MNRE reduces performance guarantee to 3% for RE tenders

The Centre reduced the performance-guaranteed deposits to 3% of the value of the RE tenders. Until November 2020, the performance back guarantee (PBG) was between 5% to 10%, which was reduced to 3% to help developers boost liquidity during the COVID 19-related economic slowdown. The government added that 2% of earnest money deposits will continue to be levied. Developers have been concerned about liquidity over higher PBG and EMD values and delays releasing the amounts, Mercom reported. 

Andhra Pradesh high court says state can’t renegotiate PPAs, DISCOMS get 6 months to clear dues

The Andhra Pradesh high court said power contracts cannot be renegotiated and ordered the state to clear dues of around Rs30,000 crore to renewable energy generators within 6 weeks. The case has been pending over two years. Andhra Pradesh’s move to reinitiate Power Purchase Agreements was the first in the country, which was then followed by the states of Gujarat and Punjab.

The Andhra Pradesh government in 2019 decided to renegotiate 41 PPAs, following which the DISCOMs had asked wind power developers to revise down the tariff to Rs2.43 per unit and solar plants to cut the price to Rs2.44 per unit. 

India’s cumulative solar capacity reaches 50 GW

India’s cumulative installed solar capacity has reached 50GW in February 2022, according to research firm Mercom. Of this, 43GW was of utility-scale solar and 7 GW was of rooftop solar. India is chasing an RE target of 100 GW by 2022. Currently, 53 GW is in the pipeline, Mercom reported. 

India had made 10 GW of capacity additions in 2021, which represented a 210% increase on the year before. While a part of this could be explained by the COVID-19 pandemic causing a drop in installations, India’s deployment figures had been falling year-on-year since 2017. Given this, the boost will be welcomed from the country’s solar industry, although upcoming policy changes will cause concern for India’s downstream sector.

​​China to build 450 GW by 2030 in Gobi desert region

China is set to build 450 GW of wind and solar power capacity in the Gobi desert by 2030, Climate Change News reported, adding that it was more than twice the total amount of solar and wind power installed in the USA.

Quoting Greenpeace East Asia’s Li Shuo the report said 450 GW of renewable power in China’s underdeveloped western regions was the positive side of the China climate story, but the challenge is to stop the coal side of the story, which is growing in equally big numbers.The province of Inner Mongolia, which includes most of China’s Gobi desert, is the biggest producer of coal in China has been put on coal-led recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. China has brought the costs of manufacturing solar panels down and is able to use these cheap domestic panels in projects like this.

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