The Solar Energy Corporation of India recently concluded yet another auction under the National Solar Mission and allocated 950 MW solar PV capacity in the southern state of Karnataka.
According to media reports, Indian companies dominated the auction where trip was fixed at Rs 4.43/kWh (US¢6.60/kWh) and perspective project developers were required to bid for capital cost support required to set up the projects. There was no restriction on the sourcing of the modules.
Largest capacity was secured by Parampujya Solar Energy, a subsidiary of Adani Green Energy which, in turn, is part of the Adani Group. The company secured rights to develop 350 MW capacity (or 37% of the total capacity on offer) with a bid for Rs 73.50 lakhs capital cost support (US$110,000) per MW.
Hero Solar Energy, a subsidiary of Hero Future Energies which is part of the Hero Group, secured the largest volume on offer. The company will set up 200 MW capacity with capital cost support of Rs 68 lakhs (US$101,825) per MW.
Other major winners included Acme Solar (160 MW) and Energon (100 MW). Parampujya Solar Energy also secured the entire 100 MW capacity on offer under the VGF auction in the state of Chhattisgarh.
Earlier this year, the Indian Government approved Rs 5,050 crore (US$750 million) funding through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) as viability gap funding to set up 5 GW of solar power projects. These projects will form part of the Batch IV of Phase II of the National Solar Mission that aims to have an operational solar power capacity of 100 GW by 2022.
