New Delhi, Oct 15 (PTI) Buoyed by the success of 2tariff-based bidding for wind power projects, government willgo ahead with 2-3 more such auctions for around 3 GW capacity,which may stagger to 2018, a senior official said.
The tariff-based competitive bidding for 1 GW windprojects brought down the tariff to a record low of Rs 3.46per unit in February this year which further dropped to alltime low of Rs 2.64 per unit in a similar auction earlier thismonth.
State-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) wasthe nodal agency for conducting these two auctions.
"We will go for 2-3 more such auctions for the wind powerprojects as there were very encouraging results in biddingthis month for 1 GW capacity where tariff dropped to Rs 2.64per unit," a senior official of Ministry of New and RenewableEnergy told PTI.
Asked whether these auctions would be held by this fiscalend, the official replied they may stagger to 2018.
"There is a due process for conducting such auctions andthese are purely demand based. It will all depend on demand.
But we are sure about 2-3 more round of auctions for windpower project," he said.
The ministry had planned auction of 4 GW wind projectsduring the current fiscal, which is also needed to meet thetarget of having 60 GW of wind generation capacity by 2022.
At present, India has wind power capacity of 32.5 GW.
Therefore, India would have to add around 6 GW to achieve thetarget of 60 GW by 2022.
Solar power has seen a similar play, where the tariff haddropped to a record low of Rs 2.44 per unit in a tariff-drivenbidding earlier this year.
The competitive wind and solar tariff will be a big boostfor India's ambitious target of achieving 175 GW of renewableenergy by 2022. Investment of USD 100 billion is requiredto achieve this target, as per the government estimates.
India already has an installed renewable power generationcapacity of 60 GW. PTI KKS ANUSBT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.