India: Guidelines for selection of 750 MW grid-connected PV projects

Share

The guideline states that the capacity of each project has to be at least 10 MW and the maximum capacity has been set at 50 MW. The plant capacity also has to remain in multiples of 10 MW.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India or SECI will be handling the power procurement for the second batch of JNNSM. It was reported this February that over the last three years, the MNRE has assigned 1,172 GW of grid-connected solar power, of which 369 MW have been commissioned.

Under the mechanism of Viability Gap Funding (VGF), a fixed tariff of INR5.45 (US$0.10) per kWh will be paid to developers over a 25-year period. In the event an accelerated depreciation is available for a project, the tariff will be reduced 10% to INR4.95 ($0.09) per kWh. The upper limit of the VGF is 30% of the project cost or INR2.5 crore (about $461,425) per MW, whichever is lower.

The VGF model being adopted now is different from the first phase of JNNSM that employed a reverse auction model to select solar projects.

The guideline also states that some capacity will be kept for bidding with Domestic Content Ruling (DCR), which calls for cells and modules used to be made in India. The capacity has not been stated in the guideline.

RESolve Energy Consultants' Hari Manoharan adds that the announcement should provide some insight into the VGF process for project developers. He further writes in the report that the interesting fact is that the DCR is not going to be enforced in full force.

Manoharan adds that DCR does not state that it is applicable to crystalline silicon technology exclusively, and only suggests that technology selection, be it thin film or crystalline silicon, would be covered by the ruling.

The draft calls for suggestions and comments before the end of April so that the guideline can be finalized.

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.