India launching largest solar rooftop tender for 1,000 MW projects

In a major step towards fulfilling its solar power commitments, India on Friday launched a tender for its largest 1,000 megawatt-capacity solar rooftop project, an official said.

"As a step towards fulfilment of the government's target for installation of 40 gigawatt rooftop solar power plants by the year 2022, SECI is launching today (Friday) a tender of 1,000 MW capacity for development of grid-connected rooftop solar capacity for central government Ministries and departments," a Renewable Energy Ministry statement here said.

This tender for the largest rooftop project in the country will be launched by state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

Being also one of the largest floated globally, the SECI tender comes in quick succession to its earlier tender of 500 MW capacity targeting buildings in the residential, institutional and social sectors, the statement said.

SECI has already commissioned over 54 MW capacity of rooftop solar projects under multiple government schemes, it added.

"The highlight of this tender is its innovative Achievement-Linked Incentives scheme wherein the incentives in terms of capital subsidy shall be provided on the basis of performance achieved by designated ministries and departments against their committed targets in the given timespan," the ministry said.

Under the scheme, grid-connected rooftop solar systems will be installed with financial assistance from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in the form of incentives.

"The power generated from the systems will be used for meeting the captive requirement of the buildings and the surplus power will be fed to the grid under the net-metering arrangement of the respective state," it said.

In this connection, MNRE has allocated 21 ministries and departments to SECI.

MNRE has also collated the demand of the various ministries for implementation of the systems.

"Solar Photovoltaic (PV) developers will be selected state-wise through competitive bidding process and provision of one rate per state shall be kept in the scheme," the statement said.

--IANS

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