Advancing its clean energy ambition, the government has proposed to lease out seabed areas for building 4,000 MW off-shore wind energy projects on Build Own Operate (BOO) basis, off the coast of Tamil Nadu in the Gulf of Mannar.
The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which was set up by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy under the National Solar Mission, has invited tenders for four blocks of 1 GW on an open-access basis through international competitive bidding. Each block will be assigned with a tentative minimum installable offshore wind power capacity.
The successful bidder will have the exclusive rights over the allocated seabed to carry out required study, survey and subsequent project development. Under this arrangement, the developers who win the bid for each block will set up 1 GW off-shore wind energy capacity and can sell electricity directly to consumers under the open access regime. However, the commission of the first projects may still take several years, and would need to obtain all necessary environmental clearances.
As per the Request for Selection (RfS) document, the MNRE or any other government agency will not be obliged to buy any power generated from the project. There will be no Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under the open access bids. The government had announced VGF for harnessing offshore wind energy potential for an initial capacity of 1 GW in the recent Interim Budget.
The announcement comes days after the government announced a nation-wide rooftop solar scheme for 10 million households across the country. The latest clean energy push is part of the government’s target of achieving about 50 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. The government would drive this clean energy push by inviting bids for 50 GW of renewable energy (RE) capacity annually for the next five years. Of 500 GW, 280 GW would be met by solar, and 140 GW from wind energy.
Despite a 7600-km coastline, India does not have any off-shore wind power projects currently. The National Offshore Wind Energy Policy was notified in 2015, but the latest push came last December when the power ministry got the ball rolling by notifying the long-awaited off-shore wind energy lease rules to regulate the allocation of off-shore wind sea blocks to developers.
Recently, India’s largest hydropower company — National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd — had also invited Expression of Interest (EoI) from global players to develop the country’s first-ever off-shore wind energy plant. According to an initial assessment, India has an estimated potential of about 70 GW offshore wind energy in the eight potential zones identified off the coast of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
The digital copies of bids can be submitted by May 2, while the hard copy submissions can be done by May 6. The bid opening is set for May 7.
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