India has invited its first-ever bids for solar energy projects that include storage as a requirement as part of a trial program aimed at making the renewable resource a more reliable source of power.
Solar Energy Corp. of India, the implementing agency for clean-energy projects, sought bids for 300 megawatts of solar power to be built in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in an advertisement in a local newspaper on July 20.
SECI is seeking bids for two projects of 50 megawatt each in Andhra Pradesh with a battery energy storage system of 5 megawatt/2.5 megawatt-hour attached. In Karnataka, it has invited bids for four solar projects of 50 megawatt each with the same storage specifications.
The cost of the project will go up only marginally since the size of the storage component being sought is small, Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary at the ministry of new and renewable energy, said by phone on Friday.
“A 5 billion rupee solar project will become costlier only by about 100 million rupees and the government is also extending support,” he said.
The sale of tender documents will begin on July 25 and the last date for submitting bids for the Andhra Pradesh projects is Sept. 8 and for Karnataka is Sept. 9.