The Indian states have been building large amount of solar capacity through the reverse auction process of giving out solar power farms to developers. The prices have been quite low for these ground mounted farms and Punjab managed to get bids of 13-14c/Kwh for the 250 MW of capacity it gave out to developers.
Read on GWI India sees Solar Electricity prices of 12-16c per unit in Reverse Auction Bidding.
The winners of the 5-30 MW projects are big developers like Welspun, Lanco and Moser Baer who have also built plants for the JNNSM Phase 1 project. 19 companies also won smaller projects of less than 5 MW size. The 250 MW of solar capacity should come up in 13 months for Punjab to sign a 25 year PPA with these developers. I think it’s a good deal for Punjab, as I expect that electricity prices will be much higher on average during the next 25 years as fossil fuel resources get exhausted all over the world.
Google+Azure Power India Pvt. and Solairedirect SA were among winners of licenses to build a total of 250 megawatts of solar power in India’s Punjab state.The state sold 200 megawatts of contracts of 5 megawatts to 30 megawatts each to companies with experience in the industry, It auctioned another 50 megawatts for projects of 1 megawatt to 4 megawatts, he said.Eight companies won licenses for the larger projects. World Bank-backed Azure Power submitted the lowest bids, pledging to sell power from two sites of 15 megawatts each at 7,670 rupees ($133) a megawatt-hour and 7,970 rupees a megawatt-hour. Other winners in the category were France’s Solairedirect, Welspun Energy Ltd., Lanco Infratech Ltd. (LANCI) and Moser Baer India Ltd. (MBI)
Nineteen companies won licenses for the smaller plants, with bids ranging from 7,200 rupees a megawatt-hour to 8,710 rupees a megawatt-hour, Singh said.The winners have 13 months to complete the projects and will sell their power under 25-year power purchase agreements with the state utility, the regulations show.
