India PV News Snippets

Gensol bags 247 MW solar PV EPC orders from across India; Reuters says MNRE to blacklist renewable energy developers for missing project completion deadlines; Gautam Solar has launched new DCR 520W monocrystalline panels.

247 MW PV order for Gensol: EPC service provider Gensol Engineering Limited has announced receiving order for over 247 MW solar PV capacity in the month of February 2023. Projects are spread across the state of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerela, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Among the orders is a 180 MW facility in Gujarat which is the company's largest ground mounted facility to date, and a 10.56 MW project in Madhya Pradesh for a textile manufacturer which is also the company's largest single rooftop project. The wins also include a 44 MW largest floating solar project in its portfolio currently, to be installed on water bodies in the states of Jharkhand and West Bengal. All these projects are worth INR 5 billion ($60.6 million). 

RE firms to be blacklisted for missing deadlines: According to a Reuters report, Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) plans to blackslist renewable energy companies for a period of 3 years to 5 years for missing project completion deadlines. The ministry wants the bank guarantees of such companies to be encashed and the developer blacklisted. The report further added that the order will apply to all tenders and is in line with the government's General Financial Rules. The solar power industry in India has of late been facing module supply crunch in the wake of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) imposed on imported cells and modules and limited domestic supply. However, MNRE boss RK Singh recently said he will give 2-year exemption to projects from using only locally sourced solar modules listed in the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) for government projects till domestic capacity is able to meet demand (see Breather For Indian Solar Power Project Developers).

New solar panel from Gautam Solar: Solar module manufacturer Gautam Solar has launched a new panel with 520W output and 10BB monocrystalline technology. The company said the DCR 520W 10BB Mono HalfCut module qualify for the Indian government's ALMM under domestic content requirement (DCR) space. The bifacial PERC module is based on M10 cell size and was built using non-destructive laser-based cell cutting to ensure high reliability and reduce micro-cracks.