Industrial Reports in Development and Power

BANGALORE, India - April 11, 2014 - PRLog -- Synergy Publications, India          India plans to award licenses for an additional 1,000 megawatts of solar power plants in the next year, about 30 percent more than originally targeted and equivalent to about half the capacity built so far. The Union government, however, scaled back its ambitions for an alternative technology called solar-thermal, which uses mirrors to focus sunlight to produce steam for conventional turbines. India plans to set up only 100 megawatts of solar-thermal capacity, down from the 1,080 megawatts targeted in a December 2012 policy document, according to an agreement signed by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the State-run Solar Energy Corp. of India.

Projects using photovoltaic technology, which use panels to convert sunlight directly into electricity, have benefited from a more than 60 percent decline in equipment costs since 2010.

In contrast, solar-thermal plants in India have struggled with cost overruns and delays. Of eight projects that were supposed to be completed by May last year, only one owned by Godawari Power & Ispat Ltd. has been completed.

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has increased its faith in solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, at the expense of concentrated solar power (CSP) technology. As a result, it has increased its target for installed solar PV capacity by 30%, in FY2014-15, while slashing its CSP target by 90%.The MNRE is expected to auction 1,000 MW of solar photovoltaic capacity, instead of the earlier planned 750 MW in FY2014-15. Of the 1,080 MW solar thermal power capacity initially planned for auction, only 100 MW would be offered to prospective project developers. During the first phase of the National Solar Mission, the Ministry had auctioned 470 MW of solar thermal power in seven different projects. These projects were supposed to be commissioned by the first half of 2012. Till this date, only one of these projects, with a generation capacity of 50 MW, has been commissioned.