Highly competitive bidding has resulted in the revision of feed-in tariff for solar power projects in India.
The Solar Energy Corporation of India has allocated 750 MW capacity in the state of Rajasthan at record-low tariff of Rs 4.00/kWh (US¢5.9/kWh). The auction was held under the Viability Gap Funding scheme wherein competitive bidding takes place for the capital cost support instead of tariffs.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had recently changed the tariff structure for projects under the VGF scheme. Earlier, VGF projects had a uniform rate of Rs 4.43/kWh (US¢6.6/kWh). Now, states that have seen bids falling below Rs 4.50/kWh (US¢6.7/kWh) will have uniform VGF tariff of Rs 4.00/kWh (US¢5.9/kWh) while all others shall have tariff of Rs 4.50/kWh (US¢6.7/kWh).
So far, only the state of Rajasthan has seen tariff bids falling to below Rs 4.50/kWh (US¢6.7/kWh). The latest auction was for two phases of the Bhadla solar power park.
The lowest tariff bid in India till date stands at Rs 4.34/kWh (US¢6.4/kWh). The bid was secured by Fortum for a 100 MW solar power project as part of the Bhadla solar power park.