As of March 31, 2021, the total renewable capacity installation of India reached 94.4 GW. Wind and solar each have a 42% share in the total renewable mix. The current pipeline of solar, wind and hybrid projects stands at 60 GW which is likely to be commissioned in the next 3-4 years. Another 26 GW of projects are under bidding phase where tenders are issued but auctions are not completed.
In Q1 2021, 2.2 GW of utility-scale solar capacity was installed. This is about 45% higher than the previous quarter installations. In wind, about 800 MW were added, which is 60% higher than the Q4 2020 installations.
As per the JMK’s report, In Q1 2021, 47 new tenders aggregating to a total capacity of 10.28 GW were issued across renewable segment. Compared to 8.77 GW of tender issuance in Q4 2020, this is approximately 17% higher.
SECI has issued tenders of 1860 MW capacity in this quarter that includes plain vanilla solar energy tender of 1785 MW in Rajasthan, a 50 MW solar PV tender including 10 MW of agro-PV component in Tamil Nadu and another 25 MW tender in West Bengal. The biggest tender floated during this period was IREDA’s 5000 MW tender under CPSU scheme which is spread across India. Another significant solar tender of 500 MW (Tranche XII) was issued by GUVNL.
In Q1 2021, about 9095 MW capacity was auctioned and allocated. Out of the auctioned capacity, 7390 MW has been earmarked for utility scale solar tenders while 1200 MW for a wind tender and 415 MW for solar EPC tender. NTPC also concluded its auction for its 90 MW of solar BOS tender in Rajasthan.
In Q1 2021, India has managed to achieve lowest winning solar tariff of INR 2.2/kWh for GUVNL 500 MW Solar Tranche XII tender. This is the first auction that has been conducted after the announcement of imposition of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on imported solar modules and solar cells of 40% and 25% respectively, w.e.f April 1, 2022. In the wind segment, plain vanilla wind auction was conducted after 19 months for SECI 1200 MW Wind Tranche X tender with the lowest winning tariff of INR 2.77/kWh.
The investment flow in the RE sector in Q1 2021 (USD 3311 million) was about 161% higher than the investments in the previous quarter i.e. Q4 2020 (USD 1270 million) says the report of JMK Research.
