approval, etc., turnkey EPC of the Project, Construction of 110 kV Switchyard, 110 kV Transmission Line including RoW Approval & Bay. It’s an end-to-end Project offered by Oriano including 5 years of O&M. Team Oriano exhibited their commitment towards their Customer, Investor, Vendors, and despite Covid, multiple lockdowns across the country, development related challenges, material uncertainty in terms of supply & commercial escalations, Oriano Commissioned the Project in a timely manner with all compliances & keeping HSE on priority.

Mr. Lokendra Singh (Director & Co-Founder – Oriano) has told that as a strategy to extend beyond Utility scale turnkey Solar Project EPC, it’s the first project delivered by Oriano on Turnkey Development & EPC mode under Group Captive Open Access Mechanism. The challenges and timelines were daunting due to covid restrictions, heavy rains, etc.

The project site construction started in mid of July 2021 and took 4 months to fully commission & charge the Project with 110 kV Bay, TL, & GSS Infrastructure. Oriano is developing four additional Solar parks in multiple states of 100 MWp (Maharashtra), 125 MWp (Karnataka), 50 MWp (Tamil Nadu) and 70 MWp (Chhattisgarh) and are in advance stages. Oriano is additionally working on Wind Solar Hybrid Project in Karnataka. Oriano is additionally currently constructing approx. 150+ MWp multiple projects in Chhattisgarh on Captive Open Access Mechanism at 132 kV Evacuation.

Source : PTI

INTERACTION WITH STAKEHOLDERS ON THE PROPOSED PILOT PROJECT OF SETTING UP OF 1000 MWH STANDALONE BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM (BESS) UNDER COMPETITIVE BIDDING This has reference to the Expression of Interest (EOI) issued by Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) from prospective bidders for setting up of 1000 MWh Standalone Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in India under Global Competitive Bidding on 14-10-2021. This also included the draft guidelines and draft RfS documents.

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n this connection, a meeting has been scheduled under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Minister for Power and NRE, Government of India on 23-11-2021 (Tuesday) at 12:30 PM through Video Conferencing to interact with stakeholders on the bidding document of proposed Pilot Project of 1000 MWh Standalone Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). The link for joining the meeting will be shared separately. The interested stakeholders who wish to participate in the meeting, may intimate the names and email IDs of respective participants, to debranjan.chattopadhyay@nic.in and jayansh.gaur@ seci.co.in. The number of participants from each organization may be limited to 2 (two) in view of limitations in the Video Conferencing platform.

DECEMBER 2021

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en.si-neng.com

EP-3125-HA-UD

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SP-275K-INH

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INDIA

RENEW POWER ANNOUNCES RESULTS FOR THE SECOND QUARTER (Q2 FY22) AND FIRST HALF OF FISCAL 2022, BOTH ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 (H1 FY22) ReNew Energy Global plc (“ReNew Power”), India’s leading renewable energy company, today announced its consolidated results for the Q2 FY22 and H1 FY22.

OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS: As of September 30, 2021, our portfolio consisted of 10,217 MWs of which 6,315 MW projects are commissioned; an increase of 15.6% over September 30, 2020 and 3,902 MW are committed, out of which power purchase agreements (“PPAs”) are signed for 2,699 MWs. Total Income (or total revenue) for H1 FY22 was INR 38,119 million (US $ 514 million), an increase of 26.0% over H1 FY21. Total Income for the Q2 FY22 was INR 21,312 million (US$ 287 million), an increase of 44.3% over Q2 FY21.

Net loss for H1 FY22 was INR 9,849 million (US$ 133 million) compared to a net loss of INR 592 million in H1 FY21. The net loss for H1 FY22 included INR 16,407 million (US$ 221 million) of charges related to listing on Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, issuance of share warrants, listing related share based payments and others.

Adjusted EBITDA(2) (Non-IFRS) for H1 FY22 was INR 31,902 million (US$ 430 million), an increase of 27.9% over H1 FY21. Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 FY22 was INR 18,184 million (US$ 245 million), an increase of 50.3% over Q2 FY21. Adjusted EBITDA was not adjusted for the net negative impact of weather relative to normal of approximately INR 2,966 million (US $40 million) H1 FY22 and approximately INR 1,632 million (US$ 22 million) for Q2 FY22.

Non-IFRS Cash Flow to Equity (2) (“CFe”) from Operating Assets for H1 FY22 was INR 14,264 million (US$ 192 million), an increase of 84.3% over H1 FY21. Non-IFRS Cash Flow to Equity (“CFe”) from Operating Assets for the Q2 FY22 was INR 6,802 million (US$ 92 million), an increase of 757.5% over Q2 FY21.

PORTFOLIO ADJUSTED EBITDA RUN RATE AS OF NOVEMBER 15, 2021 As of November 15, 2021, 7.0 GWs of capacity was commissioned. The chart below provides the Portfolio Adjusted EBITDA Run Rate which is an estimation of the Adjusted EBITDA once capacity is operating for a full year.

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Note: Construction (including land acquisition) typically takes approximately six to 18 months for utility-scale wind energy projects, and four to 12 months for utility-scale solar energy projects. PPAs are typically signed three to six months after receipt of the LOA although there have been recent delays in receiving PPAs principally due to COVID-19.

GUIDANCE FOR FY22 Our estimate remains at 8.2 GWs of capacity operating by the end of FY22 and Adjusted EBITDA for FY22, excluding the impact of weather, will be approximately INR 60,750 million (or US$810 million using a foreign exchange rate of Indian rupees into U.S. dollars of INR 75.00 to US$1.00).

Notes:

(1) This press release contains translations of certain Indian rupee amounts into U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise stated, the translation of Indian rupees into U.S. dollars has been made at INR 74.16 to US$1.00, which is the noon buying rate in New York City for cable transfer in non-U.S. currencies as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on September 30, 2021. We make no representation that the Indian rupee or U.S. dollar amounts referred to in this press release could have been converted into U.S. dollars or Indian rupees, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all.

(2) This is a non-IFRS measure. For more information, see “About Key Performance Indicators and Non-IFRS Measures” filed on form 6K with the SEC at www.sec.gov. IFRS refers to International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board. In addition, reconciliations of non-IFRS measures to IFRS financial measures, and operating results are included on form 6-K filed with SEC at www.sec.gov.

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

OHMIUM SHIPS ITS FIRST “MADE IN INDIA” HYDROGEN ELECTROLYZER UNIT TO THE UNITED STATES, ESTABLISHING INDIA AS THE GLOBAL HUB FOR HYDROGEN With R&D centers in Silicon Valley (US) and Bangalore (India), Ohmium aims to make India a nucleus for global hydrogen-based green energy solutions Ohmium’s India-based Gigafactory manufactures Modular-Interlocking Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) hydrogen electrolyzers

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Ohmium’s products enable customers to achieve maximized value for their emission free transportation, energy, and industrial projects and operations

hmium International, through its Indian subsidiary, has shipped its first unit of electrolyzer from India to the United States, as a first step towards establishing India as a global hub for green hydrogen generation. The electrolyzer has been manufactured by Ohmium at its Bengaluru plant, India’s first green hydrogen electrolyzer Gigafactory.

This was set-up to ensure the availability of end-toend solutions within the country and reduce dependency on imports for this key equipment (electrolyzer). This development comes as a breakthrough for the startup’s ongoing mission in alignment with the nation’s ‘Make in India’ and net-zero emission commitments.

As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the recent Climate Summit (COP26) in Glasgow, green hydrogen is a key component of India’s goal to achieve net-zero emissions. India aims to alter the present state of play wherein its entire hydrogen production comes from fossil fuels. It was also reiterated by the COP26 Energy Transition Council (ETC) that an instant and just transition to clean energy would be critical in meeting the Paris Agreement goals. India has voiced its keenness to scale up green hydrogen and mandate its use in industries like petroleum refineries and fertilizer industries. This push towards decarbonisation will lead to several investments in innovation across energy efficiency, renewable energy and emission free green hydrogen. “The first shipment of a product is a big moment for any company.

This is especially exciting for Ohmium as well as all of our suppliers in India because it proves beyond a doubt that both manufacturing and technology excellence in the field of green hydrogen generation are in

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India’s wheelhouse. We feel that when we export Ohmium products from India we are pushing the boundaries of the Honorable Prime Minister’s “AatmaNirbhar Bharat” and “National Hydrogen Mission” – in a good way – by expanding the global impact of these programs,” said Arne Ballantine, CEO & Co-Founder, Ohmium.

We are seeing significant activity in India and around the world in green hydrogen projects. Ohmium is constantly working towards providing innovative, scalable, profitable, flexible, and safe solutions which can be leveraged to achieve competitive levelized costs of hydrogen, supporting the growth of India’s economy. We are confident of Green Hydrogen as the fuel of the future owing to its enormous potential, numerous applications across sectors and a zero-carbon footprint. Currently, our factory has a manufacturing capacity of approximately ½ GW per year, and we can rapidly expand it to 2 GW per year to facilitate India’s accelerated transition to clean energy systems, said Ahmad Chatila, Chairman, Ohmium.

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TECHNOLOGY

SERVING THE ENTIRE RENEWABLE ENERGY ECO-SYSYEM FROM GENERATION TO ENERGY STORAGE

J

akson Group has been at the forefront of providing reliable power backup solutions for over seven decades. We are incredibly proud that we have fulfilled and exceeded our promise of facilitating uninterrupted power solutions across diverse customer segments. It was a natural progression for us to foray into Solar Energy Business back in 2011. We are happy to state that the journey has been highly fulfilling & rewarding so far.

Today we are one of the few solar companies in India with an integrated portfolio that includes utility scale based and solar rooftop EPC, manufacturing of PV modules, manufacturing of solar products and having IPP’s. Jakson Group has always been committed to clean energy and sustainable development. We have recently launched EnerPack, a state-of-the-art battery-based Energy Storage System. The whole objective is to offer clean and green energy solutions to our customers thus leading to sustainable development.

OUR RENEWABLE ENERGY PORTFOLIO • Helia - PV Module • Module Mounting Structures • Solar Products • EnerPack – Battery Energy Storage Systems • Hybrid Solutions • Solar EPC

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HELIA PV MODULES

It has always been our endeavour to provide customers with products & solutions with the latest technology. The Helia Solar Module is just a manifestation of that commitment. The Helia Series modules from Jakson are one of the most advanced and powerful PV modules offered in the Indian market and is available in variants ranging from 120, 132, 144, and 156 half-cut cells configuration. Developed using A+ category halfcut MonoPERC solar cells, and combined with Multi-busbar (MBB) technology & high-density interconnections, the Helia series of PV Modules achieves a class-leading efficiency of over 21%.

These hi-tech modules offer significantly better output at higher temperatures and under low-light/ shading conditions and are designed to perform at its peak in the most challenging of environments.

The Helia series of PV modules is a cost-effective solution and will positively impact Return on Investment (ROI) of a solar plant by reducing the requirement of land/ rooftop space. This subsequently translates into a significant reduction in Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), balance-ofsystem (BoS) costs, civil work costs and O&M costs. This makes the Helia series an ideal choice for residential, commercial and utility-scale customers.

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TECHNOLOGY ENERPACK – BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM Jakson Group has taken the lead in developing a Battery Energy Storage System 'EnerPack', which provides carbon-free clean power, contemporarily designed to suit all segments and enables uninterrupted power supply while significantly reducing costs.

Along with promoting continuous use of renewable energy and reducing the carbon footprint, BESS also promises no noise or air pollution and is a highly userfriendly pick. Equipped with a hybrid inverter, lithium-ion batteries, and smart energy systems, it combines grid power, solar energy, wind power and DG. It is scalable to any battery as well as to a new energy platform. Its compact and modular design makes it easy to transport and install, while fast-charge capability and low-system energy consumption makes it practical and pocket-friendly. Uninterrupted power supply provided by BESS ensures there are no production losses and day to day operations and processes continue without disruption.

PV MODULE MANUFACTURING Jakson’s solar manufacturing facility is based in Greater Noida, India, with an annual installed capacity of 600 MW. We are also planning to further scale up our manufacturing capacity by another 500 MW taking our total manufacturing capacity to over 1 GW per year.

The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, enabling the highest levels of manufacturing automation and multi-level quality control systems.

Apart from manufacturing the traditional full-cell modules, the new line can manufacture the latest high-efficiency Helia Series half-cut cell modules in both monofacial and bifacial variants.

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SOLAR EPC

We provide turnkey EPC solutions for land based and rooftop solar power plants. With a portfolio of more than 1.5 GW in land based & rooftop solar EPC projects, we have demonstrable experience in setting up solar power plants of all sizes – from a few Kilowatts to Megawatts depending on customer requirements. Our scope of services include complete lifecycle of solar power plants - from consulting to supply, erection, testing, commissioning including warranty, operations and maintenance.

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ENERGY STORAGE

UNLOCKING THE SCOPE OF STORAGE

During a webinar organized by EQ Magazine, the prospects of storage in RE and Hybrid plants were discussed. Energy storage system provides flexible and fast response resources to the system operators. It effectively manages variability in power generation and bearing the load. Recently, battery energy storage technology has experienced a sharp demand and a rapid decline in cost as a result of it.

T

he role of storage in renewable and hybrid plants is a topic of discussion. To carry the conversation forward and support discussion among highly experienced industry experts, EQ Magazine conducted a webinar on the topic “Emerging Role of Energy Storage in RE Plants and Hybrid Plants”. The webinar was powered by Huawei, the world’s biggest solar inverter company, and moderated by Yuvaraj Dinesh Babu, Director & Team Leader at Ernst & Young Services Private Limited.

In the opening statement, the keynote speaker Babu mentioned, “Very recently we celebrated (the installation of) 100 GW (renewable energy capacity) as well on 15th August but along with it, it is expected (that) we will see a rapid scaling up of grid-scale energy storage to meet the clean energy needs and to provide operational support to India PGCIL grid.” He quoted a report stating, “India will see 160 GWh to 800 GWh of energy storage capacity which corresponds to 50-120 GW in power cuts.” Following the thought, he explained, “If we are able to put the enabling regulations in place… that would really unlock the storage value streams.

No new coal or gas plants are built to avoid adverse impacts of climate change… Costs of energy storage decrease along with solar PV. Solar, wind, and water will contribute to 65% of the instilling capacity of India.” He explained now that the BloombergNEF (BNEF) trend predictions for 2021 (January) stated that lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese are in the supply recovery phase, prices of all materials have gone down. However, nickel is at a five-year high. SECI has successfully concluded the hybrid branches and round the clock, which was taken up by the leading giants, including Adani and Ayana.

He added, “Then (comes) the standalone storage application by the discourse. Private DISCOMS and some public DISCOMS are talking about it.” Explaining the provisional ancillary services, he said, “The operational support to the grid to maintain power quality and grid reliability… can include primary frequency response and secondary results. So, there are many applications from the grid-connected aspect of it along with great opportunities for grid-connected rooftop, metering rooftop, and the off-grid market as well.”

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Concluding his address, he mentioned, “This sector holds huge promise in establishing an ecosystem that could boost the economy in India on many fronts. We just talk about technology but just imagine the research associated, development of technologies, deployment of technologies, technology transfers, manufacturing (with Govt of India’s support), skill development, business model, financing aspect, independent battery energy storage projects, policy and regulations, safety, quality assurance, transaction advisory aspect, technology integration, especially with the e-mobility, urban add (air) mobility holding huge promise for storage, state and central govt missions on energy storage and (finally) recycling and circularity aspect of storage.”

Ravinder Singh, Senior Product Manager Digital Power Business at Huawei (India) pitched in with information about Huawei’s smart string PV & energy storage solution. He mentioned, “As more and more penetration of renewable energy in (the) grid… (It is) becoming weaker day by day. That means (the) source circuit ratio goes down.

In that case, present solutions shall have to be ready for future working at lower source circuit ratio with improved power quality and faster response. Already in many countries like Spain, Mexico, and even some parts of the big countries like India and China… Challenges (have) already started… and grid requirement (is) becoming now mandatory like in (the) UK, India, and Spain.”

Sanjiv Kothari, Head Techno-Commercial at Adani Green Energy Limited, during the panel discussion, explained “There is a substantial penetration of renewable (energy)…

As time passes… They say that by 2030 curtailment, which varies, of course, will reach about 1530%… So, viability for the projects of solar becomes very difficult. You will show on a paper that I got a huge kind of renewable energy based on the project and assuming that the curtailment is less but as time passes this curtailment would go on increasing because I think it has a lot of solar penetration and the renewable, which is getting in… will result into the higher curtailment.”

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ENERGY STORAGE He added, “So, when you do this storage system, you don’t only look at the cost of SUS, but you also need to see what compensation I am getting because you got a high storage system, high DC ratio and you got a huge amount… You got an absolute curtailment… You can use the advantage of having a BC coupling. Use this storage system and take that… What is the critical curtailment we have? So, it is about 4-5% broadly. So, that is a curtailment we have.

While answering questions raised during the discussion Krishnan Rajagopalan, Head Global BD, and Proposals Renewables Hybrid & Energy Storage at Sterling and Wilson Pvt Ltd, stated, “We are a consumer economy, and most of our technology deployment is more towards how I can bring down my cost of power or cost of energy to more competitive nature. I also really agree with you that the largest deployment of storage will probably happen on the consumer side, which is either behind the meter application or the rooftop, or the grid side application. But today… For the large-scale grid deployment, the commercials are slightly above the yellow line, where the large-scale deployment is not happening.”

Adding to this, he stated, “It is also important that we need to look at it from a regulation side. Whether we do have regulations clearly put in place or investments to come in. When I say investments to come in, there should be a revenue mechanism for the investors so that the investment whether it is invested by the utility or… by the IPP. There should be a revenue mechanism for it, unfortunately, today many of our DISCOMS are facing financial trouble. So, whatever capital that you will deploy, whether it is for a transmission system, storage application, or a time shift application, somebody has to bear its cost. So, it will have an effect on the tariff. There should be a regulation or a mechanism by which this tariff increase can be absorbed.”

He later explained, “We feel that (in) coming years, the next two to three years, the investments will be (majorly) driven by investments or called by the government bodies like the SECI and the NTPC. We need to at least see a GW or a GW and half deployment of storage into the grid (See how they behave because different geographies, particularly Indian context, have a very different grid).”

Saravanan Manoharan, Solar PV Design & Engineering at Ayana Renewable Power Pvt Ltd, also shared his views on the subject. He said, “We see a lot of off-take challenges, which have to be probably addressed by the bidding agencies itself. But finally, even bidding agencies are relying on certain offtakers in terms of the state utilities, etc… You might be aware that a long time back there was a bundling scheme when the solar tariff was very high. NTPC used to buy solar power and they used to bundle it with their operating thermal assets and try to set up an optimal cost. So, probably… because of the idea of bringing in storage and hybridizations to improve the vulnerability on the bed, we have been trying to patronize the transmission line system. So, I think that premium probably has to be given to the developers by taking such decisions in terms of aligning an off-taker to that tariff. Otherwise, with the current 200 plus dollars per KW, we are still not achieving the tariffs which are expected by the off-takers… We are expecting this price to come down in terms of battery to the tune of a hundred KW. Then probably we will be able to achieve this three rupees or 3.5 rupees tariff, which is somehow closer to the current solar and renewable tariff.”

While discussing the emerging technology, he mentioned, “On the other hand we see a strong potential in terms of other storage options also. People are trying to type the pump hydro storage, maybe picking up the ramping up and ramping down requirements. We have to pick that call, and there are other new technologies (that) are coming like gravity storage. Even though there are bankability risks, we see a lot of potential in those technologies, also considering the cost and the technology… Probably when the time comes these hydro plants are becoming more difficult in terms of construction, because they are talking about three years, four years of construction… Probably this gravity and related storage system may take a different deal because already we are seeing a lot of OEMs, which are proposing such technologies to the market. So, overall we are trying to review our batteries as (a) proven technology. I don’t see an issue adopting (to it) and bankability as such. But there are a lot of innovations to come in terms of efficiency to bring down the cost of the battery to make it acquirable.”

As more economies advance and the power demand goes up, there is an increase in energy demands. With greater penetration of electric mobility, it is forecasted that the power demand will grow. It is understood that every natural source has its limitations, and even for solar, there is only so much energy the plates can absorb. This will naturally cause a rise in the demand for energy storage.

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Abbreviations ALMM

Approved List of Models and Manufacturers

ASP

Average Selling Price

BCD

Basic Custom Duty

BU

Billion Unit

CAGR

Compound Annual Growth Rate

CEA

Central Electricity Authority

CERC

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission

CFA

Central Finance Assistance

CPSU

Central Public Sector Unit

CY

Calendar Year

DISCOM

Engineering, procurement, and construction

EV

Electric Vehicle

GW

Gegawatt

IREDA

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency

ISTS

Inter-State Transmission System

ANAND GUPTA anand.gupta@EQmag.net

TRENDS & ANALYSIS

SAUMYA BANSAL GUPTA saumya.gupta@EQmag.net

HEAD SALES & MARKETING :

BHANU YADAV sales@EQmag.net

MANAGER MARKETING :

Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission

kW

Kilowatt

kWh

Kilowatt Hour

M&A

Merger and Acquisition

MNRE

Minstry of New and Renewable Energy

MT

Metric Tons

MU

Million Unit

MW

Megawatt

PLI

Production Linked Incentive Scheme

PM-

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan

KUSUM

EDITOR & CEO :

Distribution Company

EPC

JNNSM

OWNER :

FirstSource Energy India Private Limited (EQ Int'l) www.EQMagPro.com

Mahabhiyan

PPA

Power Purchase Agreement

PSU

Public Sector Unit

PV

Photovoltaic

RE

Renewable Energy

REC

Renewable Energy Certificate

RPO

Renewable Purchase obligation

SECI

Solar Energy Corporation of India

T&D

Transmission and Distribution

T&D

Transmission and Distribution

VGF

Viability Gap Funding

YoY

Year over Year

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GAZALA KHAN hayat@EQmag.net

GRAPHICS & LAYOUT :

RATNESH JOSHI

SUBSCRIPTIONS :

RISHABH CHOUHAN rishabh.eqmag.net@gmail.com

Disclaimer, Limitations of Liability

While every effort has been made to ensure the high quality and accuracy of EQ international and all our research with the greatest of care and attention, we make no warranty concerning its content, and the report is provided on an>> as is <<basis. EQ international contains advertising and third–party content. EQ International is not liable for any third-party content or error, omission or inaccuracy in any advertising material, nor is it responsible for the availability of external websites or their contents The data and information presented in this report are provided for informational purpose only, neither EQ INTERNATIONAL, its affiliates, Information providers nor content providers shall have any liability for investment decisions based upon or the results obtained from the information provided. Nothing contained in this report should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. The facts and opinions stated in this report do not constitute an offer on the part of EQ International for the sale or purchase of any securities, nor any such offer intended or implied Restriction on use The material in this report is protected by international copyright and trademark laws. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, post, transmit or distribute any part of the report in any way. You may only use the material for your personnel, NonCommercial use, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. want to use the material for any non-personnel, non-commercial purpose, you need written permission from EQ International.

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INTRODUCTION

S

olar capacity additions grow exponentially in Q3 2021 with around 2.8 GW installed a 41 percent increase compared to around 2 GW installed in Q2 2021. Installations were up by above 200 percent YoY compared to 998 MW added in Q3 2020.

In Q3 2021, large-scale installations totaled around 2.1 GW compared to 1.6 GW installed in the previous quarter. YoY, large-scale in-

stallations increased by over 298 percent compared to 530 MW installed in Q3 2020. The large-scale Solar PV project installation figures were the highest since the first quarter of 2017 as the market was open in Q3 2021, so many projects which were not able to get commissioned during the lock-down period due to COVID-19, commissioned in Q3 2021, also there is a duty-free window for eight months starting from August 2021 to March 2022, which allowed the developers to commissioned their project during this period. Even the installations will be high in the coming two-quarters such as Q4 2021 & Q1 2022.

Rooftop Solar installations accounted for 726 MW in Q3 2021, an increase of 78 percent compared to 408 MW installed in Q2 2021. In a YoY comparison, rooftop Solar installations increased by 223percent, with around 400 MW added in Q3 2020.

Considering the lockdown has been lifted across the country except for a few southern states, supply chain disruptions been removed, and workforce shortages were the gone days, most solar projects scheduled for commissioning at the starting of 2021 been slipped into this quarter and the results was that India installed more than 2.8 GW of Solar PV projects in the third quarter of 2021.

In Q3 2021, India added 2.84 GW of Solar PV in the country, which shows the quarter-over-quarter growth of 41 percent from CY Q2 to Q3 of 2021 where the installations were around 2 GW. The market has substantially improved since Q4 of 2020 where the Solar PV installations were just 1.41 GW. The market is slowly recovering from a pandemic, and projects are getting commissioned which were stuck in 2020 but one issue of rise in the prices of Solar PV modules continues in the Indian Solar industry.

India installed Solar PV capacity has reached the 45 GW mark in CY Q3 2021. Of the total Solar PV installed capacity, most of the installation comes from utility-scale projects of more than 39.35 GW, while the rest comes from rooftop solar. In Q3 2021, the pace of Solar rooftop installations has increased along with the installations on a utility scale. Many of the industrial and commercial customers are allowing the installers to install the rooftop solar system which was not available a few months back especially in the second wave restriction. The year has started with a good note as the installations in the first nine of 2021 (9M) have crossed the 7.46GW market whereas the installations in the whole calendar year of 2020 were just 3.7 GW. If we talk about the growth from 9M 2020 to 9M 2021, there was a growth rate of 221 percent whereas the installations in the first nine of 2020 were just 2.32 GW while in 9M 2021 installations were around 7.46 GW. The share of utility-scale in the total installations as of September 2021 was around 88 percent, but in CY Q3 2021, it was reduced to 74 percent. While the share of rooftop solar as of 30th September 2021 was having around 12 percent of the country's total Solar installations, it has gained more share in the third quarter of 2021 having 26 percent of the total Solar PV installations. The share of the rooftop especially in the commercial and industrial space will grow substantially as the net-metering policy which was pending fora few months has been approved by the Ministry of Power where the new amendment allows the net metering users to go for loads up to 500 kW or up to the sanctioned load, whichever is lower. Many states are accepting this net metering policy such as Chhattisgarh, but a state like Gujarat in their proposed amendments, allowing net metering loads up to 10 kW, and above that gross metering will be provided.

This year, the polysilicon price further increased after the Chinese government ordered silicon metal refineries to reduce working hours due to the power crisis in the country. There was a jump of 18.2 percent in the Solar glass prices and a 35 percent rise in the cost of adhesive films year-on-year, while the cost of the Solar PV modules has recorded a rise by a comparatively modest 9 percent during the year 2021.

The glass prices are still high due to shortage in the Chinese market as modules manufacturers are moving their technology from Mono to Bifacial panels which consume double the glass, and the result of this creates a shortage in the market. Even there is a global demand after the COVID-19 restriction, so installations across the World are high, and there is a supply disruption in China, which increases the modules prices.

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Source: eq isearch

SOLAR INSTALLATIONS IN INDIA BY YEAR The growth rate of Solar PV installations is positive in 2021, as the commissioned capacity already crossed 2020 calendar year installations just in the first nine of 2021 which was around 7.46 GW, while the installations in 2020 were 3.7 GW in the full twelve months.

There is an exponential growth in the Indian Solar installations from 2016 to 2019, but due to COVID-19, the installations have slowed down.

The installations in CY 2020 were reduced to 3.7 GW from 8.5 GW in CY 2019. But in CY 2021, the installations are happening rapidly, the installations are good in comparison with last year but India needs more projects to be commissioned in the coming months as the target is huge, and left with only fifteen months’ time where the country has to installed 100 GW of Solar PV installations by December 2022.

After the Paris agreement, there is a positive growth in the Solar installations in the country, and India became one of the top Solar markets globally after China & the USA. Installations in 2021 as of September were around 7.45 GW and will cross the 10 GW mark of yearly installations in CY 2021. The total renewable energy capacity (excluding Hydro Power) already crossed the 100 GW mark in August 2021. The 175 GW installed RE capacity by 2022 announced in 2015 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India surpassed the 100 GW milestone (excluding large hydro) in 2021. India has only tapped a fraction of the vast potential for renewable energy and, therefore, India has raised the target to 450 GW RE installed capacity by 2030.

India will install the maximum capacity of yearly Solar PV installation in the Calendar year 2022, as too many under-development projects are laying in the country, the developers should procure the modules before the imposition of basic customs duty (BCD), and commission the projects with the duty-free module. Even, India has tier-1 panel manufacturers who can provide quality panels at an affordable rate, also many huge announcements are having where top domestic manufacturers are doing expansion, and trying to match the capacity of Chinese module manufacturers so that they can get the benefit of economies of scale and supply the modules at a competitive rate.

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Solar Installation by Year

Source: eq isearch

Installations in Indian Solar Industry is picking pace, and developers are commissioning their projects which had put at a halt due to travel restriction, approval issue, still, the price of the modules are not stable but showing apositive sign for the developers as freight charges are stabilizing slowly.

India’s renewable capacity has crossed the 100 GW mark, of which Wind and Solar Power contribute most of the installation with a market share of 39.3 percent and 45.6 percent as per September 2021 CEA (Central Electricity Authority) updates.

Source: eq isearch

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UTILITY-SCALE SOLAR INSTALLATIONS In CY 2021 (9M), around 5.4 GW of Solar PVhas been installed in the country under utility-scale installations. The projects which were not able to be commissioned in 2020 due to COVID-19 restriction, those projects are commissioning in the calendar year 2021, but the shortage of modules is still looming in the sector.

Source: eq isearch

Source: eq isearch

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In Q3 2021, utility-scale projects accounted for 74 percent of the total Solar installed, which was up by 32 percent from Q2 2021, where the installations were around 1.6 GW. The installations in Q3 2021 could be more but due to an increase in the raw materials, also the safeguard duty was there whose last date was in July, many projects are still on hold which might get commissioned in the coming quarter. The installations in CY 2020 were down by 66 percent compared to CY 2019 installations, where as in the first nine months of 2021, total Solar installations has already crossed the 2020 yearly installations.

MARKET SCENARIO The installations for Solar PV in 2021 are going on a positive note, compared to 2020. Restrictions have been elevated, the workforce at the project locations are normal, but the significant issue is with the supply of Solar PV modules, as there is a shortage of raw materials in China, factories are running below 70 percent, and there is a huge demand for Solar PV modules after restriction across the World. Developers should delay projects and call for greater collaboration among upstream and downstream players. Polysilicon prices recorded a rise, and glass prices have increased again.

All parties involved in the assembling of Solar panels to work more closely. Additionally, it warns that many signed orders will cause serious losses and seriously endanger the sustainable development of the industry due to the rising prices of materials followed bytransport.

This year, the polysilicon price further increased by nine percent after the Chinese government asked silicon metal processing plants to reduce working hours due to the power crisis across the country. There is a jump of double-digit percent in the Solar glass prices and a huge rise in the cost of adhesive films, while the cost of the modules has recorded a rise by a comparatively modest rise during the year 2021.

Leading module manufacturers warn that the development of the industry is at an emergency point at present, proposing solutions that they consider critical to the future of the sector. The companies emphasized they are coordinating resources collectively to stabilize supply. They appealed to the relevant state departments in China and others to help stem a rush of installations forecast for Q4 2021.

As capacity utilization rates are falling under 70 percent, manufacturers request customers to delay the projects if possible. The module manufacturers have also called upon the relevant PV industry associations along with other bodies to monitor the upstream and downstream production capacity more closely to assist the planning of production capacities beforehand and balance upstream and downstream supply and demand.Solar Power Developer Association has requested an extension of the imposition of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) by at least one year to guarantee the development of a true ecosystem forSolar panels in India.

PLI scheme for manufacturing is expected to conclude by early November 2021 due to the delay caused by multiple reasons. The cell and module manufacturing facilities have a minimum gestation period of 18 months. Therefore, the first batch of the solar module from the facilities is unexpected before the first half of 2023.India’s currentSolar PV module manufacturing installed capacity is 10-15 GW, a significant portion of which is based on multi-crystalline technology, which is now up-to-date. Solar developers have engineered and designed all upcoming Solar plants using Mono-PERC and bifacial technologies. Hence, established country capacity addition with older technologies with lower efficiencies will not be optimal on cost.

India’s target to accomplish 280 GW Solar PV installed capacity by 2030 suggests a capacity addition of nearly 25 GWp per annum. The domestic capacity is not sufficient to meet the yearly requirements and will cause a supply crunch. Factors creating issues stating that the sector is going through a perfect storm. The prices of major raw materialsfor the manufacturing of modules like polysilicon, aluminium, silver, and more have increased substantially. The sea freight has also increased enormously. The Chinese government has imposed severe power cuts on their industry, which resulted in an abrupt increase in solar panels cost and retraction of signed binding contracts.In the last decade, the Solar industry has recorded rapid growth, and after COVID 19, it is recovering well. The burden of BCD will be the virtual passing nail for designers if not expanded.

SOLAR ROOFTOP INSTALLATION Rooftop Solar installations increased slightly in Q3 2021 reaching 726 MW. In 9M CY, 2021 rooftop installations totaled 2,068 MW a strong 134 percent from 9M of 2020. The growth was majorly led by commercial and industrial installations followed by government and residential segments. The installations in CY 2020 were slow due to massive lockdown across the country, also the uncertainty arising due to net-metering policy, as the final amendment came out from the Ministry of Power in 2021, the installations started rising and the results of which India installedover 2 GW in the first nine months of 2021.

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Annual Solar Rooftop Installations in India 2015-2021

Source: eq isearch

Cumulative rooftop Solar installations have reached 5.57GW as per MNRE monthly updates and still makeup just 12 percent of the total Solar PV installations in the country, the target for Solar rooftop by 2022 is 40 GW, still long way to go to reach the target, it is impossible to install 40 GW of Solar rooftop projects. We can estimate that India can achieve 10-15 GW of rooftop Solar installations by 2022. After a significant increase of over 78 percent quarter-over-quarter growth from Q2 2021 to Q3 2021, installationswill move in double-digit growth as a net-metering policy which was pending fora few months get the approval, also the restrictions on commercial and industrial units have been removed.

We expect rooftop installations will grow exponentially in 2021 as the demand in commercial and industrial are increasing every year. Following the safeguard, duty ended in July 2021and thereis a duty-free window for eight months, we expect rooftop installations to grow as rooftop developers have to procure and do the maximum installations before BCD, to gain more profit from the rooftop project, as 40 percent duty on the foreign module is quite high for the rooftop installations as projects are of smaller size.

Source: eq isearch

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Before uncertainty over policy was there so the installations were slow, but now there is a clear policy atleast for net-metering, which gave the bump to the Solar rooftop installations, and India installed 726 MW of rooftop projects in the quarter third of 2021. But the good day will over soon after Q1 2022 (31st Marc 2022) when the government-imposed BCD on Solar module and cell, the installations will again fall as rooftop installations always go for higher wattage imported panels from Chinese companies such as Mono Perc, Bifacial, when this panels will cost 40 percent extra the installers will suffer a huge loss as the cost of projects for rooftop Solar become very competitive from the past few quarters and going on the reverse direction will be very difficult for the installers to increase the cost and execute the projects.

INSTALLED POWER CAPACITY FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES Renewable capacity additions continue to increase at a rapid pace in India, accounting for approximately 26 percent of India’s power capacity mix at the end of September 2021. India’s total installed power capacity stood at over 388 GW at the end of third quarter of calendar year 2021 from all the sources, with renewables accounting for 101.53 GW making up 26.1 percent, compared to cumulative renewable energy installations of 96.95 GW at the end of June 2021, which represented a 4.7 percent increase quarter-over-quarter.

Source: eq isearch

Solar power accounted for approximately 46.27 GW of installations, which is 11.9 percent of the total installed power capacity. The share of Solar power in the installation mix grew from 11 percent in June 2021 to 11.9 percent in September 2021. Among the renewables, Solar accounted for approximately 45.6 percent of the installed capacity. Wind accounted for 39.87 GW of the total installed power capacity and nearly 10.3 percent of the overall power capacity mix and 39.3 percent among the renewable mix capacity as of September 2021. As the restrictions across the country have been uplifted, the overall installed capacity in the country has been increased by 1.2 percent which is 4.73 GW quarter over quarter from Q3 2021 over Q2 2021.

Among the renewable, Solar Power shown the highest growth quarter-over-quarter by 9 percent, while Wind Power has grown by 1 percent, and Bio-Power by 2 percent. Hydro power’s cumulative installations stood at 46.275 GW, making up 11.96 percent of India’s total installed capacity, a slightincrease compared overQ2 2021 by 0.41 percent.

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Source: eq isearch

Small hydro had installed over 4.8 GW and represented1.2 percent of the overall power mix capacity at the end of September 2021. The share of nuclear was decreasing during the third quarter of 2021 which represents1.7 percent of the total power mix installed capacity by September 2021, with no capacity added during the first nine of 2021. As the other segment in the power mix were adding their capacities which results in a decrease in the share of nuclear in the overall power mix.

Thermal power (which includes coal, lignite, gas, and diesel) is still the significant source of energy in the country - with its cumulative installations reaching 234 GW, representing 60.18 percent of the total installed power capacity. Coal accounted for a dominant share of the mix, with 51.9 percent of the total installed power capacity, followed by natural gas at 6.4 percent, lignite at 1.7 percent, and diesel with a 0.13 percent share.

However, thermal power’s share in the overall power mix is gradually declining as the government is shutting down old thermal plants especially coal, and moving towards the non-conventional source of energy. But recently, the country suffers outages across the country due to a shortage of coal in the thermal power coal unit, it’s a long way when renewable power generation will be able to dominate the country's electricity demand as mainstream renewable energy is intermittent.

Source: eq isearch

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UNDER-CONSTRUCTION SOLAR PV PROJECT Under-construction Solar Power Projects (SECI) Total Capacity Tendered (MW) Total Capacity Awarded (MW)

Scheme 2000 MW ISTS Connected Solar PV Projects (ISTS-I) 3000 MW ISTS Connected Solar PV Projects (ISTS-II)

2000

2000

Under Construction Capacity (MW) 1700

3000

600

600

1200 MW ISTS Connected Projects (ISTS-III) 1200 MW ISTS Connected Projects (ISTS-IV) 1200 MW ISTS Connected Projects (ISTS-V) 1200 MW ISTS Connected Projects (ISTS-VI) 1200 MW ISTS Connected Projects (ISTS-VIII) 2000 MW ISTS Connected Projects (ISTS-IX) 750 MW Rajasthan (Tranche-I) 750 MW Rajasthan (Tranche-II) 150 MW Grid Connected Floating Solar PV Plants 750 MW Kadapa Solar Park (5000 MW VGF Scheme) CPSU Scheme (Tranche-I, 2000 MW) CPSU Scheme (Tranche-II, 1500 MW) Total

1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 2000 750 750 150 750

1200 1150 480 900 1200 2000 750 680 150 750

1200 1150 480 900 1200 2000 750 610 150 750

2000 1500 18900

922 1104 13886

922 1104 13516

Source: CEA (Jan 2021)

Source: eq isearch

UNDER-CONSTRUCTION WIND POWER PROJECTS Scheme

Tranche I Tranche II Tranche III Tranche IV Tranche V Tranche VI Tranche VII Tranche VIII Tranche IX Total

Under-construction Wind Power Projects by Tranches Total Capacity Tendered (MW) Total Capacity Awarded (MW) 1000 1000 2000 2000 1200 1200 1200 1800 2500 13900

1049.9 1000 2000 2000 1190 1200 480 440.64 970 10330.54

Source: CEA (Jan 2021)

Under construction Capacity (MW) 0 287.9 1157.1 1906 1190 1200 480 440.8 970 7631.8 Source: eq isearch

DISCOM DUES TO POWER GENERATOR

There was an overdue amount that needs to be paid by discoms at the start of September 2021 were ₹91,198 crore, which was ₹1,477 crores lower than August 2021 but higher by July 2021. In August, the total amount billed to discoms was ₹23,067crores. Discom paid around ₹58,424 crores in Q3 2021 for both current and overdue. Discom dues are reducing slowly, which was quite high in the past years due to a reduction in theft, fewer transmission & distribution losses, also the introduction of smartmeters.

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Source: eq isearch

RE GENERATION IN INDIA

Total Renewable energy generations in September 2021 increase to 14,488.86 million units.

Source: eq isearch

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Solar Power generation is having the largest percentage in terms of the generation behind Wind Power with 5,409.09 million units and contributes37.33 percent of the total renewable generation share, Wind Power with 48.18 percent market by generating 6,981.27 million units in September2021. Other sources such as Bagasse, small Hydro, and Biomass contribute 0.96 percent, 10.53 percent, and 1.74 percent respectively.

Solar and Wind Power together contributed 85.52 percent of the total renewable energy generation in September 2021.

There is a growth of around 27.4 percent in the total renewable generation from September 2020 to September 2021. While there is an exponential growth of 18.9 percent in Solar power generation from September 2020, while Wind Power has increased by 43.9 percent in the generation in the same period.

SOLAR POWER GENERATION BY STATE Rajasthan overtake Karnataka, shows the largest Solar power generation among the top solar generating states inSeptember 2021, while Haryana shows a tremendous growth rate of 575 percent as the state has installed a huge amount of solar power projects during that period.

Name of State/UT

Solar Power Generation (MU) September’2020

Solar Power Generation (MU) September’2021

Growth (%)

Rajasthan Karnataka Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh Telangana Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra Punjab

835.37 1002.65 455.7 479.37 441.57 303.51 421.31 134.65 185.18 119.15

1166.27 1051.03 645.21 608.91 478.74 381.07 280.36 232.72 204.64 111.89

40% 5% 42% 27% 8% 26% -33% 73% 11% -6%

Haryana Others All India Total

7.49 164.75 4550.7

50.57 197.68 5409.09

575% 20% 19%

Source: eq isearch Source: CEA Only, Rajasthan and Karnataka have crossed over 1,000 million units of Solar power generation as the states have installed 7.8 GW and 7.4

GW of grid-connected Solar PV installation as of September 2021 as per MNRE updates. Even though Gujarat has installed more than Andhra Pradesh and Telangana but by generation, these two states have more generations in terms of million units which shows the quality of generations and the irradiation level in southern states, as per the March 2021 data, Tamil Nadu has installed more Solar capacity but has generated less than Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, but in September the state has gained its position.

Source: eq isearch

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Source: eq isearch

ELECTRICITY ENERGY DEMAND & DEFICIT BY STATE

Source: eq isearch

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ANNUAL GROWTH IN POWER GENERATION The overall generation (including generation from grid-connected renewable sources) in the country has been increased from 1,110.458 BU (billion units) during 2014-15 to 1,173.603 BU during the year 2015-16, 1,241.689 BU during 2016-17, 1,308.146 BU during 2017-18, 1,376.095 BU during 2018-19, 1,389.121 BU during 2019-20 and 1,381.855 BU during 2020-21 as per Ministry of Power updates. The performance of Category wise generation during the year 2020-21 was as follows: Thermal Reduced by 0.98 % Hydro Increased by3.51 % Nuclear Increased by7.41 % Bhutan Import Increased by51.27 % Renewables Increased by6.44 % Overall Growth rate recorded by 0.52 % Year 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22*

Fossil Fuel Generation 6.6 7.3 4.2 10.8 7.5 5.3 4.3 3.4 -2.7 -1

20.1

Growth (%) Renewable Generation (Includ- Non-Fossil Fuel (RE + Nuclear) ing Hydro) Generation 17.5 18.3 -5.9 -4.78 10 9.05 1.3 1.91 -1.8 0.97 8.9 7.68 11.1 9.55 14.3 12.09 12.7 13.99 2.1 0.86 4.8 4

Source: Ministry of Power (*Provisional (up to Aug 2021))

Total Generation 9.14 4.46 5.23 8.84 5.69 5.8 5.35 5.19 0.95 -0.52 15.2 Source: eq isearch

STATE-WISE SOLAR ENERGY GENERATION

Solar energy production has increased from 39.27 BU (billion units) in 2018-19 to 60.40 BU in 2020-21 registering an increase of 53.8 percent.

There is a tremendous growth from a different region of the country from 2018-19 to 2020-21, such as North Eastern Region shown a growth of 83 percent, followed Northern Region by 74 percent, Western Region by 55 percent, and Southern and Eastern Region both by 55 percent in the same period.

North Eastern Region has been improved in recent years as the growth of Solar installations are increasing year after year due to the imposition of Solar RPO in those states which was not there earlier, from 2019-20 to 2020-21, this region had shown a growth of 118 percent, which is quite positive for the country as a whole. In the same period, other regions have shown almost similar growth in the range of 15%-30%.

The government has also taken several steps to reduce the cost of renewable energy including Solar energy to make this segment of power generation attractive, and the result is that India has become the third-largest Solar installed capacity in the recent past. Few measures from the government include • Permitting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100 percent under the automatic route • Waiver of Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) charges for inter-state sale of solar and wind

power for projects to be commissioned by

30thJune 2025 • Laying new transmission lines and creating new sub-station capacity for evacuation of renewable power • Notification of standards for deployment of Solar photovoltaic system/devices • Setting up of Project Development Cell for attracting and facilitating investments • Standard Bidding Guidelines for tariff-based competitive bidding for procurement of power from Grid Connected Solar PV and Wind Projects • Government has issued orders that power shall be dispatched against Letter of Credit (LC) or advance payment to ensure timely payment by distribution licensees to RE generators •Conducting skill development programs to create a pool of skilled manpower for setting up,operating, and maintenance of RE projects.

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State-Wise and Year-Wise Solar Energy Generation Installed (in MU) Name of State/UT 2018-19 2019-20 Chandigarh 13.51 13.33 Delhi 10.83 136.3 Haryana 72.47 125.14 HP 0 11.66 J&K 0 0 Ladakh 0 0 Punjab 1492.9 1358.22 Rajasthan 5109.35 7776.56 Uttar Pradesh 1235.08 1447.05 Uttarakhand 318.29 341.51 Northern Region 8252.45 11209.77 Chhattisgarh 335.15 326.42 Gujarat 2410.32 3631.86 Madhya Pradesh 2982.29 3496.23 Maharashtra 2206.62 2372.68 Dadra and Nagar Haveli 5.76 6.19 Daman & Diu 18.94 21.83 Goa 0 0.82 Western Region 7959.08 9856.02 Andhra Pradesh 4965.96 5855.11 Telangana 6312.26 6263.92 Karnataka 7575.83 11221.2 Kerala 110.84 143.59 Tamil Nadu 3554.5 4946.63 Lakshadweep 1.11 0.66 Puducherry 2.58 4.15 Southern Region 22523.09 28435.26 Andaman Nicobar 13.86 11.6 Bihar 179.89 160.16 Jharkhand 19.15 17.47 Orissa 263.03 362.29 Sikkim 0 0 West Bengal 40.65 64.29 Eastern Region 516.58 615.81 Arunachal Pradesh 1.2 1.6 Assam 6.67 6.14 Manipur 1.88 2.63 Meghalaya 0 0 Mizoram 0.12 0.44 Nagaland 0 0 Tripura 7.14 3.43 North Eastern Region 17 14.24 All India Total 39268.2 50131.1

2020-21 10.16 189.99 162.95 36.52 9.42 0 1356.48 10384.24 1856.19 329.64 14335.59 370.8 4633.81 4202.03 3089.46 11.96 29.52 1.46 12339.03 6956.1 6351.04 13238.86 275.44 6115.48 0.45 6.39 32943.75 24.82 160.63 17.16 476.26 0 73.89 752.78 1.54 13.37 7.71 0 2.45 0 6.04 31.11 60402.25 EQ iSearch

Source: LokSabha Update (05.08.2021)

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Source: eq isearch

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SOLAR PV INSTALLATION BYSTATE India installed around 45 GW of Solar PV installations as of September 2021 as per MNRE physical achievement page. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh were the top state who have installed grid-connected utility-scale Solar projects of above 4 GW. The top six states under the utility-scale cover 79 percent of the total installed capacity of 39.34 GW. The top ten states installed a cumulative capacity of around 42 GW (both utility-scale & rooftop) and cover a market share of more than 93.4 percent by the end of September 2021.

Source: eq isearch

By the end of Q3 2021, India installed around 5.57 GW of grid-connected Solar rooftop installations, and having a market share of 12 percent, while the rest 88 percent comes from the utility-scale project.

Top Solar rooftop installations states were Gujarat and Maharashtra who have installed 1.44 GW and 765 MW of grid-connected rooftop and cover a market share of 34 percent among the total grid-connected rooftop Solar installations in the country. The top ten states under gridconnected rooftop haveamarket share of 83 percent of the total rooftop installations by end of September 2021.

After the restriction has been uplifted across the country, many of the utility-scale projects which were not installed in 2020 and first half of 2021, commissioning in the second half of 2021.For rooftop Solar installation, many big corporate and business units which were closed due to lockdown restrictionshave opened up and the demand has surged which pushes the distributed Solar installations. Rooftop C&I consumers are very aggressive towards Solar installations as they are aware of the upcoming BCD and the project cost will rise further which increases their payback period For the utility-scale developers, workers who left have come back to the project locations, and due to which the installations in Q3 2021 crossed the 2 GW mark. Even the projects which got extension, havedue date in the second half of 2021, so they are bound to commission their projects or else they have to pay a hefty penalty, even the panel's prices are moving upward trend, they are aware that if they will not commission the project now, they have to sparean extra penny for the Solar PV modules.

Rajasthan overtook Karnataka to become the largest utility-scale Solar installers across the country with an installed capacity of 7.27 GW, followed by Karnataka with 7.14 GW. The installations in Rajasthan are picking up as there are GWs of under-construction projects which are commissioning in the second half of 2021.

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INDIA ACHIEVES 100 GW MILESTONE The total installed renewable energy capacity in India, excluding large hydro, has crossed the mile-stone of 100 GW. Today India stands at 4th position in the world in terms of installed RE capacity, 5th in Solar Power, and 4th in Wind Power in terms of installed capacity. India has set an ambitious target for itself in the area of Renewable Energy, which the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is committed to achieving.

While 100 GW has been installed, 50 GWs are under various stage of installation and 27 GWs are under tendering process. India has also enhanced its ambition to install 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. If large hydro is included the installed RE capacity increases to 146 GW. The achievement of an installed RE capacity of 100 GW is an important milestone in India’s journey towards its target of 450 GW by 2030.

Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy Shri R.K. Singh also tweeted on the occasion.

The country has also set its target for 2030 to install 450 GW renewables. ICRA estimates that the incremental renewables capacity addition between March 2021 and March 2025 to be 65 GW, comprising 51 GW from Solar, 12 GW from Wind, and 2 GW from other green sources.

The 65 GW capacity addition needed an investment of around₹3.5 lakh crore and also to increase the share of renewables in the overall power generation base to 34 percent from the current level of 25 percent. The pace of capacity addition will be faster as the demand for renewable power generations has increased, and many thermal plants are shutting down due to environmental issues.

Source: eq isearch

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SECI MONTHLY PAYMENT

Source: eq isearch

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) paid ₹6.13 billion (~$81.8 million) forSolar and Wind power purchased in September 2021 from ₹4.252 billion (~56.8 million) in January, there is an increment of over 44 percent over the nine months’ time. The disbursed amount was highest in June followed by July & August. There is a gradual increase in the payment to generators from January to September 2021 which shows that SECI is signing new PPA and commissioning the projects throughout the year in the country, even though SECI has a huge unsigned PSA left.

When this unsigned PSA will be signed, the payment will become double-fold once the commissioning of those projects.

During the current financial year (i.e., FY 2021-22), till 31st October, SECI has signed Power Sale Agreements (PSAs) for supply of renewable energy (RE) of 5,280 MW capacity, thereby bringing aggregate PSA signed capacity to over 30 GW and demonstrating about 95 percent increase over the previous year (i.e., FY 2020-21). These PSAs will enable supply of upto 19 billion units of RE power annually to 8 states/ union territories for 25 years and provide access to clean energy to thousands of consumers. RE power being supplied by SECI to different distribution companies at economic tariffs are truly making RE the 'Power for All'. These small steps are part of SECI's continuing efforts to channel India's Clean Energy transition and bring in a Carbon-neutral economy.

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SOLAR ENERGY ELECTRICITY POTENTIAL AND ACHIEVEMENTS BY STATE State Rajasthan Jammu & Kashmir Maharashtra Madhya Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Gujarat Himachal Pradesh Odisha Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Telangana Chhattisgarh Jharkhand Tamil Nadu Uttarakhand Assam Bihar Manipur Mizoram Arunachal Pradesh Nagaland West Bengal Kerala Meghalaya Sikkim Haryana Punjab Tripura Delhi Goa Others Total

Solar Energy Electricity Potential by State in India Potential Capacity (MW) Installed Capacity (MW) 142310 7816.7 111050 20.04 64320 2410.82 61660 2551.99 38440 4291.94 35770 5946.83 33840 45.04 25780 402.75 24700 7440.01 22830 1895.28 20410 3983.57 18270 308.15 18180 53.56 17670 4622.76 16800 539.51 13760 59.15 11200 169.48 10630 6.36 9090 1.53 8650 5.61 7290 1 6260 149.84 6110 291.86 5860 0 4940 0 4560 544.87 2810 986.45 2080 9.41 2050 209.66 880 11.16 790 139 748990 44922

Potential (%) 95% 100% 96% 96% 89% 83% 100% 98% 70% 92% 80% 98% 100% 74% 97% 100% 98% 100% 100% 100% 100% 98% 95% 100% 100% 88% 65% 100% 90% 99% 82% 94%

Source: India Energy Dashboards, NitiAayog

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Source: eq isearch

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Of all the renewable energy, Solar power has the potential of around 750 GW across the country. India has tapped just 6 percent of the actual potentials for the Solar PV project, as per the available data.Punjab achieved the maximum potential capacity of 35 percent, out of the total potential of Solar power followed by Tamil Nadu with 26 percent.

JNNSM target of Solar power by 2022 is 100 GW of this around 45 GW has already been achieved by the third quarter of the calendar year 2021.

After the signing of the Paris Agreement, Solar installations in the country has increased exponentially, many schemes such as Ultra Mega Solar Power Park, PM-KUSUM, Grid Connected Solar Rooftop Programme has been launched to promote Solar PV, the results of which Solar became the highest growing sector among the power. The share of Solar PV installed capacity among the renewable was around 12 percent.

The installed capacity was around 5 GW by 2015, now India has installed around 45 GW.India is set to achieve 450 GW renewable energy installed capacity by 2030.

TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION LOSSES The T&D losses have been reduced from 32 percent in 2006 to 22 percent in 2019, which shows tremendous growth in the technology side, due to energy dissipated in the conductors, transformers, and other equipment used for transmission, transformation, sub-transmission, and distribution of powerto out-dated transmission line. The losses were also due to pilferage by hooking, bypassing meters, defective meters, errors in meter reading, and in estimating an un-metered supply of energy are the main sources of the commercial losses. There is another component of commercial losses, which is attributable to the non-recovery of the billed amount, which is reflected in collection efficiency. Due to the introduction of smart meters, the losses of the discoms have been reduced, even introduction of Ujala Yojana the consumption of electricity has been improved a lot, which again helped the discoms to buy less power.

Average T&D Losses Over the Years Across the Country

Source: eq isearch

ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTIONS IN INDIA Electricity consumptions per capita in India have increasedsignificantly by 91 percent from 631 kWh in 2005-06 to 1,208 kWh in 2019-20.

There is a year-over-year growth of 2.3 percent in electricity consumption from2018-2019 to 2019-20. The per capita electricity consumption in China by 2020 was around 5,312 kWh, while the United States has more than 12,000 kWh.

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As per the CEA monthly report, the installed power capacity from all sourcesin India has increased from 333.5 GW by end of 2017 to 349.3 GW by 2018 to 375.32 GW by 2020.

The installed capacity in the country is increasing every year, but the demand growth is more than the installed growth. As per the recent statement from the Union Power Minister of India, the power demand has been increasing from August 2021 onwards. In August 2021, the power consumption was 124 billion units (BU) whereas the consumption in August 2019 (before the COVID period) was 106 BUan increase of almost 18-20 percent. The increasing trend is persisting – the demand on 04th Oct 2021 was 1,74,000 MW, 15000 MW more than on a corresponding day in the previous year. But the country should maintain its balance between conventional and non-conventional sources of electricity.

Non-conventional energy is based on nature such as Hydro, Wind, and Solar, depending fully on renewable energy may put the economy of the country at risk, such as in the recent time there been a severe outage in China, where rules imposed by the government as it attempts to make the country carbon neutral by 2060 have seen coal production slow, even the country still relies on coal for more than half of its power requirement. Due to high cost, electricity production through coal is reducing year after year but due to sudden demand, the government was not able to balance and the result was a shortage of power.

To reduce dependency on the conventional source of electricity, the only option is to start an incentives program to increase the storage in the Indian renewable market, which will help the country to balance the grid.

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MARKET SHARE PV MODULE Solar Panels Imports into India in Q3 of CY 2021 were around $764.09million. The top supplier of Solar Panels to India are giving tough competition to the other suppliers and captured maximum market share. LONGi Solar with a market share of 36 percent, followed by JA Solar at second position with 20 percent. The third and fourth major suppliers were Trina Solar and Jinko Solar with a market share of 11 percent and 8 percent.

DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MAKE IN INDIA PRODUCT Source: eq isearch

DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MAKE IN INDIA PRODUCT Source: eq isearch

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PV INVERTER Out of the total inverter imports in India, String Inverter import value is around $15.1 million. Growatt was the top supplier with a market share of 25percent followed by Sungrow and Sofarsolar with 18 percentand 9 percent respectively. Polycab, Delta, and Foxess have an individual market share of around 7 percent each.

DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MAKE IN INDIA PRODUCT Source: eq isearch

Out of the totalSolar inverter imports in India, the central inverter imports into India excluding “Made in India”products were worth around $3.068 million in the calendar year of Q3 2021.Sungrow has a 73.8 percentmarket share followed by Fimer and Sineng.

DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MAKE IN INDIA PRODUCT Source: eq isearch

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The total value of combined String and Central Inverter imports into India excluding “Make in India” products in Q3 2021 were around $19.24 Million. The top supplier in this category was Sungrow with a market share of 26.2 percent. Growatt was the second top supplier in this category with 20.5 percent followed by Sofarsolarwith a 7.2 percent market share.

Source: eq isearch

DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MAKE IN INDIA PRODUCT Source: eq isearch

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ELECTRICITY MARKET The entities showing aggressiveness in buying Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) to meet their renewable purchase obligation (RPO), there is a growth of 21.17 percent quarter over quarter from Q2 2021. In August 2021, Power Market trades the highest monthly volume of 9,538 MU in the quarter third of the calendar year 2021. In Q3 2021 of the calendar year, the electricity market achieved 25,857 MU volume resulting in 57 percent YoY growth across market segments

Source: eq isearch

The green term-ahead market traded the highest volume of 726 MU during July’21 in the quarter, For the third quarter of the calendar year 2021, the market registered a cumulative trade of 1,682 MU. The market has seen a considerable increase in the participant base as more and more utilities and C&I consumers participate in the market to meet their energy and RPO requirements in an integrated, flexible, and competitive manner. According to the power demand data published by the National Load Dispatch Center, the national peak demand in September’21 saw a 2 percent YoY increase, with the highest ever peak demand at 180.7 GW, while energy consumption at 114.5 BU was flat during the month.

For the quarter-over-quarter growth from Q2 2021 to Q3 2021, there was a growth of 76.1 percent for the green term-ahead market, 14.4 percent for the Term-ahead market, 14.3 percent for the Real-time Electricity market, and 20.4 percent in the Day-ahead electricity market.

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Source: eq isearch

SOLAR PV MODULE PROCURER IN Q3 2021

In the third quarter of CY 2021, Adani Green, Renew Power, Azure Power, Avaada Energy, followed by Tata Power Solar were the top procurer of Solar PV modules in India, which show that they have a projects pipeline thatis going to be commissioned in the second half of 2021.

DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MAKE IN INDIA PRODUCT Source: eq isearch

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As per the availability inputs, Solar project developers have imported a huge quantity of Solar PV modules in the third quarter of 2021. The reason for this aggressiveness in the shipments shows that there are huge under-development projects which had not been commissioned, also there is no duty on Solar PV modules as there is an eight months duty-free window so most of the projects whose commissioned due day in those eight months will commission the projects on time, also few developers will try to pre-commissioned the projects before 31st March 2021.

DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MAKE IN INDIA PRODUCT Source: eq isearch

Even though the price of the Solar PV module is high, but developers are importing the panels and executing the project. India will commission more than 10 GW of solar PV in the twelve months of 2021. Due to an increase in the module prices, the import activity in Q3 2021 was less compared with Q2 2021. There is a fall of 38 percent quarter-over-quarter of import activity for Solar panels from Q2 2021 to Q3 2021, due to an extreme increase in the raw materials of the Solar PV such as polysilicon, glass, adhesive films, and others. Even the Chinese government asked the silicon metal companies to reduce their working hour due to the shortage of electricity in the country.

Even though India’s domestic module manufacturing capacity has more than 10-15 GW of Solar PV module production capacity, manufacturers are dependent on Chinese suppliers for the raw materials such as cell, glass, & so on.

IMPORTED SOLAR PV MODULE AVERAGE SELLING PRICE The price of solar PV modules was quite unpredictable and the reason for fluctuation in the average selling price (ASP) of Solar module was due to shortage of raw materials such as polysilicon, glassprices are increasing in China, along with the rise in the freight charges, also currency fluctuations. As per the available data from the import and export tracker, India imported more than 98 percent of the Solar PV modules from China in the third quarter of 2021. There is an increment of around 23 percent in the module ASP from Jan 2021 to September 2021 in Poly and around 12 percent in Mono Perc.

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Imported ASP of Solar PV Module in 9M 2021

Source: eq isearch

The price of the modules will not come down atleast till 1H 2022, as the prices of the raw materials are sky rocketing these days, even the Chinese government asked the silicon maker and other industries to reduce the working hours due to outages across the country. Even there is news about the recent outbreaks of Covid-19 again in the country, and the government has started shutting down the industrial units, which will again create havoc in the market and the shortage will continue and it will increase which the panel prices. Many module manufacturers have already started negotiating with the developers to postpone their shipments by Q1 2022, as the price of the panels is way high. Module manufacturers will not be able to supply the modules at the agreed prices with the developers as the scenario has been changed from that time, either they have to defer the shipments or cancel the deals.

RECENT SOLAR AUCTION Winner Acme ReNew Power Tata Power

Capacity (MW) Tariff (₹/kWh) 300 2.42 200 2.43 300 2.62

Azure Power

300

2.62

Avaada Energy O2 Power NTPC Renewables NTPC Renewables SolarArise ReNew Power Tata Power Renewable Energy Tata Power Renewable Energy Aljomaih Energy and Water Company Tata Power Solar

200 350 105 220 125 200 170 160 170

2.459 2.444 2.35 2.33 2.339 ~2.43 2.14 2.149 2.5

50

-

200 450 150 450 150

3.11 2.34 2.35 2.34 2.34

SJVN Ayana Renewable Power Azure Power NTPC Source: eq isearchNLC India

Source: iSearch

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Solar PV Auctions in Q3 2021 MSEDCL 500 MW (Phase Vl) MSEDCL 500 MW (Phase Vl) MSEDCL 500 MW Wind-Solar Hybrid MSEDCL 500 MW Wind-Solar Hybrid RUMSL 550 MW Agar Solar Park RUMSL 550 MW Agar Solar Park RUMSL 450 MW Shajapur Solar Park RUMSL 450 MW Shajapur Solar Park RUMSL 450 MW Shajapur Solar Park MSEDCL 200 MW ISTS RUMSL 500 MW Neemuch Solar Park RUMSL 500 MW Neemuch Solar Park RUMSL 500 MW Neemuch Solar Park SECI 50 MW (Battery Storage 50 MWh) BREDA Open Competitive Bidding SECI 1200 MW (Tranche-IV) SECI 1200 MW (Tranche-IV) SECI 1200 MW (Tranche-IV) SECI 1200 MW (Tranche-IV)

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Winner NTPC SJVN NHPC NLC IRCON International

IREDA 5 GW CPSU Solar PV Auction Result Capacity (MW) 1990 1000 1000 510 500

VGF (₹/MW) 44,95,000 44,72,000 44,90,000 44,74,990 44,94,000

Source: iSearch

Source: eq isearch

RECENT SOLAR TENDER Issuer SECI NHPC

Capacity (MW) 1200 1000

Project Type Utility Utility Scale

NHPC

600

Utility Scale

NTPC NHPC

500 500

Utility Scale Utility Scale

MSEDCL

487

Rooftop

CREDA

250

MPUVNL/ PM Kusum

225

Rooftop/ Utility Rooftop/ Utility

GSECL

224

Utility Scale

REMC Limited

210

Utility-Scale

CEL/CENTRAL ELECTRONICS LIMITED UPNEDA

200

Utility Scale

200

Utility-Scale

RECPDCL

125

Utility Scale

SECI

100

Utility-Scale

NHPC

100

Utility Scale

NHPC

100

Utility Scale

Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited

50

Utility-Scale

Source: Tender Tracker

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Solar PV Tenders in 2021 1200 MW (ISTS- X) Solar PV Projects in Karnataka under Tariff-Based Competitive Bidding EPC contract for development of ISTS under Tranche-III of CPSU Scheme Phase-II Grid Connected Solar PV Projects with a transmission line to substation and O&M for 10 Years (up to 1000 MW Capacity) EPC Contract for 600 MW Grid Connected Solar PV Power Project and associated Transmission line for Power Evacuation to ISTS Sub-station and Solar Park, O&M for 10 years under UMREPP Scheme EPC Package with Land for Development ofISTS Connected Solar Pv Projects (Upto 500 Mw) Anywhere in India EPC Contract for development of 500 MW Ground Mounted Solar Power Project connected with Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) substation anywhere in Tamil Nadu alongwith its Comprehensive O and M for 10 years MSEDCL desires to procure 487 MW (AC) Solar from decentralized solar projects through a competitive bidding process (followed by e-reverse auction) to be connected at distribution network (11/22 KV) under Component-A of PM-KUSUM Design, Supply, Installation,and Commissioning With 5 Years O&M Of Grid Connected Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant of Different Capacities at Three Different Locations in Chhattisgarh.

Request for Proposal for Selection of developers for Implementation of approximate 225 MW(AC) Grid Connected Solar based power plants connected to selected 33/ 11 kV substation for MPPMCL at various locations in Madhya Pradesh Design, engineering, supply, installation, and commissioning of 224 MW of grid-connected solar projects ranging from 10 MW to 55 MW at various substations of the Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO).

Bidding Documents for Development of Grid Connected Solar Pv Project(S) (Upto 210 Mw Capacity) On Vacant Railway Land Section I, II, III, IV, V, and VII Empanelment of EPC Contractors for Ground Mounted Solar Power Generating System from 2 MW to 10 MW for a cumulative capacity of 200 MW anywhere in India Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency has invited bids from Solar power developers to set up a cumulative 200 MW of grid-connected solar power projects in Uttar Pradesh. The capacity is to be developed in UP Solar Park located at Kanpur Dehat and Jalaun districts and shall be awarded based on international competitive bidding.

Design, Engineering, Supply, Erection, Testing, Commissioning and Operation & Maintenance For 3 Years Under Two Packages Having Cumulative Capacity Of 125 Mw (Ac) Solar Pv Power Project at Two Locations in Uttar Pradesh Tender For Design, Engineering, Supply, Construction, Erection, Testing & Commissioning of 100 MW (AC) Solar PV Project with Land having 15 years Plant O&M at Chhattisgarh, India EPC Contract for development of 100 MW Capacity Floating Solar Power Project and associated 220 KV transmission line for connectivity at 400 KV Grid substation alongwith Comprehensive O&M for 10 years EPC Contract for development of 100 MW Ground Mounted Grid Connected Solar Power Plant alongwith associated Power Evacuation System connected with STU Substation, Anywhere in Tamil Nādu along with comprehensive O&M for 10 years Selection of Solar Power Generators for Implementation of 50 MW Grid Connected Solar based power plants connected to 33/11 kV substation for Sale of Solar Power to JBVNL at various locations in Jharkhand Under PMKUSUM Component-A Source: eqiS isearch earch

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DECEMBER 2021

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QUARTERLY RESULTS JINKO SOLAR In the second quarter of 2021, shipments were 5,203 MW (3,976MW for Solar PV modules, 1,227 MW for cells and wafers), total shipments were down 2.8%, and up by 16.4% year over year.Total revenues were $1.23 billion, down by 0.2%sequentially and 6.2% year over year.Gross profit was $210.5 million, up 0.1% sequentially and down 10.2% year over year. While, net income was $10.3 million, down by 79.2% year over year. As the price of polysilicon rose rapidly in the second quarter of 2021, and there was a certain time gap in the transmission of price increases from upstream to downstream in the industry chain, increased the external sales of silicon wafers, and proactively lowered the production volume of Solar modules.

Over 7 GW of new cell capacity was put into production in the second quarter to support the rapidly growing demand for large-size products.

Jinko Solar signed a strategic logistic cooperation agreement with Maersk and China COSCO Shipping Corporation to support steady growth in global sales.Jinko is optimistic about the global demand in the second half of 2021 and 2022 and will accelerate the market expansion in China.As prices along the supply chain remain high but relatively stable, overall acceptance of price increases continues well into the second half of the year. Demand for modules is gradually resuming, and Jinko’s module production volume increased remarkably month-over-month in the third quarter.

DAQO NEW ENERGY

In the second quarter of 2021, Daqo produced 21,102 metric tons (MT) of polysilicon compared to 20,185 MT in Q1 2021. The production cost was up by 0.32% in the quarter as compared to Q1 2021, primarily due to a slight rise in the cost of silicon raw material and the impact of lower production volumes. Polysilicon sales revenuewas $441.4 million in Q2 2021, compared to $256.1 million in Q1 2021, while Polysilicon'saverage total production cost was $6.31/kg in Q2 2021, compared to $6.29/kg in Q1 2021.Polysilicon sales volume was 21,060 MT in Q2 2021, compared to 21,471 MT in Q1 2021, Net income attributable to Daqo New Energy Corp. shareholders was $232.1 million in Q2 2021, compared to$83.2 million in Q1 2021. The Average Selling Price in the first second of 2021 was $20.81/kg, approximately 75% higher than Q1 2021.

Daqo is expecting an annual production in the range of 83,000 - 85,000 MT.In July and August, the market price for mono-grade polysilicon has remained at approximately $26-28/kg and is expecting the strong price momentum to continue into the second half of this year. Despite the rise in solar module prices in the first half of this year, Daqo continues to see stronger-than-expected market demand even at the new market prices.The increase in revenues as compared to the first quarter of 2021 was primarily due to higher ASPs partially offset by slightly lower polysilicon sales volume. The Company produced 41,287 MT of polysilicon and sold approximately 42,531 MT of polysilicon in the first half of 2021, representing the full utilization level of the company’s production facilities. For the second half of 2021, the Company expects to remain in full utilization with sales volume similar to production volume. For the full year of 2021, the Company raises its production guidance from the previous level of 81,000 to 83,000 MT to the level of approximately 83,000 to 85,000 MT of polysilicon for the full year, inclusive of the impact of the Company’s annual facility maintenance.

JA SOLAR JA Solarshares are trading sharply lower after the China-based Solar company reported Q2 results. For the quarter, the company posted revenue of $351 million, well ahead of the street at $303.8 million. Profits of 18 cents a share were short of the street at 24 cents, although the results were reduced by a combined 9 cents a share due to a change in fair value of derivatives related to convertible bonds and a provision for prepayments to polysilicon supplier Shunda Holdings. Full-year shipments of more than 1.35 GW, up from previous guidance of 1 GW.

CANADIAN SOLAR In the second quarter of 2021, total module shipments were 3.66 GW, a 26% YoY increase and 17% quarter-over-quarter increase. Of the total, 167 MW was shipped to the Company's own utility-scale Solar power projects.Net revenue in the second quarter of 2021 grew by 105% YoY and 31% quarter-over-quarter to $1,430 million. The sequential improvement was driven by an increase in module shipments and average selling price (ASP), growth in beyond-module sales, and a higher revenue Canadian Solar is strategically positioned in the battery storage market, both in Solar plus battery storage, as well as in stand-alone storage opportunities. The rapid growth of the energy storage market is driven by technology improvements, declining battery storage costs, rising penetration of renewable energy, and accelerating retirements of fossil fuel capacity. Contribution from battery storage shipments, partially offset by lower project sales.As of June 30, 2021, the Company's total project pipeline was 22.2 GWp, including 1.7 GWp under construction, 4.1 GWp of backlog, and 16.4 GWp of the earlier-stage pipeline.For the third quarter of 2021, the Company expects total module shipments to be in the range of 3.8 GW to 4 GW, including approximately 275 MW of module shipments to the Company's projects. Total revenues are expected to be in the range of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion.

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FUNDING AND M&A UPDATES ADANI GREEN FINALISE M&A DEAL FOR $3.5 BILLION WITH SB ENERGY

Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), the Solar power developer, completed the acquisition of SB Energy Holdings Ltd (SB Energy India) in an all-cash deal for which definitive agreements were signed on 18 May 2021.SB Energy India is now a 100% subsidiary of AGEL before it was an 80:20 joint venture between Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp and Bharti Group. The transaction pegs SB Energy India at an enterprise valuation of $3.5 billion (~₹26,000 crore) and marks the largest acquisition in the renewable energy sector in India.

OLA ELECTRIC LANDS $200 MILLION FUNDING FROM FALCON EDGE, SOFTBANK, AND OTHERS AT $3 BILLION VALUATION(EV)

Ola Electric raised over $200 million in financing led by Falcon Edge, SoftBank, and others, at a valuation of $3 billion.The funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of other vehicle platforms including electric motorbikes, mass-market scooters, and electric car.This fundraising comes after the company sold over $150 million worth of scooters in its first purchase window – which Ola claims is higher than the entire two-wheeler industry on each of the two days.Ola’s flagship ride-hailing unit is also planning to list on stock exchanges anytime soon, for which it raised $500 million from Warburg Pincus and Temasek, giving early backers Tiger and Matrix a part exit from the company

NTPC REL SIGNS ~$67.34 MILLION FIRST GREEN TERM LOAN NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd (REL) a 100 percent subsidiary of NTPC Ltd, has signed its first Green Term Loan agreement of ₹500 crores ($67.3376 million) at a very competitive rate with a tenor of 15 years with the Bank of India for its 470 MW Solar projects in Rajasthan & 200 MW Solar PV project in Gujarat.

KKR-SPONSORED VIRESCENT INFRASTRUCTURE RAISES $62 MILLION FROM AIMCO AND OTHER INVESTORS

Virescent sets up India’s first renewable-focused infrastructure investment trust(InvIT), Virescent Renewable Energy Trust (VRET). VRET has raised ₹4.6 billion ($62 million) from a group of foreign and domestic investors.Leading the transaction, on behalf of its clients, is Alberta Investment Management Corporation (“AIMCo”), one of Canada’s institutional investment managers. VRET’s initial portfolio comprisesnine operational Solar projects, with an aggregated capacity of approximately 395 MWp located in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. VRET is also in advanced discussions to acquire a 55 MWp portfolio from Focal Energy.

PREMIER ENERGIES RAISES $26.935 MILLION PRIVATE EQUITY FROM GEF CAPITAL

Premier Energies, a Solar PV Cells & Module manufacturing company, raised private equity investment of ₹200 crores ($26.935 million) in the company by GEF Capital Partners, a global private equity manager focused on investing in climate solutions.The Company will invest the equity capital for additional capacity of 2 GW cell manufacturing and 2 GW of module manufacturing based on the latest Monocrystalline PERC technology.

ADANI GREEN ENERGY RAISES $750 MILLIONAT A FIXED COUPON OF 4.375%

Adani Green Energy (AGEL) has priced its ListCo senior issuance of $750 million through a three-year issuance at a fixed coupon of 4.375%.

The funds shall be utilized towards equity funding of the CAPEX for underlying renewable projects under construction by AGEL. Under the structure, AGEL can draw upto $1,700 million (including the present issuance) over time subject to the covenants of the structure.This ListCo senior green bond issuance is yet another landmark transaction for AGEL and fully funds our pipeline of projects and reinforces our commitment towards being a sustainability-focused global infrastructure platform.

$414 MILLION GREEN BOND ISSUANCE AT 3.575% FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPANY IN INDIA

Azure Power Global announced the issuance of a dollar green bond of $414 million through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Azure Power Energy.

The bond, maturing in 2026, will be issued at a coupon of 3.575%, i.e., the lowest ever coupon in the high-yield segment for any business out of India and lower by 27.5 bps from the lowest offering from any Indian renewable energy company to date.The bond is the third solar Green Bond offered by Azure Power Group after issuances in 2017 and 2019. The Company will primarily use the proceeds to refinance its existing 5.50% $5 billion Green Bond issued in 2017 and due in 2022 and is expected to reduce debt cost by over 200 basis points in hedged rupee terms for its 611 MW operational solar projects portfolio offered under the bond

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DECEMBER 2021

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RENEW POWER ANNOUNCES TWO ACQUISITIONS TOTALING 359 MW OF RENEWABLE ENERGY ASSETS

ReNew Power announced the acquisition of two assets with a combined enterprise value of ₹28.5 billion ($384 million),which are expected to generate ₹3.8–4 billion ($50.7 – $53.4 million) of EBITDA annually.ReNew signs binding agreements for the acquisition of two operating portfolios99MW hydropower project in Uttarakhand,260MW/330MWp solar PV projects in the state of Telangana.

ReNew announced that it will acquire L&T Uttaranchal Hydropower Ltd., which owns the Singoli Bhatwari Hydroelectric Project (SBHEP), from L&T Power Development Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the engineering and construction firm L&T. The company also announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire 260 MW/330 MWp of operating Solar PV projects in Telangana. The projects have a 25-year PPA with Northern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Ltd. (NPDCTL) and Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Ltd. (SPDCTL) and have been operating for around 4 years.

AUGMENT INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTS ~$222.23 MILLIONIN CLEANMAX ENERGY

Augment Infrastructure has invested Rs 1,650 crore (~$222.23 million) to acquire a majority stake in CleanMax.This would involve a purchase of the stake held by Yellow Bell Investment Ltd (an affiliate of Warburg Pincus) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) in CleanMax along with an investment of primary capital in the Company to fund its growth pipeline. CleanMax will use the equity investment to boost growth in the commercial and industrial (C&I) renewable energy space in India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

MITSUI INVESTS $4.1 MILLION IN PRESPL Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) announced that it will invest ₹300 million (~$4.1 million) in Punjab Renewable Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd. (PRESPL). PRESPL is involved in the collection, storage, and processing of agricultural residues and the production of biomass briquettes and pellets to meet the growing demand for biomass fuel from India’s rapidly expanding bio-energy industry.This investment from Mitsui will help PRESPL expand its footprint and accelerate the growth of the business as a market leader in India and overseas.

OMERS INFRASTRUCTURE ASIA HOLDINGS TO BUY MINORITY STAKE IN AZURE POWER GLOBAL

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the acquisition of a certain shareholding in Azure Power Global Ltd from its existing shareholders, OMERS Infrastructure Asia Holdings Pte Ltd, under the green channel route.Green channel is an automatic approval system, whereby a combination is deemed to have been approved by the CCI upon receiving the filing of the notice for the combination by the parties concerned.OMERS Infrastructure has signed a Stock Purchase Agreement to acquire from International Finance Corporation and IFC GIF Investment Company, an approximately 19.4 percent stake in Azure Power Global Ltd for $219 million.

CI NMF INKS $200 MILLION INVESTMENT PACT WITH AMP ENERGY FOR RENEWABLES Copenhagen Infrastructure New Markets Fund (CI NMF) has inked a pact with Amp Energy India for a joint-equity investment of over $200 million (~₹1,500 crore) in renewables. Amp India and CI NMF have targeted an initial 1.7 GWp portfolio of renewable energy projects, delivering clean and green energy to C&I and utility customers. This transaction was CI NMF’s first investment in the Indian renewable energy market and its largest commitment since its establishment in 2019.

TORRENT POWER TO ACQUIRE 50 MW SOLAR POWER PLANT FROM LIGHTSOURCE Torrent Power has inked an agreement with Lightsource India Ltd and Lightsource Renewable Energy (India) Ltd for the acquisition of a 50 MW solar plant. The enterprise value for the deal was around ₹317 crore.Torrent Power Limited has entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement with Lightsource India Ltd and Lightsource Renewable Energy (India) Ltd for the acquisition of 100 percent of the share capital and all securities of LREHL Renewables India SPV 1 Private Limited (SPV). The SPV (special purpose vehicle) operates a 50 MW solar power plant, commissioned in April 2018, situated in Maharashtra, and has a long-term power purchase agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India for full capacity.

ACME SOLAR SUCCESSFULLY AGREES ON ISSUANCE OF NCDS OF $334 MILLION VIA OFFSHORE GREEN BONDS ACME Solar Holdings Private Limited (ACME) agreed to a debt investment of ~$334 million, which will be funded by US dollar-denominated green bonds that were successfully priced. The bonds will be issued by off-shore company and proceeds of the bonds will be used for subscription of non-convertible debentures issued by ACME’s projects. The bonds will have a tenor of five years and a coupon rate of 4.7%. Closing of the bonds is subject to customary closing conditions, following which ACME’s twelve renewable projects will issue non-convertible debentures.

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FOURTH PARTNER ENERGY ACQUIRES 8.9 MW SOLAR ENERGY PORTFOLIO FROM STATKRAFT INDIA

Fourth Partner Energy announced the acquisition of an 8.9 MW distributed Solar portfolio from Statkraft India. This marks Fourth Partner Energy’s first acquisition this fiscal (2021-2022) and is inline with the firm’s capacity expansion plans, after securing $125 million funding from Norfund and TPG’s The Rise Fund.Statkraft has decided to exit the distributed solar power business to focus on developing larger-scale projects andwas happy to announce the sale of 100% interest and ownership in Statkraft Solar to Fourth Partner Energy.

GREENJOULES RAISES $4.5 MILLIONFROM BLUE ASHVA CAPITAL

Greenjoules, a Pune-based green energy technology company, has raised ₹33 crore ($4.5 million) from Blue Ashva Capital. The fund raised will be used by the companyto set up waste-to-energy plants and invest in R&D.The funds were raised through a combination of equity and debt from Blue Ashva Capital’s Blue Ashva Sampada Fund.Greenjoules specializes in making renewable biofuels, commonly recognized as drop-in fuels or second-generation biofuel, curated from agricultural residue and renewable wastes from agro-processing industries

THAILAND’S PTT BUYS $453 MILLION STAKE IN AVAADA ENERGY Global Power Synergy Pcl, a unit of PTT Group, has acquired a stake in Indian renewable energy provider Avaada Energy for about $453 million.Global Power completed the purchase of about a 41.6% stake in Avaada through a subscription of new shares. Barclays Plc advised PTT on this deal, while Bank of America worked with Avada Energy

INDIGRID ACQUIRES 100 MW SOLAR ASSETS FROM FRV FOR ~$88.66 MILLION Infrastructure investment trust IndiGrid has completed the acquisition of an entire stake in two Solar energy assets with a cumulative capacity of 100 MW from Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) at an enterprise value of ₹ 660 crore. With this acquisition, the company’s asset portfolio will now consist of 14 diversified power projects consisting of 40 transmission lines (7,570 circuit kilometers),11 substations (13,550 MVA capacity) and 100 MW of Solar power plants across 18 States and one Union Territory also Power purchase agreements for both assets are already in place with SECI.

SANGAM RENEWABLES DIVESTS STAKE IN WAACOX ENERGY TO ADITYA BIRLA RENEWABLES Sangam Renewables announced the completion of its entire stake sale (51%) in its subsidiary, WAACOX Energy (WEPL) to Aditya Birla Renewables, ABRel, for an amount of ~$5.57 million (₹ 41.6035 crore).ABRel earlier held 49% in WEPL, and now shall own 100% stake.

WEPL had 24 MWp of operational solar plants which were co-developed by SARel and ABRel. The PPA of these projects in WEPL is held by Mahagenco and Mahadiscom.

AZURE POWER RAISES $163 MILLION FUNDING FROM MUFG

MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) has completed a $163million, five-year syndicated financing for a 300 MW Solar PV project developed by Azure Power. The project location is in the State of Rajasthan.MUFG also acted as the lead manager, hedging bank, facility agent, and bank issuing line of credit.

ION ENERGY RAISES $3.6 MILLION WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF AMAZON’S CLIMATE PLEDGE FUND ION Energy, an energy-tech start-up building advanced electronics and software platforms for new energy enterprises, has raised $3.6 million in Pre-Series A funding. The round was raised from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and joined by Silicon Valley-based Climate Capital, earlystage investor YourNest Venture Capital, Riso Capital, Venture Catalysts, and other angel investors.The funds will be used to grow the ION team, invest in product development, and expand the software business in North America and Europe.

BP LEADS $25 MILLION FUNDING ROUND IN EV RIDE-HAILING START-UP BLUSMART BP Ventures has made its first direct investment in India by pumping in $13 million in integrated EV ride-hailing and charging company BluSmart.It led a USD 25 million Series A round that also saw support from Mayfield India Fund, 9Unicorns, and Survam Partners, alongside other existing investors. The company will use the fund to expand its fleet of electric vehicles and charging stations from Delhi to five other Indian cities in the coming two years.

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GOEGONETWORK EV CHARGING START-UP SECURES SEED FUNDING goEgo Network secured $2 million in seed funding to expand its existing electric charging network. Pune-based goEgoNetwork is India’s first EV charging network that will provide EV chargers to you whether you are at home, at work, or traveling to your weekend getaway destination.

OLA’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE ARM RAISES $100 MILLION FROM BANK OF BARODA Ola has raised $100 million from the Bank of Baroda (BoB) to partly finance the first phase of construction of what India’s largest ride-hailing platform claims will be the world’s largest electric two-wheeler factory.The funds are being raised as a long-term loan by Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd, the electric vehicle (EV) arm of the Bengaluru-based company. The plant is being built in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district. The factory will have an initial capacity of 2 million electric vehicles every year.

HERO ELECTRIC RAISES ~$29.565 MILLION IN GULF ISLAMIC INVESTMENTS-LED FUNDING Hero Electric Vehicles has raised Rs 220 crore ($29.565 million)in a Series B funding round led by Gulf Islamic Investments (GII). The funding round also witnessed the participation of OAKS Capital.Hero Electric will allocate this investment towards expanding production capacity, consolidating market position to strengthen market leadership, investing in futuristic technology, and growing footprint across India-like markets.

POLICY & REGULATORY UPDATES PROCUREMENT OF 1,000 MW OF SOLAR POWER FROM SECIAT ₹2.61 UNDER MANUFACTURING LINKED ISTS SCHEME Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC)permitted to procure 1,000 MW of Solar Power from SECI, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) will procure the power at ₹2.61/kWh under the manufacturing-linked interstate transmission system (ISTS) program which includes SECI’s ₹0.07 per unit trader’s margin.

CHHATTISGARH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION DETERMINE GENERIC LEVELIZED TARIFF FOR FY 2021-22 The Chhattisgarh Electricity Regulatory Commission (CSERC) has given guidelines to decide the generic levelized tariffs for small-hydro projects and non‐fossil fuel‐based co-generation plants. The tariff is for projects commissioned during the financial year2021-22. It additionally finalized the energy charges for existing biomass power projects.

Thetariff for small hydropower projects below 5 MW installed plant capacity was proposed at ₹7.48 (~$0.102)/kWh. For small hydropower projects of capacities between 5 MW to 10 MW, a tariff of ₹6.74 (~$0.092)/kWh was suggested. The tariff for small hydropower projects of 10 MW to 25 MW capacities is currently at ₹6.33 (~$0.086)/kWh. The tariff for mini and micro hydropower projects up to 2 MW was ₹7.98 (~$0.108)/kWh

SECI OFFERS 9,000MW SOLAR PV POWER PROJECTS TO ANDHRA PRADESH

SECI requests the Andhra Pradesh government to avail the 9,000 MW solar power projects that it awarded under the manufacturing-linked solar tenders initiative. Under the manufacturing-linked power supply agreement (PSA), the state can benefit from various advantages including offering the power at ₹2.49/kWh, waiver of the interstate transmission system (ISTS) charges for the entire 25 years of the power purchase agreement (PPA) and others.

SECI, written to the Energy Secretary of Andhra Pradesh that 12,000 MW projects were awarded in four tranches of 3,000 MW each under the manufacturing-linked solar tender between December 2019, and June 2020. The tranche-I capacities were offered to various utilities and the PSAs are expected to be inked in due course, it added.The balance of the entire 9,000 MW, to be set up in three phases of 3,000 MW each, is expected to be ready in September 2024, September 2025, and September 2026 respectively.

GENERIC TARIFF OF ₹3.51/KWH PROPOSED FOR SMALL SOLAR PROJECTS UNDER KUSUM PROGRAM The Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission released a blueprint todecide the feed-in-tariff (FiT) for decentralized solar projects with capacities ranging from 0.5 MW to 2 MW. Component-A of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahabhiyan(PM KUSUM) program will fundthese solar projects.For Solar installations, the Commission has proposed genericlevelized rates of ₹3.51/kWh. This tariff will come into effect for those projects which will get commercial operations in the fiscal year 2021-22.

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Under Component-C of the PM KUSUM program, the Commission also recommends a tariff to buy excess power from solarized agriculture pumps. Until October 5, 2021, the stakeholders can provide their comments and suggestions to the commission.

TRIPURA TO SET UP SOLAR MICROGRIDS IN 23 VILLAGES

Tripura government has announced plans to install micro-grid solar power plants in 23 remote villagesat the cost of ₹23 million (~$312,150),as providing electricity through conventional sources of power is not possible.

The villagers have long been demanding power supply for a long time but, erecting a power line to such a distance for less than 100 people was not feasible. Tripura Renewable Energy Development Agency (TREDA) has taken up the initiative to ensure power supply to the non-electrified villages and the state government has approved the plan for installation of the proposed micro-grid solar power plants in 23 villages at the cost of ₹2.30 crore.

RERC INCREASES NET-METERING LOAD CAPACITY UPTO 500 KW Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) issue an order to increase net metering load capacity up to 500 kW from 10 kW. The regulatory certaintyCommission decides that for regulation 3.2 of the RERCDREGS Regulations 2021, the net metering arrangement shall beapplicable for loads up to 500 kW or upto thesanctioned load, whichever is lower, for all categories of theconsumers. However, the Commission may take a further view on otherissues raised by the DISCOMs in their response at a later stage byfollowing the due procedure.

DISCOUNT RATE OF ANNUITY PAYMENTS TO SOLAR DEVELOPERS WILL BE 10.41%: CERC Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), in a new order, has toreplicate Solar Energy Corporation of India's (SECI) proposition for a 10.41% rebate rate on annuity payment towards the extra costs experienced by Solarpower developersin terms of “Change in Law” events.

CERC reject all the pleas of the developers and asked them to pay all statutory taxes, duties, levies, and cess on monthly annuity payments as per the terms of power purchase agreements (PPAs).

POWER AGENCIES TOLD TO PAY FOR CURTAILING SOLAR UNITS

The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) has directed Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) and the Tamil Nadu State Load Despatch Centre to jointly pay compensation to solar energy developers for curtailment of generation from March 1 to June 30, 2017.Based on the POSOCO report, it concluded that the curtailment instructions were issued for reasons other than grid security and fixed the compensation at 75% of the tariff per unit as per the power purchase agreements.

The order was delivered on an appeal filed by the National Solar Energy Federation of India. The federation had moved the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) and sought compensation for the capacity which could not be utilized and power supplied due to backing down instructions.The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) rejected the plea, saying there was no provision for it in the power purchase agreements. The tribunal agreed with the TNERC’s view that there was no provision for compensation in the power purchase agreements.

SUPREME COURT DISMISSES SPECIAL LEAVE PETITIONS FILED FOR SOLAR ANTI-DUMPING PROBE The Supreme Court heard two special leave petitions filed by the government of India and Solar Power Developers Association (SPDA) regarding a pending anti-dumping investigation.A special leave petition is filed by an aggrieved party seeking special permission to be heard in the Apex court as an appeal against any order or judgment of any court or tribunal in India.

The Supreme Court of India admonished the government for its inability to appoint judges and fill the vacancies in the High Court, despite receiving approval from the Supreme Court collegium for years. This has resulted in the Delhi High Court having less than 50% of the required judges, making early adjudication on important issues almost impossible for the judicial institutions in the country.On the one hand, the government does not consider it necessary to even file the counter-affidavits while it has time to draft special leave petitions and file them, the Apex Court remarked. “So much for the urgency expressed by the government of India in the present proceedings,” it rebuked.

The Supreme Court later dismissed the special leave petitions.

KERC APPROVES GENERIC TARIFF OF ₹4.02/KWH FOR RESIDENTIAL ROOFTOP SOLAR The KERC (Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission) has set a tax of ₹3.10 (~$0.042)/kWh for grid-connected MW scale Solarpower project capacity under 5 MW and ₹3.19 (~$0.043)/kWh for grid-connected rooftopSolarfrom 1 kW to 2 MW (barring 1 kW to 10 kW). For grid-connectedresidential projects of 1 kW to 10 kW capacity, the Commission has set a tariff of ₹4.02 (~$0.054)/kWh (without subsidy) and ₹2.67 (~$0.036)/kWh (with subsidy), the new tariff will be applicable for projects whose PPA has been signed from April 1, 2021, till FY 2023.

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SECI WILL BE CONSIDERED AS A PROCURER OF WIND -SOLAR PROJECT NOT A NODAL AGENCY: MNRE

As per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's (MNRE) recently acquainted amendments with the competitive bidding process guidelines

for grid-connected wind-solar hybrid projects, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will be considered as a procurer and not a nodal agency. SECI had been assigned as a nodal agency in the earlier bidding guidelines.

FORTUM SOLAR IS PARTLY ALLOWED FOR INCREMENTAL TARIFFS FOR SOLAR SAFEGUARD DUTY COMPENSATION

The Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC)decided that Fortum Solar India is qualified to pay for the extra cost brought about because of the imposition of safeguard duty through increasing tariff. The Commission asked the discoms to take care of the supplementary bills for the incremental tariffs at the rate and minimum contracted capacity settled, from the commissioned date until the date of the order in three equivalent instalments.

The Commission guided the developer to keep the affidavit dated September 19, 2020, to repay the sum received by discoms if the Supreme Court order saves the safeguard duty notificationconcerning 'Change in Law'.

ROOFTOP SOLAR PV SYSTEM PERMITTED FOR NET METERING FOR LOADS UP TO 10KW

Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) has released a draft on regulations to amend GERC (Net Metering Rooftop Solar PV Grid Interactive Systems) Regulations, 2016. The commission has invited suggestions and comments from the stakeholders on the draft.These regulations, applicable to the state of Gujarat, will be called Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (Net Metering Rooftop Solar PV Grid Interactive Systems) (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2021.

The Rooftop Solar PV system will be permitted for net metering for loads up to 10 kW. Also, gross metering for the Rooftop Solar PV system will be allowed for loads above 10 kW. It states that the installed capacity would be less than 1kW and would not exceed 1 MW.

TIMELINES FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF EXISTING METERS WITH SMART METERS

The Ministry of Power provides timelines to replace existing power meters with smart meters with pre-payment features in government offices, commercial establishments, and industrial units, among others.According to a notification issued by the Ministry, all consumers (other than agricultural users) in areas with a communication network shall be supplied electricity with smart meters working in pre-payment mode. All government offices at the block level and above, and all industrial and commercial consumers shall be metered with smart meters by December 2023.

SUBSIDY FOR CONSUMPTION OF SOLAR ENERGY

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is implementing various schemes and programs to promote Solar energy in the country.

These include the Solar Parks scheme, PM-KUSUM scheme, CPSU scheme, Rooftop Solar Programme, and Green Energy Corridor scheme, etc. The scheme is the backbone of the growth story of any sector especially the power industry as this is a capital-intensive industry, so without a clear policy and scheme investors are reluctant to enter into the sector.

The government of India with the help of MNRE has introduced the different schemes as a low-hanging fruit to the investor and the results of that most of the major investments in the Indian Solar Industry are done by foreign investors either through greenfield projects or brownfield investment.

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Support Provided by the Government for Promotion of Solar Energy Schemes/ Programme Details of support being provided a) Grid Connected Rooftop (i) For Residential Sector Solar PV Power Projects - Central Financial Assistance (CFA) up to 40% for capacity up to 3 kWp - CFA up to 20% for capacity beyond 3 kWp and up to 10 kWp - CFA up to 20% for GHS/RWA capacity up to 500 kWp (limited to 10 kWp per house and total upto 500 kWp) (ii) For Discoms Incentives up to 10% of project cost depending upon achievements in capacity addition above baseline. b) Grid-connected Solar PV VGF support up to ₹ 55 lakhs per MW to the CPSUs/State Govt. PSUs/Govt.

Power Projects by Government Organizational entities are selected through a competitive bidding process. produce under CPSU scheme Phase II (Government Produce Scheme) c) Solar Park Scheme Upto ₹ 25 lakhs per Solar Park for preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs). ₹ 20 Lakh per MW or 30% of the project cost including Grid-connectivity cost, whichever is lower. d) PM-KUSUM scheme Under Component A, solar power plants of capacity 500 KW to 2 MW are setup by individual farmers/cooperatives/panchayats/farmer producer organizations (FPO) on their barren or cultivable lands. The power generated will be purchased by the DISCOMs at Tariffs determined by respective SERC. Performance-Based Incentives @ ₹. 0.40 per unit for five years will be provided to DISCOMs. Under Component B, individual farmers are supported to install standalone solar pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP. Under Component C of the scheme, financial support is provided for solarisation of existing grid-connected agricultural pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP. For both Component-B and Component-C, Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of 30% of the benchmark cost or the tender cost, whichever is lower, is provided. The State Government provides a subsidy of 30%, and the remaining 40% is provided by the farmer. Bank finance may be made available for meeting 30% of the cost. Higher CFA of 50% is provided for North Eastern States, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and UTs of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, and A&N Islands e) Green Energy Corridor CFA of 40 % of DPR cost or awarded cost whichever is lower is provided Scheme for creation of intra-state transmission infrastructure for evacuation of RE power.

Source: Lok Sabha Update

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Source: eq isearch

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IREDA VOYAGE IN RENEWABLE SECTOR IREDA has supported around 16,295 MW of renewable energy projects by FY 2019-20 which was around 2600 number RE financed projects.

As per the dashboard of IREDA, Solar Energy contributed the maximum percentage of the total renewable energy financed across the loan portfolio, followed by Wind Energy. By the end of the financial year 2019-20, IREDA sanctioned around ₹ 85,599.88 crore ($11.44 billion), out of that ₹ 54,289.26 crore ($7.26 billion) had been disbursed. IREDA has accumulated the total loan assets of ₹ 23,732 Crore ($3.17billion) over the five years from 2015-16, and a CAGR rate of 23 percent.

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has disbursed a loan amount of ₹1,100 crores (approx.) ($146.43 million) to Vector Green Energy, setting a record for the highest disbursement to a singleGroup in one day. It was also the highest single-day transaction for Vector Green Energy.

Source: eq isearch

In June 2021, IREDA invites bids for ₹4500 crore Solar PLI scheme, recently 16 bidders have been selected for Solar Module Manufacturing PLI Auction for setting up vertically integrated high-efficiency solar modules with manufacturing capacities of at least 10 GW under the production-linked incentive (PLI) program. Among the 16 qualified bidders, the IREDA will allocate the PLI tothem. The tender received an overwhelming response and was oversubscribed by 5.68 times. The bidder with the lowest incentive corresponding to capacities bid will be preferred.

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RPO Compliance 2019-20 States/UTs

Energy Supplied excl. Solar Obligation Solar Consumption Non-Solar Obligation Non-Solar Consumption Total RE Obligation Total RE Consumption Hydro (MU) (MU) (MU) (MU) (MU) (MU) (MU)

Himachal Pradesh Karnataka Andhra Pradesh Rajasthan ** Tamil Nadu ** Gujarat ** Mizoram Nagaland Madhya Pradesh ** Telangana Dadar& Nagar Haveli Maharashtra Jharkhand Punjab * Meghalaya Delhi * Assam * Uttar Pradesh * Andaman and Nicobar West Bengal Puducherry Kerala Odisha Chhattisgarh Daman & Diu Bihar Goa * Haryana * Tripura Chandigarh Lakshadweep Manipur Uttarakhand

3,041.54 59537 62143 77139 103617 112504 488 565 68552 65150 6528 148395 7941 45742 961 30045 7825 112873 323 48032 2846 19056 22916 29786 2574 29792 4350 50189 1300 845 46 646 7320.53

220.51 4316.5 4505.4 5592.6 7512.3 8156.6 35.4 41.0 4970.0 4723.4 473.3 10758.7 575.7 3316.3 69.7 2178.3 567.3 8183.3 23.4 3482.3 206.3 1381.5 1661.4 2159.5 186.6 2159.9 315.4 3638.7 94.3 61.3 3.3 46.9 530.74

94.51 11948.8 5974.3 7572.0 4769.1 3771.6 19.8 0.0 4213.6 6325.1 115.8 3184.3 290.3 1358.6 3.1 868.1 206.7 2496.8 11.6 71.9 4.1 157.6 434.8 340.5 23.2 516.6 0.8 207.3 2.4 12.0 0.7 2.7 368.38

311.76 6102.6 6369.7 7906.8 10620.8 11531.7 50.1 57.9 7026.6 6677.8 669.1 15210.5 814.0 4688.6 98.5 3079.6 802.1 11569.5 33.1 4923.3 291.7 1953.2 2348.8 3053.0 263.8 3053.6 445.9 5144.4 133.3 86.6 4.7 66.2 750.35

1,904.43 14103.2 7486.0 6500.2 13559.5 14134.7 49.6 75.9 4988.5 513.6 561.7 11791.7 453.4 2151.1 68.6 1209.2 284.9 4470.0 5.7 2128.5 122.8 677.7 683.9 720.7 49.5 266.3 103.1 902.1 25.3 0.0 0.0 1.5 952.99

532.27 10419.0 10875.1 13499.4 18133.0 19688.3 85.5 98.9 11996.6 11401.2 1142.4 25969.2 1389.7 8004.9 168.2 5257.9 1369.4 19752.8 56.5 8405.6 498.1 3334.7 4010.2 5212.5 450.5 5213.5 761.3 8783.1 227.6 147.9 8.1 113.1 1281.09

1998.94 26052.0 13460.4 14072.1 18328.6 17906.3 69.4 75.9 9202.1 6838.8 677.5 14976.0 743.7 3509.7 71.7 2077.3 491.5 6966.8 17.3 2200.5 126.9 835.3 1118.7 1061.2 72.7 782.9 103.9 1109.5 27.7 12.0 0.7 4.2 1321.37

RPO Compliance (%) 275.6% 250.0% 123.8% 104.2% 101.1% 90.9% 81.2% 76.7% 76.7% 60.0% 59.3% 57.7% 53.5% 43.8% 42.6% 39.5% 35.9% 35.3% 30.6% 26.2% 25.5% 25.0% 27.9% 20.4% 16.1% 15.0% 13.6% 12.6% 12.2% 8.1% 8.1% 3.7% 3.1%

Solar RPO Compliance -57% 177% 33% 35% -37% -54% -44% -100% -15% 34% -76% -70% -50% -59% -96% -60% -64% -69% -50% -98% -98% -89% -74% -84% -88% -76% -100% -94% -97% -80% -79% -94% -31%

Source: eq isearch

Source: Ministry of Power

RENEWABLE ENERGY CERTIFICATE TRADING

In September 2021, the Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy has given his consent to amendments in the existing Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) mechanism. The purpose behind this decision is to adjust the ‘mechanism’ with the emerging changes in the power scenario and to promote new renewable technologies. The proposed changes will give some flexibility to the players, additional avenues, rationalization, and also address the RECs validity period uncertainty issues. Extensive stakeholder consultations have been held towards drawing up these changes. The Ministry of Power had circulated a discussion paper on redesigning the REC mechanism for comments of stakeholders in the power sector.

The Salient features of changes proposed in revamped REC mechanism are: • The validity of REC would be perpetual (till it is sold).

• Floor and forbearance prices are not required to be specified.

• CERC to have monitoring and the surveillance mechanism to ensure that there is no hoarding of RECs. • The RE generator who are eligible for REC will be eligible for issuance of RECs for the period of PPA as per the prevailing guide

lines.

The existing RE projects that are eligible for REC would continue to get RECs for 25 years.

• A technology multiplier can be introduced for the promotion of new and high-priced RE technologies, which can be allocated in

various

baskets specific to technologies depending on maturity.

• RECs can be issued to obligated entities (including DISCOMs and open access consumers) which purchase RE Power beyond their RPO compliance notified by the Central Government.

• No REC to be issued to the beneficiary of subsidies/concessions or waiver of any other charges. The FOR to define concessional charges uniformly for denying the RECs. • Allowing traders and bilateral transactions in the REC mechanism.

The changes proposed in revamped REC mechanism will be implemented by CERC through the regulatory process. To address the mismatch between the availability of RE sources and the requirement of the obligated entities to meet their renewable purchase obligation (RPO), panIndia market-basedREC mechanism was introduced in the year 2010. Below is the trading of RECs since July 2020

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Opening REC Issued Month, Year Balance (A) (B)

Jul, 2020 Aug, 2020 Sep, 2020 Oct, 2020 Nov, 2020 Dec, 2020 Jan, 2021 Feb, 2021 Mar, 2021 Apr, 2021 May, 2021 Jun, 2021 Jul, 2020 Aug, 2020 Sep, 2020 Total:

5908672 6339136 2909223 3453971 4193535 4603512 5141135 5398934 5648541 5863435 6126803 6447052 6553064 6823158 7509422

530935 198726 544955 740650 417810 540794 260411 359001 324035 330267 321455 169616 273669 686264 644748 74063015

No. of REC Redeemed RECs Redeemed RECs through retained by Power RE Generators (D) Exchanges (C) 0 100471 0 4744 0 207 0 1086 0 7833 0 3171 0 2612 0 109394 0 109141 0 66899 0 1206 0 63604 0 3575 0 0 0 65930 59500577 2850303

Source: REC Registry of India

Total E=(C+D)

100471 4744 207 1086 7833 3171 2612 109394 109141 66899 1206 63604 3575 0 65930 62350880

Closing REC Revoked/Deleted Balance (G) (F=((A+B)E)-G) 0 3623895 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3623895

6339136 2909223 3453971 4193535 4603512 5141135 5398934 5648541 5863435 6126803 6447052 6553064 6823158 7509422 8088240 Source: eq isearch

INSTALLED CAPACITY TRENDS

The share of Wind Power has decreased by a percent in September 2021 compared to December 2020, as it has a market share of 30 percentin2021, of the total installed capacity among Hydro (excluding pumped storage), Wind and Solar. In 2021, Solar Power installed capacity constitute 35 percent share among the total installed capacity of Hydro, Wind, and Solar Power, on the other hand, the share of Hydro Power (excluding pumped storage) was in the decreasing mode on yearly basis, but the installed capacity has increased by 0.41 percent quarter over quarter from Q2 2021 to Q3 2021

Source: eq isearch

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In 2011, the share of Hydro Power as mentioned in the above chartwas69 percent, while in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021, the share was on decreasing mode graduallyby 38 percent, 37 percent and now 35 percent among the three major renewable sources of energy. The Ministry of Power is also putting RPO compliance for Hydro Power to give a boost to the segment, and the installations have started to increase for Hydro by atleast a percent from January 2021 to September 2021.

APPROVED LIST OF MODELS AND MANUFACTURERS (ALMM) The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has issued Approved Models and Manufacturers of Solar Photovoltaic Modules (ALMM) order dated 2nd January 2019. In this, a team of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy or any agency authorized for this purpose has to conduct an inspection of the manufacturing facility of the manufacturers whose models have been registered/certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as per the "Solar Photovoltaics, systems, devices and components goods (requirements for compulsory registration) order, 2017", or any amendment thereof, or any order issued in supersession of this order. During the inspection, the team has to examine the production and sale records of the company to ensure that the Solar cells and modules being supplied are indeed made in the unit. The inspection team will also ascertain, as far as possible, that there are no contractual violations on part of the applicant in the supply of Solar PV cells/ modules.

For the modules, the first model ₹5,000 (~$70)/2,500 (~$35) as applicable multiplied by total installed manufacturing capacity (MW) of modules of the applicant manufacturer manufacturing, while for all other models₹5,000 (~$70)/2,500 (~$35)multiplied by 0.01 again multiplied by total installed manufacturing capacity (MW) of modules. For Cell, the first model ₹5,000 multiplied by the total installed manufacturing capacity (MW) of cells of the manufacturer across different technologies. For all other models ₹5,000 (~$70) multiplied by 0.01 again multiplied by total installed manufacturing capacity (MW) of cells of the manufacturer across different technologies.

But due to pandemic, government officials were not able to do the inspecting of foreign production unit, even domestic players are facing issues to enlist their capacity. Below are the only Indian manufacturers who can get their registration under the ALMM list-l by September 2021.

Many large Solar PV tenders are mentioning the requirement of ALMM registered panels, but the Indian Solar Market is being dominated by Chinese players who are not able to get their capacity under ALMM to be supplied to this project. Even IREDA 5 GW tender which auctioned recently needed ALMM listed panels. Even NHPC has issuedan EPC tender for 1 GW, where they have mentioned using ALMM list Solar PV modules in their project to the EPC players. As of Q3 2021, around 8,872 MW of manufacturing installed capacity has been enlisted with 34 companies.

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Approved list - I of solar PV module manufacturers as per the list issued by MNRE Enlisted Sl. Capacity Manufacturer Location No. (MWs / Year) 1 Mundra Solar PV Ltd. 1100 Tunda, Mundra SEZ, Mundra, Gujarat 2 Waaree Energies Ltd. 1000 Tumb, Umbergaon, Valsad, Gujarat 3 Vikram Solar Ltd. 970 Falta SEZ, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal 4 RenewSys India Pvt. Ltd. 750 FAB City, Hyderabad, Telangana 5 Emmvee Photovoltaic Power Pvt. Ltd. 500 Bettahalasuru, Bengaluru, Karnataka 6 Goldi Solar Pvt. Ltd. 500 Pipodara, Surat, Gujarat 7 Waaree Energies Ltd. 500 Surat SEZ, Diamond Park, Sachin, Surat, Gujarat 8 Waaree Renewables Pvt. Ltd. 500 Nandigram, Umbergaon, Valsad, Gujarat 9 Premier Energies Ltd. 482 Annaram, Medak, Telangana 10 Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd. 300 Electronic City, Bengaluru, Karnataka 11 Websol Energy System Ltd. 250 Falta SEZ, 24 Parganas (South), West Bengal 12 Sova Solar Ltd. 240 Banskopa, Durgapur, West Bengal 13 Saatvik Green Energy Pvt. Ltd. 240 Dubli, Ambala, Haryana 14 PV Power Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 200 Tarapur Textile Park Ltd., Boisar East, Palghar, Maharashtra 15 Swelect Energy Systems Ltd. 140 Dabaspet, Nelamangala, Bengaluru, Karnataka 16 Icon Solar-En Power Technologies Pvt. 125 Dighari, Mandir Hasaud, Arang, Raipur, Chhattisgarh Ltd. 17 Gautam Solar Pvt. Ltd. 110 Sector-8A IIE, Sidcul Haridwar, Uttrakhand 18 Topsun Energy Ltd. 100 Linch, Mehsana, Gujarat 19 Navitas Green Solutions Pvt. Ltd. 100 Hojiwala Industrial Estate, Surat, Gujarat 20 Insolation Energy Pvt. Ltd 100 Khasra No 766/2, Vill-Bagwara, TehAmer Jaipur, Rajasthan 21 Jakson Engineers Ltd. 80 Ecotech III, Udyog Kendra, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 22 Pennar Industries Ltd 75 Chandpur, Sadasivapet, Sangareddy, Telangana 23 Patanjali Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd 70 UPSIDC Industrial Area, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 24 Solarium Green Energy LLP. 70 At Bhamasra, Ta:Bavla, Dist: Ahmedabad 382240, Gujarat 25 ORB Energy Pvt. Ltd. 50 Yeshwanthapura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 26 Australian Premium Solar (India) Pvt. Ltd. 50 Tajpur, Sabarkantha, Gujarat 27 GreenBrilliance Renewable Energy LLP 50 GIDC Estate, Waghodia, Vadodara, Gujarat 28 Solex Energy Ltd 45 GIDC, Vitthal Udyognagar, Anand, Gujarat 29 Himalayan Solar Pvt. Ltd. 40 HSIIDC Industrial Estate, Alipur Barwala, Panchkula, Haryana 30 Sun N Sand Exim (India) Pvt. Ltd. 40 HSIIDC Industrial Estate, Bahadurgarh, DisttJhajjar, Haryana 31 Central Electronics Ltd. 35 Industrial Area, Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh 32 Visaka Industries Ltd. 30 Gajalapuram, Miryalagunda, Nalgonda, Telangana 33 Sanelite Solar Pvt. Ltd. 20 Bhagyalaxmi Industrial Estate, Rakanpur, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 34 Bharat Electronics Ltd. 10 Jalahalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka

Source: MNRE

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Country India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India India Source: eq isearch

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HYDROGEN UPDATES INDIAN OIL IN TALKS WITH STATE TRANSPORT UNDERTAKINGS FOR HYDROGEN PROJECTS Moving in line with the government’s hydrogen roadmap, public sector major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is in talks with state transport utili-

ties of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat to set up hydrogen manufacturing units and refueling stations.The Uttar Pradesh unit will be near the Mathura refinery, while the one in Gujarat will be close to the Baroda refinery.The plan is to run 10-20 buses in both states in the initial stage.

AYANA RENEWABLE AND GREENSTAT HYDROGEN ENTER INTO AN MOU TO SUPPORT INDIA’S HYDROGEN MISSION

Ayana and Greenstat Hydrogen India, a Norwegian energy organization, recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU)to accelerate the hydrogen technology development in India. The objective of this partnership is to collaborate on developing projects for the production of green hydrogen.The MOU brings together the development and operating expertise of Ayana in India, along with the technical expertise of the Greenstar Group

INDIANOIL TO BUILD INDIA’S FIRST GREEN HYDROGEN PLANT AT MATHURA REFINERY

IndianOil plans to expand more into hydrogen technologies and develop India’s first green hydrogen plant. This will be in addition to expanding existing crude oil refining capacity by 25 million tonnes per annum and more biofuel production plants.The firm is in the process of setting up one-tonne-per-day pilot plants based on four innovative hydrogen production technologies.

INDIANOIL TO BUILD INDIA’S FIRST GREEN HYDROGEN PLANT AT MATHURA REFINERY

National Thermal Power Corporation Renewable (NTPC REL) has invited a domestic tender to set up India’s first Green Hydrogen Fuelling Station in Leh, Ladakh.The tender follows the recent tender floated by NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) for procurement of Fuel Cell Buses for Ladakh. NTPC REL and NVVN would jointly be executing the Green Mobility project in the union territory of Ladakh. A dedicated 1.25 MW Solar plant is also being set up in Leh by NTPC REL to make the Hydrogen Fuelling Station completely green. The Solar plant contract is expected to be awarded within a month.The sale of bid documents was commencedon 31st July 2021.

INDIANOIL TO BUILD INDIA’S FIRST GREEN HYDROGEN PLANT AT MATHURA REFINERY Tata Motors has bagged an order for 15 hydrogen-based fuel cell buses from the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). The auto major noted that IOCL had invited bids for the supply of the hydrogen-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell buses in December 2020. IOCL’s Research and Development Centre to undertake projects and collectively study further the potential of fuel cell technology for commercial vehicles. Tata Motors has already successfully supplied 215 EV buses under FAME I and won orders for 600 EV buses under FAME II policy.

All 15 buses will be delivered within 144 weeks from the date of signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU).

EV UPDATES EVS TO MAKE UP 10 PERCENT OF ALL-NEW VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS BY 2025 IN MAHARASHTRA

All the electric vehicles (EVs) sold in Maharashtra will be exempted from paying road tax for the duration of the policy. Also, the property developers will be required to mandatorily reserve minimum EV parking space in residential and commercial areas and government offices. The new policy aims at establishing at least one manufacturing unit in the state for producing advanced lithium-ion batteries. It also proposes to set up 1,500 charging stations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, 500 in Pune, 150 in Nagpur, 100 in Nashik, 75 in Aurangabad, 30 in Amaravati, and 20 in Solapur, by 2025

EVS TO MAKE UP 10 PERCENT OF ALL-NEW VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS BY 2025 IN MAHARASHTRA

Rajasthan became the 16thstate in the country to roll out an EV policy that will subsidize customers of these vehicles by offering to reimburse SGST (State Goods and Service Tax) besides a one-time incentive based on the battery capacity. In this policy, customers of electric twowheelers will get incentives based on the battery capacity of the vehicle.The incentives include a refund of state GST amounting to 2.5 percent of the vehicle cost, these incentives are over and above the FAME II incentives for EV manufacturers announced by the central government.

IIT HYDERABAD-INCUBATED EVSTART-UP PURE EV OFFERS NEW ‘WARRANTY EXTENSION’ POLICY Electric Vehicle start-up PURE EVwill cover key power-train components including battery, motor, and controllerfor all its current models under its ‘Warranty Extension’ policy.The firm will cover key power-train components including the battery, motor, and controllerfor all its current models under its ‘Warranty Extension’ policy.The new policy is data-driven which has been accessed after two years of evaluation onground product performance of these components for more than 40,000 KMs of the PURE EV models.

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ODISHA APPROVES ELECTRIC VEHICLE POLICY 2021, TARGETS 20% EVS BY 2025 Odisha Electric Vehicle Policy, 2021 aims to promote the use of electric vehicles, the objective is to reduce emissions caused by the use of traditional fossil fuel-run vehicles and promote the manufacture of electric vehicles. The major decision included the approval for the promotion of the use of electric vehicles in the State through different kinds of incentives.

SUN MOBILITY AND ZYPP ELECTRIC TO REVOLUTIONIZE URBAN LAST-MILE DELIVERY SUN Mobility, the leading provider of energy infrastructure and services for electric vehicles (EVs), has partnered with Zypp Electric, one of India’s leading EV logistics companies to revolutionize urban last-mile delivery.This partnership will provide Zypp with a state-of-the-art electric mobility solution comprising leading cargo vehicle models integrated with smart batteries and access to a wide network of SWAP POINTS. This offering comes with a pay-per-use plan bundled with unlimited battery swaps. Zypp can scale up its fleet operations in an assetlight manner without having to worry about battery and charging infrastructure. The partnership aims to deploy 10,000 EVs across various platforms over the next few years.

SUN MOBILITY AND ZYPP ELECTRIC TO REVOLUTIONIZE URBAN LAST-MILE DELIVERY British performance brand Lotus Cars is planning to incorporate ADI’s wireless battery management system (wBMS) in its next-generation electric vehicle (EV) architecture.ADI’s wBMS was selected for its increased design flexibility, battery repairability, and lighter weight. The engineering collaboration will enable Lotus to safely propel its future EV fleet and continue pushing the limits of design and technology.ADI’s wBMS technology eliminates the traditional wired harness, leading to a reduction of up to 90% in the wiring and 15% of the volume in the battery pack. It also improves design flexibility and manufacturability, without compromising range and state of charge accuracy over the life of the battery.

SUN MOBILITY AND ZYPP ELECTRIC TO REVOLUTIONIZE URBAN LAST-MILE DELIVERY ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) has recently signed MoU with Bharat Electronics Limited where ARAI will provide the know-how of the charges and Bharat Electronics will manufacture the chargers.The cost of the ARAI-developed EV charger is expected to be in the range of ₹50,000-60,000 ($667-$800), it has developed the EV charger AC001 with indigenous technology. The manufacturing and promotional operations have been taken up by Bharat Electronics. The AC001 charging points will be set by Bharat Electronics and parts for EV charger systems -0 Type 1, Type 2, CCS, and CHAdeMO will be built locally.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS India showed a tremendous installation in the quarter third of 2021, as many projects got commissioned which were pending from the past few quarters, also there is a duty-free window for two months after July in Q3 2021. Even in the rooftop segment, after clarification for net-metering policy, the pace of distributed Solar installations has increased which results in the whooping installations of over 700 MW in Q3 2021. But, one issue is still harming the industry to grow as India'sSolar industry is highly dependent on China because of its competitive pricing compared to domestic manufacturers. The price of raw materials is increasing which pushes the modules prices above the expected rate which developers estimate at the time of bidding. Even the upcoming BCD is alarming the sector and Solar association forcing the government to extend the BCD for one more year so that projects whose auction had already been done can commission their project on time.

One major reason for the increase in the modules price is the outage in China due to coal shortage, which is heavily affecting the production lines, and creating uncertainty in the delivery scheduled timelines. And, all these catastrophes happen when the Indian Solar developers are going to complete their projects which got delayed due to lockdown, and extension, also when developers trying to ripe the benefit of the no-duty period. The government should intervene and show the way such as extent the BCD for few quarters, reduced the tax which recently increases from 5% to 12%, even push the domestic manufacturers to become self-depended in terms of raw materials for modules, other than Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) scheme.

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