With last year’s embarrassing manufacturing-linked capacity tender limping along, it has been reported the Indian government – whichever form it takes after the current elections – is considering another tender to incentivize the establishment of a domestic solar industry.

Karnataka state has been forced to apply the brakes to new solar with its power distribution companies having fulfilled their renewable purchase obligations for the next two years. Projects driven by federal agencies will continue, however.

A reduction in solar park charges was not enough to attract developers in the same numbers that flocked to a separate, 500 MW exercise two months earlier. The Raghanesda Solar Park continues to be a headache after a previous procurement was cancelled because the tariffs were deemed too costly.

The opening of India’s marathon six-week election yesterday will bring policymaking to a halt but a prominent consultancy says the nation is trailing behind peers when it comes to guidelines for materials and recycling, and the lack of a viable business case for reusing materials doesn’t help matters.

In the latest tariff spat to afflict the solar world, India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies will investigate a claim steel products coated with aluminum and zinc are being dumped by Far Eastern manufacturers.

A 10,000-liters-per-day plant in Tamil Nadu offers hope for powering clean water without fossil fuels. However, researchers warn the technology is difficult to scale up because PV panels take up so much space.

India’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector is expected to make a significant contribution to the country’s rooftop PV target of 40 GW by 2022. However, a range of issues — including low public awareness, the scarcity of low-cost financing and the need for rooftop aggregation models — must be addressed before rooftop solar can be aggressively scaled up, according to a new report from Deloitte and the Climate Investment Funds (CIF).

Amid the hubbub surrounding India’s renewable energy ambitions, few people have likely heard the last wails of a critically endangered great Indian bustard as it chars to death on a power transmission line or fatally collides with a wind turbine.

Shapoorji Pallonji Infrastructure Capital (SP Infra) has sold 194 MW of operational solar capacity to Sprng Energy, as a follow-up to its plan to divest part of its portfolio to redeploy capital for new PV projects.

In response to feedback from the domestic renewable energy sector, the Indian government has revealed plans to launch $5 billion of tenders for new transmission lines, starting in phases from this summer.