The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has issued a tender for setting up 1.07 GW grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects in Rajasthan, India. The projects would be developed on a build-own-operate (BOO) model. The selection of the developers would happen through an e-reverse auction. Furthermore, the Rajasthan government has provided a free-hand to the developers to choose the project site anyom?where in the state and STU substation for connecting to the grid. These measures are likely to provide flexibility to the developers in selecting the desired sites for the projects and speed-up the development process, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The developers have the permission to submit one bid, with a minimum bid size of 10 MW maximizing to 1,070 MW. In line with this, SECI would enter into a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the successful bidder and sell the power procured to Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam Limited. The projects have a commissioning period of 18 months from the effective date of the PPA.

Ankit Mathur, Practice Head at GlobalData, comments: “Solar PV has been enjoying the preferential status in order to secure energy security and transit towards greener power generation promoting decarbonisation. Solar PV and Wind together  form more than 83% of the installed renewable power capacity and their share in the renewable capacity mix is likely to reach over 90% by 2030. Indian state of Rajasthan has been blessed with vast solar PV resources and has been considered as the top state harnessing and deploying the solar PV technology. The state clearly stated its vision for inclusion of solar PV in the state generation mix by achieving a target of 30 GW of solar PV capacity by 2025.”

Of this 30 GW, utility or grid-scale projects will account for 24 GW, distributed generation is expected to be around 4 GW, the solar rooftop of about 1 GW, and solar pumps will make up the remaining 1 GW. Already commissioned projects won’t be considered, however, developers of projects under construction or that are not yet commissioned can apply for their projects as long as the projects are not already acknowledged under any other central or state schemes.

Mathur concludes: “The cells and modules procured by the developers shall be sourced only from the manufacturers included in the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM), avoiding incorrect qualification of manufacturers. ALMM is expected to assist the industry to attain enhanced module performance and diminished degradation rates. In turn, this might also lower the tariffs, considering an extended usable product lifecycle for the projects.”