NSEFI Partners with SolarPower Europe For India Specific ‘solar deployment guidelines’

The National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) and SolarPower Europe have jointly published the best practice guidelines for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of solar power projects in India. The effort is supported by the ‘EU-India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership.’

The published material – ‘EPC Best Practice Guidelines: India Edition’ – is a product of the joint Indian-European EPC Taskforce that was established last year, assembling 31 leading solar experts from both regions.

The guidelines are largely based on the first edition of SolarPower Europe’s ‘EPC Best Practice Guidelines: Europe Edition.’ The recommendations have been adjusted to reflect the market and business conditions in India by taking the unique aspects of the country into account.

This India Edition of EPC Best Practice Guidelines includes key national legislation on occupational health, ensuring EPC service providers are aware of their obligations towards their staff. The guidelines also give details on where to acquire the relevant environmental consents for solar PV projects.

The EPC guidelines have a special focus on financing. It highlights the important aspects of the finance architecture in India, detailing what bonds and bank guarantees EPC service providers need to issue. Similarly, the guidelines have been adapted to include the relevant Indian standards governing component quality, and more detailed best practice recommendations on the handover of monitoring software to O&M service providers.

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, mentions, “India is the fifth largest solar market in the world, with 45 GW of solar capacity. As SolarPower Europe is pleased to work with our partners at NSEFI and the EU-India CECP to support the high-quality deployment of India’s solar fleet.”

Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, CEO of NSEFI, adds, “As India transitions from Government Driven Demand to Market Driven Demand it is imperative to establish industry accepted standards and best practices to ensure proliferation of quality solar installations.”

The EU-India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership wants to reinforce cooperation between EU and India on clean energy and climate change. NSEFI is an umbrella organization of all solar energy stakeholders of India and it works in the area of policy advocacy in a complimentary manner with the Central and State Governments for achieving India’s national solar target of 100 GW by 2022 & renewable target of 450 GW by 2030.