Energetica India Magazine nº88 March-April 2020

14 energetica INDIA- March-April_2020 Fourth Partner, Lithium Urban Partners for Setting Up Solar-Powered EV Charging Infra Pan-India Fourth Partner Energy and Lithium Ur- ban Technologies has announced that they have arrived into a partnership to build solar-powered charging infra- structure across India. The joint venture, ShuchiAnantVirya, has launched its first EV charging hub in Gurugram, which can charge 25-30 cars at the same time. Shuchi is a 50:50 JV, with an equity capital of Rs 20 crore. “Each of the parties have committed to about Rs 10 crore towards this JV, which will be de- ployed over the next two to three years. With this we plan to establish 10-15 charging hubs across metros such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai in the next three years,” Vinayak Kathare, business head at SAV said. He further that Fourth Partner would be accountable for obtaining of power at lowest possible cost and exploiting the contribution of renewables in the supply for EV charging through onsite and offsite solar as well as renewable energy trading options. Lithium will be accountable for providing the base de- mand for this JV. According to a joint statement deliv- ered by the companies, the second fa- cility in Pune has been commissioned, with a capacity to charge 40 cars con- currently. This will be India’s largest EV charging hub for four-wheelers. And will also have facilities to charge high- er-end passenger vehicles as well as electric buses. The Gurugram facility will be used pri- marily to charge Lithium’s fleet to Wi - pro and American Express. “The glob- al transition to electric mobility can be considered truly green only when the increased demand for energy is met by clean, renewable sources...,” said Vivek Subramanian, co-founder and executive director at Fourth Partner Energy. The company has a Pan-India portfolio of 370 megawatt of solar assets. India’s Installed Rooftop Solar Capacity Stands at 1,922 MW: RK Singh The country’s rooftop solar energy ca- pacity now stands at 1,922 megawatt (MW) and subsequently Rs 1,874 crore has been released as central financial assistance towards installation of ca- pacities in the sector, Parliament was informed. Till March 13, 2020, rooftop solar power plants of an aggregate ca- pacity of 1,922 MW have been installed in the country, of which 346 MW have been installed in the residential sector, Minister of New and Renewable Energy R K Singh said, citing ministry data. He further said “so far as on 12.03.2020, an amount of approximately Rs 1874.39 crore has been released to various im- plementing agencies, i.e; state nodal agencies, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) Limited, power distributing companies (DISCOMs), PSUs (public sector undertakings), government de- partments etc. under the rooftop solar programme as central financial assis - tance (CFA)/incentives inclusive of CFA towards residential sector.” To increase installation of residential so- lar rooftop systems, he said government is taking various measures, including in- centives for the DISCOMs for achieve- ment of additional capacity, assisting states in development of online portal and aggregation of demand related to rooftop solar projects. The government is also providing CFA of 20 per cent of benchmark cost or ten- der cost, whichever is lower, for group housing societies/resident welfare as- sociations for supply of power for com- mon facilities under the phase II of Grid Connected Rooftop (GCRT) solar pro- gramme, he said. NEWS NEWS