Wednesday, January 29, 2014: India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has brought out data on solar plant performance in December 2013. The figure include the nation’s first concentrating solar power (CSP) plant under the National Solar Mission, along with solar photovoltaic (PV) plants. Godawari Green Energy Ltd.’s (Chhatisgarh, India) 50 MW CSP plant has only reported a 9.99% capacity utilization factor (CUF) over the month.
According to solarserver.com, CUFs for PV plants have seen a low decline from highs in September 2013. The NSM Phase 1 plants have reported 16–22% CUFs Plants starting under both batch 1 and batch 2 of phase 1 of the National Solar Mission came in at 16–22 per cent, with three outliers, two of which were over the range of 23.71 per cent and 23.95 per cent. Same as in last months, the batch 2 projects have shown slightly higher performances. The nine Migration Scheme projects have once again shown trouble with four at 20–23 per cent. The other three reported CUFs of 10–14 per cent, with no data from two. One of the three low-performing plants have reported a 18.67 per cent CUF in November 2013.
The rooftop and Small Solar Power Generation Program (RPSSGP) plants have mainly reported CUFs in the 11–22% range, with three of the 46 reporting 9–10 pr CUFs.
