India shortlists bidders for National Solar Mission projects

There are 20 to 22 bidders shortlisted to set up solar energy-based power plants in India.

With a total capacity of 350 megawatts, these projects will complete the first phase of India’s solar mission, which envisages installation of 20 gigawatts of solar capacity in several phases by 2022 to supplement electricity generated by thermal, hydroelectric and nuclear energy sources.

In the current bidding round, 28 solar power projects — ranging from 5 MW to 50 MW — will be given to the shortlisted companies, said the executives from NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd., a unit of state-run power utility NTPC Ltd.

NTPC Vidyut will offer the contracts to the companies by the end of this month, the executives said. Long-term agreements to purchase power from these projects will likely be signed in January, they added.

As many as 154 companies had put in bids for the projects, quoting the tariff at which they would sell power. Anil Kumar Agrawal, chief executive of NTPC Vidyut, said the lowest bid had come in at 7.49 rupees or $0.15 a kilowatt hour. “The response [to the bidding round] has been surprising and encouraging at the same time,” he added.

Among the companies shortlisted were GAIL, France’s Fonroche Energy, Solairedirect Group, Welspun Solar, Azure Power India, Green Infra, Kiran Energy, V.S. Lignite Power, Sujana Towers, Mahindra Solar One and Essel Group’s Essel Infraprojects Ltd., executives said.

They said the response to the current round of bidding has been much better than the previous one, when 620 MW of projects were awarded. A lukewarm response to the first round had prompted the government to relax rules such as the timeframe for starting projects and expanding capacities.

Projects awarded in the two rounds of the first phase need to start producing electricity by March 2013.