Govt seeks bids for 300 megawatt of solar projects with storage

New Delhi: India has invited its first-ever bids for solar energy projects that include storage as a requirement as part of a trial program aimed at making the renewable resource a more reliable source of power.

Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI), the implementing agency for clean-energy projects, sought bids for 300 megawatts of solar power to be built in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in an advertisement in a local newspaper on 20 July.

SECI is seeking bids for two projects of 50 megawatt each in Andhra Pradesh with a battery energy storage system of 5 megawatt/2.5 megawatt-hour attached. In Karnataka, it has invited bids for four solar projects of 50 megawatt each with the same storage specifications.

The cost of the project will go up only marginally since the size of the storage component being sought is small, Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary at the ministry of new and renewable energy, said by phone on Friday.

“A ₹ 500 crore solar project will become costlier only by about ₹ 10 crore and the government is also extending support,” he said.

The sale of tender documents will begin on 25 July and the last date for submitting bids for the Andhra Pradesh projects is 8 September and for Karnataka is 9 September.

India targets clean energy capacity of 175 gigawatts by 2022 from 45 gigawatts at present. Bloomberg