India will soon have launch its first solar energy storage tender as part of the its ambitious National Solar Mission that aims to have 100 GW installed solar power capacity by March 2022.
According to media reports, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will soon launch tenders for solar-plus-storage utility-scale projects in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. SECI will launch tenders for 100 MW storage in Andhra Pradesh and 200 MW in Karnataka; both the states have multiple solar power parks under development.
SECI had, earlier this year, announced plans to launch a 100 MW energy storage at 750 MW solar power park at Ananthapuramu, Andhra Pradesh. The government-owned entity has now expanded these plans to cover solar power parks in Karnataka as well.
Last month, Indian media outlets also reported that the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy was considering to launch a National Mission on Energy Storage. No details of the said mission are currently available, however.
Interestingly, international companies are already planning to bid for the impending tenders. Chinese battery maker BYD and Canada-based project developer SkyPower Global entered an agreement to bid for solar power projects in India soon after the news of 100 MW storage tender for Andhra Pradesh solar power park was reported.
Integration of large-scale solar power projects in the existing grid in India has become a major concern for the government. Some of the planned solar power parks will rival the largest thermal power projects, of capacity around 4 GW, in size. The government plans to set up around 40-50 GW of such large-scale solar power projects by March 2022.