Indian Independent Power Producer (IPP) Avaada Energy has acquired 1,400MWp of solar PV projects through several central and state government tenders across India.
Avaada secured capacity in tenders from three state-owned agencies, all to be deployed in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan which have been the leading states for solar deployments in India for some time.
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The developer secured 421MW of capacity in a tender from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), an arm of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; 280MW from Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVM), a state electricity regulation board owned by the Gujarati state government; and 700MW from NTPC Limited, a government-owned electricity generator.
All of the projects are forecast to be completed within a 24-month period and will have power purchase agreements (PPA) in place with the issuers of the tenders for 25 years.
Vineet Mittal, chairperson of Avaada Group said: “With these latest additions, Avaada’s portfolio now includes ~6GW of projects under various stages of development, adding to our operational capacity of ~4.1GW.”
In November last year, Avaada, a subsidiary of Mumbai-based clean energy developer Avaada Group, bid successfully on a 1.4GW solar tender from NHPC Ltd., the Indian government’s renewable energy procurement agency. At the time, the company said that this was the “largest” solar project ever awarded to a company in an Indian tender.
Notwithstanding these announcements from Avaada, recent analysis of the Indian solar market has found that a lack of activity in government-sponsored tenders has led the utility-scale segment to underperform in recent years. Analysis firm JMK Research found that solar additions in 2023 fell 28% year-on-year, in large part due to “below-par tender issuance activity” from 2020-2022.
The same report found that tender activity has increased over 2023 and should result in more promising deployment statistics in the coming years.
Last month, Avaada Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the state government of Gujarat to develop 6GW of hybrid solar-wind capacity. It expects the deal to constitute nearly INR400 billion (US$4.8 billion) in investment.
Elsewhere in its business, Avaada secured a US$1 billion investment from Canadian asset owner Brookfield Renewable to support its solar PV and green hydrogen manufacturing operations in India, for which it received funding under the national government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme in March 2023.
