Solar+Storage Tender in India

In an attempt to make solar energy more sustainable and reliable, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) invited bids for India’s foremost solar+storage projects. Bids for 300 MW of solar projects in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were sought for. These include six solar projects for 50 MW each with a battery storage system of 5 MW for each 2.5 MWh attached. The tender period is open till September 8^th for Andhra Pradesh projects and September 9^th for Karnataka projects.

You might also like State Wise Solar State Rankings – India 2015-2016.

Andhra Pradesh has been a friendly solar state in India, making regulation and approvals extremely easy, allowing open access and no charges. These tenders will be the first of its kind in India to include storage solutions. Storage in solar solutions is set to become the next megatrend in the energy industry. Earlier the cost of solar energy plus storage was too high, making it a niche area for a number of years. However the prices are becoming more affordable gradually. The cost of lithium ion batteries have gone down by 40% since 2010, and there is still scope left for further reductions.

Also read my earlier article on India plans for the future – integrating energy storage with solar power plants in tenders.

“A 5 billion rupee solar project will become costlier only by about 100 million rupees and the government is also extending support” – said Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary MNRE.

Source: Bloomberg

Solar is set to boom with 135 GW installations expected by 2020, according to GTM research. Since rooftop solar is gradually getting traction and has huge potential globally, storage solutions have massive opportunity at hand. Solar electricity plus storage costs expected to start competing with retail prices of grid from 2020 onwards. The price of energy storage is expected to come down by almost 50%, while solar electricity prices are coming down by around 5%-10% every year.

Major players like SolarCity, Panasonic and SunPower have already realised this huge potential and have started integrating energy storage with solar solutions. It is a great way to reduce the load on the grid and governments in Japan and Germany are encouraging this technology.

As I had highlighted in my earlier post, implementation is the biggest issue for India. The country still needs to develop utility scale grid storage if it wants to make renewable energy as its main source of power. The country has pledged to get almost 40% of its total power capacity from renewable energy by 2030. However it is a good step taken by SECI towards promoting solar+storage in India.