CERC Approves Tariffs for SECI’s 600 MW Wind-Solar Hybrid Projects

MNRE Issues Guidelines for Installation of Prototype Wind Turbines 

Rajasthan Issues Draft Intrastate Transmission System Connectivity Regulations

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Torrent Green Energy Wins SECI’s 600 MW Wind Auction

Power Ministry Proposes Sale, Lease, Renting of Energy Storage Systems

NHPC Issues Tender for 2.5 MW Rooftop Solar Projects in Nagaland

NTPC Raises $750 Million via External Commercial Borrowing

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					</table>Solar module prices in the U.S. dropped to a near record low of $0.25 per watt from November 2024 to February 2025, according to a report by <a href="https://www.anzarenewables.com/solar-module-pricing-insights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anza Renewables</a>. The company noted that module prices declined steadily through November 2024 from last summer’s highs of $0.28 per watt.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-79145 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/parth-1.1.png" alt="" width="898" height="550" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/parth-1.1.png 898w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/parth-1.1-300x184.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/parth-1.1-768x470.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/parth-1.1-650x398.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/parth-1.1-624x382.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/parth-1.1-600x367.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 898px) 100vw, 898px" />
Prices increased by 4% between December 2024 and January 2025. This increase occurred due to the market pricing recalibration in response to President Trump’s tariff policies, forcing expectations to reset after months of gradual declines.
In March this year, Trump <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/trump-ends-support-for-solar-manufacturing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rescinded</a> an order of the previous administration that designated solar photovoltaics as elements of national security under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act.
Module prices leveled by February because of growing uncertainty over future tariff adjustments and policy debates.
The report states that the market is navigating complex shifts caused by evolving trade policies and buyer caution despite a 2% price increase since November.
Mono PERC
The recent market shifts benefited the mono-passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) cell suppliers. This development occurred because of the ongoing tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) patent litigation among multiple Tier-1 suppliers.
TOPCon
Customer concerns over possible disruptions in TOPCon supply drove some of them to prefer Mono PERC modules. This preference change increased module prices by 4.2% since November to $0.25 per watt.
The report highlights that even though domestic cell suppliers reacted strongly to the litigations, many consumers do not view them as high risk. Therefore, the report does not consider litigation risks as the sole factor behind the consumers’ purchase decisions.
The median TOPCon module pricing remained steady at $0.26 per watt during the reference period.
Many consumers prefer TOPCon modules for their performance despite the potential retroactive litigation fines. TOPCon modules’ pricing is aligning more closely with MONO PERC notwithstanding the slight shift in market sentiment. This preference again highlights that legal issues are not causing mass TOPCon avoidance.
HJT
According to the report, heterojunction technology (HJT) module pricing decreased by 2.9% during the reference period. The decrease in HJT price reflects the pressures on TOPCon and Mono PERC modules.
HJT module manufacturers are likely testing their product pricing to discover the price point matching the advantages of higher efficiency, lower temperature coefficients, and reduced cold condition performance losses.
<a href="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-79146 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa.png" alt="" width="810" height="436" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa.png 810w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa-300x161.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa-768x413.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa-650x350.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa-624x336.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ascsaa-600x323.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px" /></a>
Cell Origins
Cells sourced from tariff-affected countries, including Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, drove a 7.7% price increase for modules using these components. Meanwhile, pricing for solar modules using cells from non-Southeast Asian nations decreased by 0.8% as buyers pivoted towards regions less impacted by the .
Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-steep-anti-dumping-solar-imports-southeast-asia">announced</a> its final determinations in the anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations concerning crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The widening solar cell price range between Southeast Asian nations and other countries underscores market pricing sensitivity to geopolitical trade policies.
Consumers are reconsidering their solar cell sources to diversify strategically and mitigate geopolitical risks.
<a href="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-79147 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd.png" alt="cell origin pricing history " width="811" height="415" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd.png 811w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd-300x154.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd-768x393.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd-650x333.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd-624x319.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/jhc-asjd-600x307.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 811px) 100vw, 811px" /></a>
Anza Renewables said it used median distributed generation list prices from more than 35 module vendors for this report. This sample size covers over 95% of the U.S. module supply.

US Solar Module Prices Dropped to $0.25/W Between November and February 2025

The installations of wind power projects in India has decelerated, with only 2.3 GW installed in 2019, according to the <a href="https://gwec.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Global Wind Energy Council</a> (GWEC).
“That is around half of the 4.1 GW of volume installed in 2017 and reflects slow execution when held against the 12 GW of capacity awarded in central and state tenders since 2017,” states GWEC.
India is the world’s fourth-largest onshore wind market by installations, with 37.5 GW of capacity as of 2019. GWEC has pointed out that India’s wind sector and installations have been traditionally erratic and highly sensitive to policy changes. Further, it states that after the introduction of central auctions, which transformed the wind procurement mechanism in the country, the market entered a state of limbo.
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19687" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1.png" alt="Wind Installation Forecast &amp; Scenarios" width="1024" height="724" srcset="https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1.png 1024w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1-300x212.png 300w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1-768x543.png 768w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1-650x460.png 650w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1-624x441.png 624w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MEC-1-1024x724-1-600x424.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Previously, it <a href="https://mercomindia.com/india-achieve-wind-target-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">analyzed</a> the factors that led to a dip in the growth of India’s wind sector in the past two years.
GWEC has also listed seven key characteristics of the wind market in India:
<ul>
<li>The market will be inherently large and lumpy in installations</li>
<li>The demand is strong, and economics support wind capacity</li>
<li>The activity is muted in the market</li>
<li>The current orders are over 8 GW in the project pipeline</li>
<li>The issues choking actualization of existing and creation of a new pipeline</li>
<li>The government is actively resolving issues</li>
<li>The growth is likely to be lopsided.</li>
</ul>
The report noted that the Indian wind market has conventionally had fluctuating capacity additions, being highly sensitive to policy changes. Nearly 13 GW is expected to be installed in the next three years; however, the deployment will be unevenly distributed across years, geographies, and the market mechanism.
The demand for wind originates from non-RPO compliance by state DISCOMs, underlined GWEC. Nearly ~20 GW of demand exists in the market in terms of unfulfilled non-solar RPOs towards 2022. Economically, as well, wind auction bid prices are 30-40% lower than the average pooled power procurement cost (APPC) for the majority of states in India. So, demand and price are the fundamental drivers of wind support in India, added the report.
According to GWEC, although the tenders in 2017-18 were oversubscribed, in 2019, tenders couldn’t get much interest.
Wind installations levels have significantly declined after the reverse auction mechanism was <a href="https://mercomindia.com/advent-reverse-auctions-wind-player/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">introduced</a> in the wind sector after several years of growth. Before the auctions were introduced, wind projects were mostly developed by private companies for captive consumption or sale to the state. But all of this changed in 2017 when the reverse auction was introduced. The growth after the introduction of auctions has been disappointing as low bids and tariff caps have reduced participation of bidders resulting in under subscription in many of the tenders.
Several factors have led to the decline in the activity in this sector, including issues in the grid, land availability, payment delays for renewable projects, and a slowdown in the signing of power supply agreements. Furthermore, pricing expectations have remained aggressive. “The half-hearted attempts of state markets to revive demand and conduct auctions have largely been unsuccessful,” according to the report.
As <a href="https://mercomindia.com/2-07-wind-power-capacity-installed-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported previously</a> by Mercom, delay in the availability of land, grid curtailment, and issues in timely payments continue to drag on the existing wind pipeline.
Despite low uptake in the latest auctions, nearly 8.6 GW of active orders can be seen in India, said GWEC. The majority of the orders are from the 8-9 central auctions conducted between 2017-2019, while states contribute less than 11% of the active orders, given the low auctioning activity. Out of 8.6 GW, 3 GW is scheduled for commissioning in 2020, 5.2 GW in 2021, and 0.4 GW in 2022.
It added that the government is also planning a 25 GW plug-and-play wind park for wind capacity to resolve issues of land and grid and provide long-term volume visibility.
However, it states that the growth will be lopsided, primarily because the government’s resolutions came in late, as the outcome of projects scheduled for commissioning in 2020 and 2021 has been largely decided.
“These projects will be impacted by the fault-lines that started emerging in 2017 around grid, land, aggressive pricing, financing and sales agreements,” GWEC added.
GWEC had earlier <a href="https://mercomindia.com/india-achieve-wind-target-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">forecasted</a> that the total cumulative installations are expected to reach 50 GW in 2020-21.

Government Agencies Driving the Growth of Wind Installations in India: GWEC

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