The government plans to seek bids globally for 20 GW of solar generation capacity by companies ready to set up manufacturing facilities in India.
According to Economic Times, RK Singh, minister of power and new and renewable energy, said at a conference on Friday “Twenty GW will be auctioned with condition that only those companies can participate that will set up manufacturing here,”.
“We have some aspirations… We want manufacturing in solar and when the fastest-growing installation is happening in India, there is no reason to import from other countries… so we are going to encourage manufacturing here,” the minister added
The government plans to install 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. While the government is confident of surpassing the target ‘comfortably,’ it is exploring ways to add incremental capacity through floating solar, solar manufacturing and offshore wind projects, among other measures. The government has not considered incentivising domestic manufacturers as the tender itself will create demand for solar equipment in the country.
The government on Friday set out a roadmap for auctioning of wind and solar power to achieve the target of 175 GW capacity installation by 2022. Kumar said that to achieve 100 GW of solar power by 2022, the ministry, along with the states, will lay out bids for ground-mounted solar parks for 20 GW in 2017-18.
Of this, 3.6 GW have already been bid out and 17 GW will be bid out by March. Additionally, 30 GW will be bid out in 2018-19 and 30 GW in 2019-20. Out of the wind capacity installation target of 60 GW, 32 GW have already been commissioned and the government intends to issue bids of cumulative capacity of about 8 GW this year.
