India’s
largest power generating company, NTPC Limited, is on an expansive spree to launch solar power tenders under the country’s National Solar Mission. Yet
another large-scale solar power tender has been launched by NTPC Limited to set up a solar power park in
the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The tender will involve allocation of
six solar power projects with 125 MW capacities each.
NTPC
has successfully allocated projects in several large-scale solar power parks in
the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and most recently, Rajasthan. All these
tenders are part of the National Solar Mission.
The
last three auctions by NTPC – two in Andhra Pradesh and one in Rajasthan – have
brought down solar power tariffs to record low levels. An auction of 500 MW
capacity in Andhra Pradesh, results for which were announced in early November
2015, saw SunEdison secure the entire capacity at a historic low tariff of Rs 4.63/kWh (US¢6.91/kWh).
A
month later, SB Energy (a three-way joint venture company between SoftBank,
Foxconn, and Bharti Enterprises) matched this tariff to secure part of the 350 MW
capacities on offer.
Earlier
this year, NTPC announced results of yet another tender where 420 MW capacity
was on offer. The solar power park is set to come up in the north-western state
of Rajasthan. Another foreign project developer pushed the tariff to fresh low of Rs 4.34/kWh (US¢6.5/kWh).
A
number of these solar power parks are part of India’s ultra mega solar power
programme wherein over 2 dozen solar power projects will be set up across
various states. The combined installed capacity of these projects will be
around 20 GW. The programme is critical to India’s target to have 100 GW of
operational solar power capacity by March 2022.
Original Post: Saurabh Mahapatra
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