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The manufacturing-linked solar power project tender floated by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has finally been over-subscribed.
Sources in the know said that Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), Azure Power and Navyuga Engineering Company have bid for developing 2,000 MW of solar power equipment manufacturing capacity against an offered capacity of 1,000 MW by SECI.
AGEL has submitted a bid of developing 1,000 MW manufacturing and 4,000 MW of projects, Azure has submitted a bid for 500 MW manufacturing and 2,000 MW projects and Navyug has submitted a bid to develop 500 MW manufacturing and 2,000 MW of projects.
“Now a reverse auction on the tariff is to begin between the qualified bidders in couple of weeks. The first technical bids will be opened in couple of days...The execution of this tender is estimated to lead to an investment in manufacturing of close to Rs 6,000 crore, and a total investment of Rs 35,000 crore may be needed to complete all the bid commitments,” one of the bidders told BusinessLine .
Under the bids called by SECI, bidders were to set up a solar power equipment (cells, modules and panel) manufacturing facility in addition to the solar power generation project.
Attracting bidders
This bid had faced multiple extensions due to a poor response from project developers.
In what appears as a last ditch effort to encourage bidders, a higher ceiling tariff that will be payable to the project developers was allowed. The maximum tariff payable to the solar developer has been increased to Rs 2.93 a unit from Rs 2.75 a unit.
In another move that may have attracted bidders, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has also offered financing options for those developing these projects.
The idea of a manufacturing linked tender is to curtail India’s imports of its solar module requirement from China, leading to a forex outflow of around $ 10 billion per year.
According to industry estimates, India imports 95 per cent of its solar module requirements.
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