India unveils tender for 1.2GW of solar projects

SECI is becoming more lenient to developers.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has issued a national tender which allocates 1.2GW of capacity for solar project developers.

The new tender comes after months of turmoil in the Indian solar industry, with solar tariffs hitting record lows in 2018.

The terms of the new tender are less stringent than the last. For instance, SECI will allow a period of 12 months for financial closure, compared to just seven months in the previous large-scale tender. Each developer also has 18 months to fully commission the project, compared to 15 months in the last tender.

The projects are on a build own operate (BOO) basis. The maximum tariff payable to each developer is fixed at 3.7 cents (INR2.65) for a period of 25 years, compared to 4.1 cents (INR2.93/kWh) in the previous tender.

Bidding will close on 2 February 2019.