Indian Oil follows billionaires Ambani, Adani in green hydrogen bet

 

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., the country's greatest oil purifier and a huge client of hydrogen, will cooperate with top sustainable power maker ReNew Power and Larsen and Toubro Ltd. to deliver green hydrogen that is quick picking up speed in the South Asian country's perfect push.
The three organizations have marked a limiting term sheet to together foster green hydrogen projects, while the state-run purifier and the designing significant will shape a different association for making electrolyzers for green hydrogen, as per a joint assertion from the three firms. The association will zero in on green hydrogen projects at Indian Oil's Mathura and Panipat treatment facilities in northern India.

Green hydrogen, created from water and green power and considered the cleanest type of fuel, is an expected way to decarbonize weighty businesses, like steel, concrete and petroleum processing plants. India, the world's third-greatest producer of ozone harming substances, plans to start to lead the pack and has won help from its most extravagant tycoons, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. India means to deliver 5 million tons of green hydrogen by 2030, when its interest for hydrogen is assessed at 12 million tons.

India's treatment facilities consume around 2,000,000 tons of hydrogen yearly, quite a bit of it by the Indian Oil bunch, which holds 33% of the country's oil handling limit. Indian Oil is as of now pursuing delivering 70,000 tons per year of green hydrogen by 2030, which will represent 10% of its general utilization at that point. Processing plants regularly use hydrogen for the expulsion of sulfur from energizes like diesel.

Solar glass shortage threatens China's plans to be carbon neutral by 2060

 

The world's greatest sunlight based force organization says a lack of glass is raising expenses and deferring creation of new boards, messing up China's arrangements to quicken its work day to clean power.

Costs for glass that coats photovoltaic boards have risen 71% since July, and makers are battling to deliver it sufficiently quick to keep over seven days of deals in stock, as per Daiwa Capital Markets. The lack comes as the sun based industry moves in the direction of bifacial boards, which increment both force yield and glass prerequisites.

Sunlight based board makers like Longi Green Energy Technology Co. have asked the legislature in China, home to most sun powered assembling, to address the circumstance by favoring new processing plants. In any case value climbs hazard making sun based force too costly and stopping the business' energy.

"On the off chance that sunlight based force generators consider sun oriented to be as uneconomical, they will defer putting resources into new activities and that will haul down sun powered interest," said Charles Jiang, senior supervisor of the flexibly chain the executives place at Longi, the world's greatest sun based organization by market capitalization. "Sunlight based force plant benefits will dip under worthy levels without government appropriations if glass producers proceed to push up the expenses."

In 2018, with the energy escalated and contaminating glass industry looking over-limit issues, China's legislature restricted organizations from adding new creation limit. Longi and five other major sun oriented organizations on Tuesday met with government authorities and offered for them to eliminate the limitations, at any rate for sunlight based glass.

Bifacial Panels

Glass request includes additionally been ascending inside the sun based industry due to the expanding noticeable quality of bifacial boards, which cover both the top and base with glass, considering a slight uptick in power age from daylight reflected off the ground. Such boards are required to make up a large portion of the market in 2022, up from about 14% a year ago, as per examiners at Sunwah Kingsway.

Tariff for round-the-clock solar power is competitive: ReNew's Sumant Sinha

India’s first tender to provide round-the-clock (RTC) solar power was won last week by Goldman Sachs-promoted ReNew Power, which quoted a tariff of Rs 2.9 per unit (kwh) for the complete capacity of 400 Mw offered by the government.
The tender is unique in several ways. Unlike the nature of solar to run for a few day-time hours, this project would provide power for 24 hours. For this purpose, the tender had proposed that solar power would either be blended with other sources such as wind or hydro, or would have an energy storage system. To include that cost in the project, the tender provided for 3 per cent escalation in the tariff annually for 15 years. Industry experts said the average tariff would land around Rs 3.6 per unit.
Speaking with Business Standard, Sumant Sinha, Founder & CEO, ReNew Power said the tariff quoted for the project is not high, rather it is very competitive. “I would say the number (average tariff) is lower than what you what you are mentioning (Rs 3.6/unit). To provide that kind of firmness of power, you do have consider certain issues that you have to take care of,” he said.
At Rs 3.6 per unit, the tariff is closer to the average rate of thermal power in India. This RTC tender was floated by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to supply power from solar power plant all around the day. SECI is the nodal tendering agency under the ministry of new and renewable energy. The project will have 80 per cent plant load factor (operational capacity).
Sinha further added, “For example, procurers won’t buy more than 100 per cent power from you. But in the designing of the plant, you end up with times when the power generation is more than 100 per cent. We have to account for conditions such as these. That is why the tariff has been so aggressive. But it was quite lower than what the government was expecting,” Sinha said.

He also said the capital cost of most companies is higher than what regulators assume in their calculations. This therefore increases the discounting rate that the companies take. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) in the tariff determination of renewable power, provide for a discounting rate, which is the ‘post-tax weighted average cost of capital’ or the cost of capital over the period of the project. This rate is higher than the capital cost and is added to the total bid amount quoted by a company.

Solar installation stood at 8.3 GW in 2018, Adani top project developer

Company News

India’s solar installations stood at 8.3 GW in 2018. The installations include large-scale and rooftop solar capacity. The country’s cumulative solar capacity is around 28 GW as of 2018.

Much has changed in the Indian solar industry over the last year. There was some re-shuffling when it came to suppliers after the imposition of the safeguard duty while others have consolidated their positions, says Industry representative, said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.

Mercom Communications India's report finds that the top 10 large-scale developers accounted for 60 per cent of the market share in 2018.

In terms of cumulative installations, Adani maintained its position as the top project developer, while ACME Solar was the developer with the most large-scale solar installations in 2018. Adani was the second largest developer in 2018.

Around 80 large-scale project developers with a pipeline of 5 MW or more in India. ACME Solar had the largest project pipeline at the end of 2018 closely followed by SB Energy (SoftBank) and Azure Power.

In 2018, the top 10 rooftop solar installers accounted for just 30 per cent of the installed capacity in India, reflecting the fragmented nature of the sector, said Mercom.

Rooftop installations grew 66 per cent year-over-year (YoY) with cumulative installations totaling nearly 3.3 GW at the end of 2018. Rooftop solar installations for 2018 amounted to 1.7 GW.


 Among rooftop installers, Tata Power led cumulative installations while CleanMax Solar was the top rooftop installer in 2018.ABB continues to lead solar inverter supply in the Indian market cumulatively and in 2018.

Solar panels floating on liquid waste: How a mine in Chile powers itself

International News

Chile has found another use for dams that hold the liquid waste from massive copper-mining operations: power generation.

Calling it the first project of its kind in the world, Anglo American Plc has installed 256 photovoltaic panels at the tailings dam for its Los Bronces complex in Chile. The panels are floating atop the sometimes-toxic ground minerals and effluents blasted out of rocks dug up at the mine.

The pilot project is expected to generate 150,000 kilowatt-hours a year and help power the operations there, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

While it’s not much electricity in the grand scheme of things, Chile Mining Minister Baldo Prokurica hailed the solar project as yet another example of how the country -- the world’s largest copper producer -- is leading the way in improving how miners treat waste. Chile was the first to ban so-called upstream dams, which are cheaper to maintain but have led to deadly accidents, such as the collapse of one at a Vale SA mine in Brazil that killed at least 180 people in January.

“We are advancing toward a more sustainable mining activity by actively developing new solutions and stimulating other ways of thinking and working,” said Patricio Chacana, vice president of operations at Los Bronces.

The panels at Los Bronces were specially designed to resist the extreme conditions of the Andes mountains where the mine sits.


  At 3,400 meters (more than 11,000 feet) above sea level, the area is constantly hit with snow and heavy rains. The panels can withstand winds of 210 kilometers (130 miles) an hour, according to the company.