In a notification published by MNRE, the GOI announced the events and developments during Oct 2021
About 1522.35 MW of renewable energy (RE) capacity was added to the existing RE capacity, making cumulative installed RE capacity to 103.05 GW. It is a concoction of solar capacity at 47.66 GW, wind capacity at 39.99 GW, bio-power capacity at 10.58 GW, and small hydro capacity at 4.82 GW. In addition to this, projects of 50.98 GW capacity are at various stages of implementation and that of 32.06 GW capacity are at different stages of bidding.
In this month, expenditure of Rs. 2265.99 crore was made, making 39.39 per cent of the total Budget Estimate (BE) for 2021-22 of the Ministry.
During this month, MNRE attended some important international meetings and conferences. Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of NRE and Power participated in the pre-launch event of Green Grid Initiative- One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG) held on October 12, 2021. As the president of International Solar Alliance, Singh virtually chaired the fourth International Solar Alliance on 20 October, 2021. Singh also had a meeting on 21st October, 2021 with Frans Timmermans, Vice President of European Commission’s Executive in Delhi.
During the World Expo 2020, Dubai on 6th October, 2021, Bhagwanth Khuba was invited as the keynote speaker. At the virtual conference on “India’s Renewable Energy Achievements and Ambitions” the Minister of State NRE delivered his keynote address. Khuba also participated in the UN Day commemoration event organised by UN-India on October 22, 2021 at ISA, New Delhi.
On October 4, 2021 letter(s) of award were issued for the set-up of 5000 MW aggregate capacity solar PV power plants under Tranche-III of MNRE CPSU Scheme Phase-II. This was done using indigenously manufactured solar PV cells and PV modules by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).
Under MNRE’s ‘National Programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’, financial bids were opened in a tender invited by IREDA. The evaluation of bids opened under this production linked incentive scheme on 25th October, 2021 is underway.
On 2nd October, 2021, IREDA also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with North-Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) in New Delhi. According to the MoU, IREDA will undertake techno-financial due diligence of Energy Efficiency & Conservation projects and RE for NEEPCO.
On the other hand, the crucial developments by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in October were stated in the document too. They were:
- PSA signed for 100 MW capacity under 2000 MW ISTS connected solar projects (ISTS-IX) tender.
- RfS issued for setting up of 1200 MW ISTS connected wind power projects (Tranche-XII).
- LoA issued for 1200 MW of wind capacity under 1200 MW ISTS connected wind power tender (Tranche-XI).
- RfS issued on 22.10.2021 for setting up of 1200 MW ISTS connected wind-solar hybrid power projects (Tranche-V).
- PSA signed for 100 MW in RTC-I tender.
- EoI issued on 14.10.2021 for setting up of 500 MW/1000 MWh standalone Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in India under Global Competitive Bidding (ESS-I).
An office memorandum was shared by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) on 11th November, 2021 with the subject line “Monthly Summary for the Cabinet for the month of October, 2021”. In the document, the government of India (GOI) announced the monthly events and developments for the month of October, 2021.
