Mercom Capital Raises India 2015 Solar Installations Prediction To 2 GW

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Global communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital announced that it is raising its solar installation forecast for India in 2015, up to 2 GW.

The news comes in the wake of the oncoming next round of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) Phase II Batch 2 program for 3,000 MW, which Mercom believes “could be announced any day according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).” As we have seen here at CleanTechnica, India is regularly seeing new solar programs, goals, and policies enacted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“While all of these announcements have raised market sentiments, the Indian solar industry is looking for a streamlined auction process at regular intervals to better plan investments and manufacturing capacity,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group.

Mercom-8

Mercom have released its revised predictions for 2015 following “several important developments in the last three months” which include “a positive announcement by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to include renewable energy under priority lending, but with a cap.” As the authors of Mercom’s India Solar Market Update note, “this will not affect large-scale projects a great deal, but it is an important first step none the less.”

“We commend the government for this decision which is a step in the right direction,” added Prabhu. “We urge them now to consider increasing the cap in order to benefit large-scale projects which will greatly accelerate the implementation and execution of solar installations in the country.”

Other key findings from the India Solar Market Update include, but are not limited to:

  • The Indian solar industry is still waiting for implementation and execution of various solar programs that have been announced over the last 12 months
  • SECI recently announced another government program to establish 2,000 MW of solar PV projects with sizes of 500 MW and 250 MW on an EPC basis
  • The MNRE has proposed a subsidy cut on rooftop solar power plants to 15 percent from the current level of 30 percent
  • The MNRE newly announced goal says 40 GW out of 100 GW by 2020 to come from rooftop PV

It was also announced earlier this week by the Indian Minister for Coal, Power, and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, that a detailed plan on how the current Indian government plans to install an additional 97 GW worth of solar power capacity over the next seven years.

Similarly, the Solar Energy Corporation of India announced earlier this month that it had signed agreements with 7 state governments in India to develop 9.85 GW worth of solar PV, including the most recent 600 MW capacity set to be developed across four solar PV projects in Uttar Pradesh.


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Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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