Thursday, October 03, 2013: India may soon be auctioning licenses for the construction of 750 mega watts of solar power plants. According to reports, the join secretary for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Tarun Kapoor, said that the Ministry is waiting for approval from the Cabinet to invite the bids.
Reports say that the announcement for the auction may be made within the next 10 days and is held for about 45 days after the announcement. “The bidding documents are all ready. Cabinet approval is expected very soon,” Bloomberg Business Week quoted Kapoor as saying.
Since the country began auctioning for licenses in its National Solar Mission of 2010, companies like Welspun Group and Sunborne Energy Holdings LLC have constructed 1,839 mega watts of solar capacity in the country. This has reduced the average costs by around 51 per cent since 2010. India’s program is aimed at reducing the cost of solar power to the same level as other forms of electricity that is supplied through grids.
According to reports, the government has offered Rs 25 million per mega watt for projects ranging between 10 mega watts and 50 mega watts. The ministry is currently awaiting the approval from the government to start the auction, which is going to account for over 30 per cent of the project costs.
If the Cabinet fails to approve the auction before the announcement of the state assembly elections in Delhi, then the Ministry will have to take the approval from the Election Commission.
