Indian utility National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has announced the allocation of a further 500MW of solar PV capacity in Andhra Pradesh and 420MW in Rajasthan.
The Rajasthan capacity is to be made up of a batch of six projects of 70MW each in Bhadla Phase II Solar Park in Jodhpur District.
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The Andhra Pradesh capacity will be made up of one 350MW project and three 50MW projects at Gani-Sakunala Solar Park Phase II, Kurnool District.
This capacity comes on top of NTPC’s tender for another 500MW of solar capacity in Andhra Pradesh made up of ten 50MW plants earlier this month.
The latest allocations are part of the National Solar Mission Phase-II, Batch-II. The request for selection (RfS) document for the new allocations will be available from 28th May 2015. The allocations will follow an online and open competitive bidding process.
In a report, consultancy firm Bridge To India said: “The fact that land acquisition and transmission infrastructure will be provided by the government agencies (risk allocation still not entirely clear) will open up the field particularly for new international investors and pure financial investors. The online bidding process is likely to further intensify competition.”
Mercom Capital’s latest quarterly report forecast that India is set to double its annual installed capacity this year to more than 2GW, up from 1GW in 2014.
Meanwhile the Indian Central Government also recently announced plans to allocate 10GW of solar PV capacity this calendar year.
NTPC plans to install 3,000MW of solar PV capacity during the financial year according to I J Kapoor, NTPC director.
