Renewable Energy: The solar power equipment manufacturing linked scheme received good response from private power producers
Solar Power: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to expand the country’s solar power generation received a big boost on Wednesday when state-owned Solar Energy Corporation’s manufacturing linked solar energy auction received a good response. Three private sector power producers – Adani Green Energy, Azure and Navyug submitted bids for a total of 10 Gigawatts of solar projects.
In order to develop the domestic manufacturing of solar power panels, the Modi government has come up with manufacturing linked solar power projects. Under the scheme, solar power producers are also required to set up a manufacturing facility. In this round of auctions by the SECI, the bidders are required to set up a manufacturing facility for producing solar power panels for generating 1 Gigawatt of electricity if they applied for producing 4 Gigawatts of solar power.
In this round, Adani Green Energy has submitted the bid for producing 4 Gigawatts of solar power and solar equipment manufacturing capacity of 1 Gigawatt. While Azure and Navyug Energy have submitted bids for generating 2.5 Gigawatts each with a commitment to set up a manufacturing facility of solar power equipment of 500 megawatts each.
A source in the renewable energy sector told Financial Express Online that the tariff-based reverse auction will be conducted by SECI later this week.
Employment generation potential
According to industry estimates, the establishment of solar equipment manufacturing facility of 1 Gigawatt requires an investment of Rs 6,000 crore and it generates 10,000 direct and permanent employment.
In this round, three power producers have collectively submitted bids for setting up a solar power panel manufacturing facility of 2 gigawatts that would attract investment of Rs 12,000 crore and generate 20,000 permanent job opportunities.
Industry sources said India imports nearly 95% of its solar power equipment requirement from China that results in forex outflow of $10 billion per year.
Completion of these solar equipment manufacturing linked solar power projects are expected to save nearly Rs 70,000 forex per year and generate large scale employment and development of domestic solar power equipment industry, they added.
PM Modi’s mega push for solar power
In his first term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set an extremely ambitious target of producing 100 Gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022. However, his dream project has faced several obstacles over the years, including low response from the bidders. In a setback to PM Modi’s ambitious scheme to boost India’s renewable energy generation capacity, several bids for manufacturing linked solar power projects were either scrapped or extended due to poor response from power producers.
India has emerged as a global champion for promoting clean energy. Prime Minister Modi was instrumental in pushing the International Solar Alliance (ISA) with France in 2016. The alliance has more than 120 countries as members. Given the important role played by the country, its headquarters has been established in Gurugram, near Delhi.
Source: financialexpress
