The 10 GW manufacturing-linked tender which was first floated by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in May this year in a bid to boost local manufacturing of solar equipments, the industry has not been keen on this model that required power generators to set up equipment manufacturing facility, forcing the bid submission to be postponed six times.
According to sources aware with developments, Azure Power bid for 2,000 MW power project linked with 600 MW solar equipment manufacturing capacity, while most of the other large industry players stayed away from tender.
The government had tweaked the tender several times to make it attractive for the industry. Recently, it increased the ceiling tariff but that was not enough to attract the developers.
Lenders see manufacturing as a risk — especially putting together manufacturing and generation in the same bid is a huge risk. Manufacturing requires high equity and low lending, project generation requires low equity and high lending — the two do not work together.
Experts believe SECI may now scrap the tender. “The bid may be scrapped in its present form if there no takers,” said an industry insider. “There is no interest from the industry and SECI has said it would not make any more changes to the bid conditions.
Source: cleanfuture.co.in
