A solar auction for 130MW of large-scale PV in the Indian state of Rajasthan has seen the winning bids return to extreme lows of (AUD) 8c/kWh (INR 4.35/kWh, USD 0.065) this week.
By Baishakhi Dutta
The auction, held by India’s largest utility, NTPC, was for capacity outside solar parks and the three successful players, namely, Shapoorji Pallonji, Mahindra Susten and Adani were all Indian firms.
The three bids came in just a touch higher than the lowest ever solar bid in India, which came from Finland’s Fortum Finnsurya Energy at a price of INR4.34/kWh – also for capacity in Rajasthan.
The world’s record lowest ever large-scale solar bid – below (USD) 3c/kWh ($US30/MWh) – was recorded in Dubai, in a May auction for 800MW of solar capacity.
The record low bid came from a monopoly comprising Abu Dhabi renewable energy developer Masdar and Spanish developer FRV, which was acquired by Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) group in 2015, and which has built two large-scale solar farms in Australia – the 20MW Royalla facility in the ACT and the 56MW Moree solar farm in NSW.
In the Rajasthan auction, the report notes that all 16 developers who bid in were willing to offer below five rupees per unit.
However, officials are of the opinion that the bids were still slightly lower than expected.
