India offers 8GW of wind and solar capacity in June

The projects are on a build-operate-own basis.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has launched three tenders for a total of 8 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity in late June.

The large-scale projects are in accordance with the Indian government’s policy of offering massive volumes of solar and wind energy capacities for qualified bidders.

The first tender, launched on 22 June, involved the country’s first wind-solar hybrid project, with an aggregate capacity of 2500MW.

The second tender, released on 29 June, featured 3000 MW of solar power projects. This is part of the Indian government’s goal of achieving a cumulative capacity of 100 GW Solar PV installation by 2022, the SECI said.

Under the terms of the tender, SECI shall enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with successful solar power developers for a period of 25 years, with the maximum tariff payable to the developer fixed at INR 2.93/ kWh for the period.

The third tender, released on 30 June, involved 2500MW of wind projects. This is in line with the government’s target of installing 60GW of wind power by 2022.

India’s wind power sector boasts the highest growth amongst the other renewable energy technologies in recent years. The present wind power installed capacity in the country is nearly 32.5 GW, sharing around 9% of total installed capacity.

Globally, India is at 4th position in terms of wind power installed capacity after China, USA and Germany. The country’s wind power potential is estimated to be over 302 GW.