Flat solar power tariff drops to all time low of Rs 3.15 per unit

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The levelised solar power tariff has dropped to all time low of Rs 3.15 per unit in an auction of a 250 MW project at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier in February, the lower capital expenditure and cheaper credit had pulled down solar tariff to a new low of Rs 2.97 per unit for the first year in an auction conducted for 750 MW capacity in Rewa Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh.

However, the levelised tariff for Rewa project worked out to be Rs 3.30 per unit.

“The price bid opened and reverse auction carried out for 250 MW (1×250) solar project at Kadapa in AP under developer mode. Solairdirect has won this project with quoted levelised tariff of Rs 3.15/KWh,” a senior official said.

The official said, “Rewa Ultra Mega Solar record of levelised tariff is RS 3.30 which has been broken by NTPC auction today.”

Commenting on this Power Minister Piyush Goyal has tweeted, “Clean affordable power for all: Solar achieves another record low of Rs 3.15/ unit (flat rate) during auction in Kadapa, AP by NTPC.”

In Januray last year, solar power tariff had dropped to a new low, with Finland-based energy firm Fortum Finnsurya Energy quoting Rs 4.34 a unit to bag the mandate to set up a 70-MW solar plant under NTPC’s Bhadla Solar Park tender.

In November 2015, the tariff had touched Rs 4.63 per unit following aggressive bidding by US-based SunEdison, the world’s biggest developer of renewable energy power plants.

Source:  http://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/solar-power-tariff-low-rs-3.15-per-unit/story/249884.html

India adds record 5,400MW wind power in 2016-17

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During 2016-17, leading states in wind power capacity addition were Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka.

India added a record 5,400 megawatts (MW) of wind power in 2016-17, exceeding its 4,000MW target.

“This year’s achievement surpassed the previous higher capacity addition of 3,423MW achieved in the previous year,” the ministry of new renewable energy said a statement on Sunday.

Of about 50,018MW of installed renewable power across the country, over 55% is wind power.

In India, which is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter after the US and China, renewable energy currently accounts for about 16% of the total installed capacity of 315,426MW.

During 2016-17, the leading states in the wind power capacity addition were Andhra Pradesh at 2,190MW, followed by Gujarat at 1,275MW and Karnataka at 882MW.

In addition, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Kerala reported 357MW, 288MW, 262MW, 118MW, 23MW and 8MW wind power capacity addition respectively during the same period.

At the Paris Climate Summit in December, India promised to achieve 175GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. This includes 60GW from wind power, 100GW from solar power, 10GW from biomass and 5GW from small hydro projects.

It also promised to achieve 40% of its electricity generation capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030.

In the last couple of years, India has not only seen record low tariffs for solar power but wind power too has seen a significant drop in tariffs. In February, solar power tariffs hit a record low of Rs2.97 per kilowatt hour (kWh)and wind power tariff reached Rs3.46 kWh.

Even though wind leads India’s renewable power sector, it has huge growth potential. According to government estimates, the onshore wind power potential alone is about 302GW. But there are several problems plaguing the sector.

For instance, the government has been concerned about squatters blocking good wind potential sites, inordinate delays in signing of power purchase agreements, timely payments and distribution firms shying away from procuring electricity generated from wind energy projects. In January, the ministry held a meeting with the states to sort out these issues.

The ministry has also taken several other policy initiatives, including introducing bidding in the wind energy sector and drafting a wind-solar hybrid policy.

It has also come out with a ‘National Offshore Wind Energy Policy’, aiming to harness wind power along India’s 7,600 km coastline. Preliminary estimates show the Gujarat coastline has the potential to generate around 106,000MW of offshore wind energy and Tamil Nadu about 60,000MW.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Industry/MR7TsTomt2C9Si1NriNsyM/India-adds-record-5400MW-wind-power-in-201617.html

Tamil Nadu joins UDAY scheme

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The southern state, which became the 21st state to join Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), is also one of four states with largest accumulated debt of over Rs 40,000 crore.

After having dithered for over a year, Tamil Nadu on Monday signed up for the center’s scheme for revival of financially stressed state-owned power distribution companies. The southern state, which became the 21st state to join Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), is also one of four states with largest accumulated debt of over Rs 40,000 crore.

With Tamil Nadu on board, UDAY has now covered 92% of country’s discom debt. “Tamil Nadu would derive an overall net benefit of approximately Rs 11,000 crores through UDAY, by way of savings in interest cost, reduction in AT&C and transmission losses, interventions in energy efficiency, coal reforms etc,” the government said in a statement. Other states with huge debt burden include Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, all of which are part of the scheme.

According to the scheme, the state government will take over 75%of debt amounting to Rs 30,420 crore from the discom. The scheme also provides for the balance debt to be re-priced or issued as state guaranteed discom bonds, at coupon rates around 3-4% less than the average existing interest rate.

“The state would have savings of about Rs 950 crore in annual interest cost through reduction of debt and through reduced interest rates on the balance debt,” the government said. It added that reduction in aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses and transmission losses to 13.5% and 3.7% respectively is likely to bring additional revenue of around Rs 1,601 crores to the state distribution company.

UDAY was launched by the power ministry on November 20, 2015 with an aim to reduce financial distress among state discoms as it has been preventing them from buying power.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/economy/tamil-nadu-joins-uday-scheme/502490/

Japan plans world’s fastest supercomputer

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Presently, Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer, remains the world’s most powerful computer.

Japan plans to build the world’s fastest-known supercomputer in a bid to arm the country’s manufacturers with a platform for research that could help them develop and improve driverless cars, robotics and medical diagnostics.

The ministry of economy, trade and industry will spend 19.5 billion yen ($173 million) on the previously unreported project, a budget breakdown shows, as part of a government policy to get back Japan’s mojo in the world of technology. The country has lost its edge in many electronic fields amid intensifying competition from South Korea and China, home to the world’s current best-performing machine.

In a move that is expected to vault Japan to the top of the supercomputing heap, its engineers will be tasked with building a machine that can make 130 quadrillion calculations per second—or 130 petaflops in scientific parlance—as early as next year, sources involved in the project told Reuters.

At that speed, Japan’s computer would be ahead of China’s Sunway Taihulight that is capable of 93 petaflops. “As far as we know, there is nothing out there that is as fast,” said Satoshi Sekiguchi, a director general at Japan’s ‎National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, where the computer will be built.

The push to return to the vanguard comes at a time of growing nostalgia for the heyday of Japan’s technological prowess, which has dwindled since China overtook it as the world’s second-biggest economy.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for companies, bureaucrats and the political class to work more closely together so Japan can win in robotics, batteries, renewable energy and other new and growing markets.

Deep learning

In the area of supercomputing, Japan’s aim is to use ultra-fast calculations to accelerate advances in artificial intelligence (AI), such as “deep learning” technology that works off algorithms which mimic the human brain’s neural pathways, to help computers perform new tasks and analyze scores of data.

Recent achievements in this area have come from Google’s DeepMind AI program, AlphaGo, which in March beat South Korean professional Lee Seedol in the ancient board game of Go.

Applications include helping companies improve driverless vehicles by allowing them to analyze huge troves of visual traffic data, or it could help factories improve automation. China uses the Sunway Taihulight for weather forecasting, pharmaceutical research, industrial design, among other things.

Japan’s new supercomputer could help tap medical records to develop new services and applications, Sekiguchi said. The supercomputer will be made available for a fee to Japan’s corporations, who now outsource data crunching to foreign firms such as Google and Microsoft, Sekiguchi and others involved in the project said.

The new computer has been dubbed ABCI, an acronym for AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure. Bidding for the project has begun and will close on 8 December. Fujitsu Ltd, the builder of the fastest Japanese supercomputer to date—the Oakforest-PACS, capable of 13.6 petaflops, declined to say if it would bid for the project. The company has, however, said it is keen to be involved in supercomputer development.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Science/tvHE1Qa3EshJdFSkiqCoxK/Japan-plans-worlds-fastest-supercomputer.html

Tamil Nadu hits top slot in solar power capacity addition as south surges ahead

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Tamil Nadu has now reached Number One position in solar power capacity addition.

India’s total installed solar capacity has grown by over 80 per cent in the last 12 months to reach 8,100 MW.

“Out of the 3,600 MW capacity added during this period, 2,700 MW has come from four southern States – with Tamil Nadu alone adding over 1,200 MW on the back of a generous feed-in-tariff of ₹7.01/kWh. Tamil Nadu now ranks number one for commissioned capacity in both wind and solar,” according to Bridge to India, a global solar energy consulting firm.

The State now ranks No.1 for commissioned capacity in both wind and solar.

As of date, Tamil Nadu leads the solar capacity addition table with an installed capacity of 1,368 MW, followed by Rajasthan (1,307 MW), Gujarat (1,112 MW), Andhra Pradesh (961 MW), Telangana (923 MW) and Madhya Pradesh (756 MW).

Presently, those six States account for 80 per cent of the solar capacity added in India. The remaining 23 States including some of the largest power consuming states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, account for just 20 per cent of the installed capacity.

In the initial phase of solar sector development in India, until 2014, bulk of solar capacity addition came up in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (about 57 per cent). But, the Southern states have taken a decisive lead in the last year, driven primarily by their growing power needs.

According to estimates based on the completed tenders totalling over 14,000 MW, the present trend is likely to continue over the next two years, with the southern States accounting for 60 per cent of this pipeline.

Tamil Nadu has proposed to increase the solar power further to 5,000 MW in a phased manner in the next five years. It plans to add about 1,200 MW of solar units in this fiscal alone, according to a document of state energy department.

The State’s total renewable power capacity is close to 10,000 MW with wind accounting for about 79 per cent of it.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/tamil-nadu-hits-top-slot-in-solar-power-capacity-addition-as-south-surges-ahead/article9018228.ece

S&P: Renewable energy biz high-growth area in India

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Renewable energy business is a high-growth area in India, though falling asset prices and competitive bidding for new power purchase agreements may lead to volatility in returns on investments, S&P Global Ratings said today.

 

“We believe the renewable energy business is a high-growth area in India, given the governments focus on increasing capacities for renewable energy and priority dispatch,” it said in a statement.

 

However, falling asset prices and competitive bidding for new power purchase agreements (PPAs) can expose renewable energy assets to volatility of returns on investments, it said.

 

It added that such assets also face greater volatility of cash flows due to seasonality and inherent uncertainty of wind/hydro/solar patterns, resulting in resource risks.

 

The agency further said that Tata Powers business position is unlikely to materially change after the acquisition of Welspun Renewable Energy.

 

S&P Global Ratings further said that its corporate credit rating on Tata Power Ltd (B+/Stable) is not immediately affected by the company’s acquisition of Welspun Renewable Energy for an enterprise value of Rs 92.49 billion.

 

Tata Power indicated that it intends to maintain leverage at the current improved levels post-acquisition through strategic measures.

 

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/business-newspaper/s-p-renewable-energy-biz-high-growth-area-in-india/story-d7BXtbQVS7YW2RWnGDIjgN.html

India records 10-year low in public-private investments: World Bank

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India recorded a 10-year low in investments in public-private sector in the year 2015, adding to contraction that pulled down the global investment to below its five-year average of $124.1 billion, the World Bank has said.

In its latest annual report, the World Bank said global investment in 2015 decreased to $111.6 billion, below the five-year average of $124.1 billion from 2010 to 2014.

“This contraction resulted from lower investments in Brazil, China and India,” the World Bank said on Monday in its latest report on Private Participation in Infrastructure Database.

“India recorded a 10-year low in investments, as only six road projects — usually a rich source of PPI over the past 10 years – reached financial closure,” the World Bank said.

In South Asia, there were 43 deals for a combined total of $5.6 billion that closed in the region, representing 5 per cent of the total investment — a decline of 82 per cent from the five-year average of $30.5 billion.

“Consistent with historical trends, India generated a majority of the projects (36 out of 43); Pakistan had four; Nepal, two; and Bangladesh, one. Notably, 26 of the 36 projects in India, amounting to $2.0 billion, targeted renewable energy, while all of Pakistan’s projects, totalling $749.9 million, solely focussed on renewables,” the Bank said.

Solar energy investments climbed 72 per cent higher than the last five year average, while renewables attracted nearly two-thirds of investments with private participation, it said.

Global private infrastructure investment in 2015 mostly remained steady at $111.6 billion when compared to the previous year, it said.

Among the most notable, commitments in Brazil were only $4.5 billion in 2015 — a sharp decline from $47.2 billion the previous year, reversing a trend of growing investments, it said.

“Investment in China also fell significantly below its 5-, 10-, and 20-year averages, as the average transaction dropped to $63 million,” it said.

By number of projects, however, these three historical heavyweights took the lead, with 131 of the 300 global deals, or 44 per cent of all projects.

Still their combined investment of $11.6 billion only made up 10 per cent of the global total, compared to 54 per cent in 2014, which was also the annual average over the previous four years.

According to the World Bank, global private infrastructure investment in 2015, though on par with the previous year, was 10 per cent lower than the previous five-year average because of dwindling commitments in China, Brazil, and India.

“The data finds that investments in other emerging economies increased rapidly to $99.9 billion, representing a 92 per cent year-over-year increase,” said Clive Harris, Practice Manager, Public-Private Partnerships, World Bank Group.