Adani Green has secured the bid to develop solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects of 8 GW along with setting up a solar cell and module manufacturing capacity of 2 GW. This win, the largest in the world in a single bid, will entail a total investment of approximately $6 billion (₹452 billion).

In January 2020, Mercom reported that Adani Green Energy and Azure Power won the first of its kind manufacturing-linked solar tender floated by the Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) for 7 GW of solar capacity. Adani and Azure both won the bid to develop 2,000 MW of projects with 500 MW of manufacturing capacity. The winning tariff quoted by both the companies was ₹2.92 (~$0.04)/kWh. The ceiling tariff for this tender was ₹2.93 ($0.041)/kWh. For both the companies, the ratio after the Greenshoe option remained the same at 1:4.

The tender also had a greenshoe option, where the companies could opt for an additional capacity to both develop and manufacture. Adani, under the greenshoe option, has offered an additional capacity of 1,500 MW solar cell and module manufacturing and 6 GW of solar project development. With this, Adani’s total allocation comes to 2,000 MW of solar cell and module manufacturing and 8 GW of project capacity.

Commenting on this historic win, Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group said, “We are honoured to be selected by SECI for this landmark solar award. In today’s world, climate adaptation cannot be considered independent of economic development priorities and both, job creation as well as decarbonization must be simultaneous objectives. India made a commitment at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris that it would lead the Climate Change revolution and today is the leader among the just eight nations on track to meet their COP21 commitments. The fact that renewable power will transition into becoming the world’s cleanest and most economical fuel is a foregone conclusion and the Adani Group intends to play a leading role in this journey.  This award is yet another step in our nation’s climate change promise to the world as well as enabling our nation’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (Self Reliant India Program). It is another step towards fulfilling our Group’s Nation Building vision.”

Adani is slated to set up the solar manufacturing capacity in Gujarat while the solar projects could be located anywhere in the country. The solar cell and module manufacturing capacity of 2 GW will be established by 2022, according to the company’s BSE filing.

The 8 GW of solar projects are expected to be commissioned in 60 months.

Overall, this project is likely to create 400,000 direct and indirect jobs and displace 900 million tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

In December 2019, the Solar Energy Corporation of India awarded the Letter of Award (LoA) to Adani Green for the development of the solar projects and the manufacturing capacity.

According to Mercom India Solar Project Tracker, Adani has approximately 2.4 GW of large-scale solar projects in operation and over 10 GW under the development pipeline.

In November 2019, Mercom reported that SECI had received a good response for its 7 GW solar tender that has been linked with a manufacturing component. The tender was oversubscribed by 1,000 MW.

Adani Green Energy had submitted its bid for 4 GW of solar projects and 1 GW of manufacturing component, followed by Azure and Navyug, which submitted bids for 2 GW of projects each.

This SECI tender linked with a manufacturing component was one of its kind in India, and the tender has faced many obstacles, twists, turns, and multiple deadline extensions.

SECI amended various clauses of this tender to make it appealing for the interested developers.

 

Image credit: Adani