Bosch Solar, a unit of German company Bosch, will soon electrify villages in India.
The €788-million solar division of Bosch has implemented a micro-grid based solar power project of 5 kW at a village in Bihar, jointly with NGOs, and is working on more such rural electrification projects in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, said Mr C. M. Venugopalan, Sales Director, Solar Energy Division at Bosch Ltd.
The pilot project (funded by Bosch’s solar division) in a local market in Bihar’s Tamkuha village supplies about 15 units of electricity everyday, powering over 50 shops, the company said.
Bosch entered the solar energy segment in India in June last year. It is present across the value chain and manufactures silicon, ingots, solar cells, and modules, besides executing power projects.
Rooftop projects
Rural electrification apart, Bosch will focus on executing commercial and industrial rooftop solar solutions in India.
A certified partner of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the company can get the Ministry’s 30 per cent subsidy for rooftop projects, Mr Venugopalan said.
Grid-connected
“The company is in the final stage of executing a few such projects in Gujarat of about 100 kW capacity,” he said.
The company also provides EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) services where it designs, procures equipment and sets up plants for power project developers. Bosch Solar has executed a one-MW grid-connected solar power project in Gujarat, and also expects to “set up a couple of more 1 MW-scale projects in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan by the end of this year,” Mr Venugopalan said.
For the grid-connected power projects, the company would have some projects under the Renewable Energy Certificates scheme, Mr Venugopalan said. REC scheme is one where producers of renewable energy that opt out of the preferential feed-in tariff get tradable certificates.
The certificates can be bought by specified ‘obligated entities’ that are either specified consumers or electricity distribution companies.
The RECs can be traded on the energy exchanges.