Indian solar power project licenses up for sale

Companies that secured solar power projects from the government are selling their licenses.

“We have come across innumerable instances where companies that have been allotted solar power projects by the Centre now want to sell them off to other established players,” said S P Gon Choudhury, special secretary, West Bengal.


The government had allotted 80 projects, ranging from 100 kilowatts to 2 MW, in 2010 under the Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission. It had offered to buy back solar power produced from these projects at a generous Rs 18 per unit.


There is no bar on transferring licenses under the scheme.


“Large firms that have bagged 2 MW-sized projects would want to have around 10 MW to be a bigger player in this sphere,” said an official at the ministry of renewable energy requesting anonymity. “It is possible that these firms may be scouting for non-serious players.”


“Another way of looking at these developments is a possible consolidation in market. It is possible that bigger companies would buy out the smaller players. This would lead to market being left with 6-8 major developers,” the official added. Analysts say with tariff for such power plants fixed at US$0.3964 per unit by the Centre, a US$440,000 to US$660,000 per MW of extra expenditure on solar generation units would still be profitable for large players.