SBG Cleantech, a joint venture of the Japanese SoftBank Corp, Foxconn and Bharti Enterprises, has won an NTPC bid to put up 350 MW of solar projects in Andhra Pradesh and sell the electricity to NTPC at a tariff of Rs 4.63 a kWhr.
Incidentally, the same tariff was quoted last month in another NTPC tender by SunEdison. The American company won 500 MW.
SBG Cleantech beat the nearest bidder Yarrow Infrastructure Ltd (of IndiaBulls) by one paise. American company Azure Power India (Rs 4.76), Reliance CleanGen Ltd (Rs 4.88), ReNew Solar Power (Rs 5.17) and Mira Zavas (Rs 5.18) were other bidders. Mirz Zavas is of the Chinese solar major, Trina.
SBG Cleantech also participated in last month’s bid, but had lost. SoftBank Corp, a Japanese telecommunications and internet major, made news in July when it said it would partner with Bharti and Foxconn to form a joint venture that would invest $20 billion in the Indian solar sector. SoftBank said it would bring $10 billion to the table from its kitty.
With this win, SoftBank has stepped into the Indian solar sector.