Following the massive success of its first-ever wind energy tender, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy in India is planning to launch another tender this year four times the size.
The Solar Energy Corporation of India has announced that it will auction 4,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity this financial year, i.e. by March 2018. The agency will offer this capacity to prospective project developers in multiple tranches. SECI is also expected to launch wind energy tenders of 5,000-6,000 megawatts every year until 2022.
India plans to have an installed wind energy capacity of 60 gigawatts by March 2022, and these auctions are will be aligned to achieve this goal. India’s current installed wind energy capacity stands at just over 32 gigawatts.
India added a record 5,400 megawatts of wind energy capacity during the financial year 2016-17 (April 2016 to March 2017). This is 35% more than the envisaged target of 4,000 megawatts set at the start of the financial year. Between April 2016 and February 2017, a total of 2,374 megawatts of wind energy capacity was added. In March 2017 alone, the capacity addition jumped to 3,026 megawatts.
The Chairman of the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) recently stated that a record 6,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity is expected to be added in the financial year 2017-18 which, will be 11% higher than the 5,400 megawatt capacity added in 2016-17 — also a record.
The first-ever wind energy auction in India yielded the lowest-ever tariffs of Rs 3.46/kWh (5.2¢/kWh). Four companies — Mytrah Energy, Green Infra (owned by Sembcorp), Inox Wind, and Ostro Energy — were awarded 250 megawatts of capacity each, while Adani Green Energy secured the rights to develop 50 megawatts of capacity.
Source: cleantechnica.com
