May 21, 2015: India is set to double its installed capacity of solar power this year as a new forecast done by the Mercom Capital Group. It revealed that more than 2GW capacity will be installed in 2015, compared to 1GW installed in 2014. This forecast came to the fore following some recent developments in Tamil Nadu. Latest reports have revealed that the state’s public body responsible for the distribution of electricity, Tamil Nadu Generation and Corporation, has signed several power purchase agreements (PPAs) recently. Reports have also confirmed that a total of 400MW of PPAs have been signed in the state with a project commissioning due date of September 2015.
Additionally, what has come across as an incentive and an even bigger push towards the growth of the Indian solar sector is the addition of renewable energy under priority lending but with a cap of Rs150 million for renewable energy generators and Rs1 million per borrower for residential customers by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). However, Mercom highlighted the flip side of the situation, saying that the impact of this policy would be minimal in the short term because the Indian solar market mostly contains large-scale projects at the moment.
