Indian renewable energy company ReNew Power has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 400MW renewables project that will supply Round-The-Clock (RTC) electricity supply, which the company claims is the first of its kind in India.
The PPA is with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a central government owned entity, and will see ReNew Power supply electricity in the first year at ₹2.90/kWh (US$0.039/kWh). This will increase by 3% a year for the first 15 years after which it will remain flat for the remaining 10 years of the 25-year contract.
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Designed to operate at an 80% average annual plant load factor (PLF), the project will have a minimum capacity utilisation of 70% a month. ReNew power expects the RTC project will require 900MW of wind capacity and 400MW of solar capacity, which is to be supplemented with a battery storage system. The whole project is expected to cost around US$1.2 billion.
Capacity will be established through wind and solar farms in the Indian states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, where ReNew has obtained the required approvals to connect the project sites with the grid and inter-state transmissions system.
ReNew Power chairman and CEO Sumant Sinha called the agreement “a historic step towards addressing intermittency of renewable power generation” in India, adding that he saw it as the “beginning of a new era in the renewable energy sector”.
“[U]nder this single project, 400MW renewable energy Round-The-Clock (RTC) capacity will result in the deployment of 1,300MW of wind and solar capacity and a large-scale battery storage system in the country,” said Shri J N Swain, managing director of SECI.
PV Tech and sister site Energy-Storage.news have enquired about the rated output and capacity of the battery storage and is awaiting an update from Renew Power.
“With this project, procuring utilities would get round-the-clock electricity supply from renewables at a very affordable rate while meeting their RPO targets,” added Swain.
In April, an analysis by JNK Research said India presented an “enormous potential” for the development of solar and wind hybrid power systems, with more than 12.3GW of colocated tenders issued in the country by April.
ReNew Power, which has almost 10GW of installed solar and wind capacity in India, is establishing a site in Gujarat for a new solar cell and module manufacturing facility that will have an annual capacity of 2GW.
India’s Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Raj Kumar Singh, said last month that the country wanted to accelerate its renewable energy growth through a combination of incentives to manufacture domestically, while also criticising the “unhealthy” reliance on China for solar manufacturing.