SoftBank debuts in Indian solar market

Major foreign players line up for 5,500-Mw projects in Andhra Pradesh

Japan's SoftBank, which had announced its entry into the Indian solar power market with an investment of $20 billion, has made its first bid - for a 500-Mw solar park project in Andhra Pradesh.

SoftBank had in June tied up with Foxconn and Bharti Enterprises to invest in the Indian solar energy sector. This was its first bid for any power project through its joint venture, SBG Cleantech.

The bids were called under the flagship Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) for a solar power project in Andhra Pradesh. SBG Cleantech has bid for 500 Mw at an estimated tariff of Rs 5.6-5.75 per Mw. The lowest indicative tariff received was around Rs 5.2 a unit by a Chinese company, said a source. The name of the company was not disclosed.

Thirty bidders participated and SBG Cleantech was one of the companies qualified to submit its final bid on Tuesday. Andhra Pradesh received bids totalling around 5,500 Mw, more than 10 times the unit called for in the tender. The final winners and bids would most likely be shortlisted on Tuesday.

Among the other foreign players believed to be ahead in the race were China's Trina Solar, US First Solar and SunEdison, South African major SolaireDirect and Singapore's Equis Fund through its energy company Energon Soleq.

Masayoshi Son, founder and chief executive officer of SoftBank, had said in June during the launch of the joint venture: "Of the 100-Gw target set by the Prime Minister, the SoftBank venture will look at solar power generation of 20 Gw. The investment will be made in the next 10 years. Acceleration will depend on the support of the central government, the local governments and NTPC."

SBG Cleantech has Bharti veterans Manoj Kohli as executive chairman and Raman Nanda as chief executive officer. The company is headquartered in New Delhi.

The Indian players that participated in the bidding included ReNew Power, Tata Power, Azure Power Welspun Renewables Energy and ACME Solar.

The NDA government had revised solar power targets by five times to touch 100,000 Mw by 2022. Of this, 60 Gw would be met through grid-connected power projects.
POWER OF SUN

• 100,000 Mw
  India's solar energy target by 2022
• 60,000 Mw
  Capacity to be built as grid connected projects
• 20
  Number of solar parks planned across the country
• 20,000 Mw
  

Capacity planned under solar park

750 Mw
Capacity of India's first solar park set up in Gujarat in 2012

750 Mw
Capacity of the second project coming up in MP

Major states building solar parks: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka