Indian conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji has won the country’s first major grid-connected floating solar tender for 50MW of capacity at a tariff of INR3.29/kWh (US$0.047) at Rihand dam in Uttar Pradesh.
The remaining 100MW of capacity out for tender will also soon be auctioned by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in two blocks of 50MW. SECI had increased the capacity available in its tender from 100MW to 150MW back in April.
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Vinay Rustagi, managing director of consultancy firm, Bridge to India, told PV Tech: “There are many implementation differences between ground-based solar and floating solar. We believe that the latter has an overall capital cost disadvantage of between 10-15%. Taking that into account and expected tariffs of around INR 3.00 for ground-based solar, the discovered tariff seems about right. But this is the first project of this scale in India and the tight timelines could pose an execution challenge.”
Major solar EPC Sterling and Wilson is part of Shapoorji Pallonji.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently updated distributed grid-connected solar guidelines in the Lakshadweep as well as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with a particular focus on floating solar.
PV Tech featured an in-depth article on a 500kW floating solar system in Kerala in March this year.