India invites bids for 150MW floating solar power projects

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has launched a tender for the development of 150MW grid-connected floating solar PV power projects in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India.

The government-run entity SECI is calling for the development of three systems at 50MW each at Rihand Dam, also known as Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar Reservoir, located in Sonbhadra District.

The projects are to be developed on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis, SECI said.

Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) informed it will enter into power purchase agreements with selected developers for a period of 25 years with the maximum payable tariff payable to fixed at INR 3.5/kWh or approximately $0.05/kWh.

Each system will be connected to the existing substation at Bina at 132kV level, while the selection of solar PV modules would be technology agnostic to suit the floating solar projects where humidity levels are high and moisture ingress is more, according to SECI.

The request for selection is open for applications until May 31, 2018.

The call has been launched as part of the Government of India’s targets to achieve cumulative capacity of 100GW solar PV installations by 2022.