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India to invite bidding for largest Solar Power Project; aims to achieve a capacity addition of 10,000 MW by 2017

India is about to launch the largest bidding of solar power projects worth 1,500 MW under its flagship Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). In what the government officials claim is the first success story of converging the three energy ministries vis-a-vis coal, power and renewable energy, solar power would be bundled with conventional power at such a huge scale in one go.

The bidding, which is a part of second batch of the phase 2 of JNNSM, aims to achieve a capacity addition of 10,000 MW by 2017. The government tendered 750 MW of solar power projects in January this year as part of this phase. While the current solar power capacity of the country is 2,600 MW, government hopes to cross 20,000 MW by 2022.The solar power produced in this phase would be bundled with the existing unallocated quota of conventional power. The pooled power would be sold at an average rate to the distribution companies, who shy away from procuring solar power citing it to be costly.

The bundling of power and its sale would be handled by NVVN (NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam), the power trading arm of power generation giant National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC). NVVN officials said that the average cost of bundled power would be around INR 4-4.5 per unit. "We are also hoping that big names in the power sector would bid for huge capacities.

Source-On Request