Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has invited bids for the supply of 7.361 million monocrystalline passivated emitter and rear (PERC) solar cells with a wattage output of 5.38 W.

The cells should be five busbars in length and 158.75 ± 0.5 x 158.75 ± 0.5 in dimension. The thickness of the cells should be 200 ± 20 microns. The diagonal variation of the solar cells should not be more than 0.5 mm.

The last date to submit the bids is November 9, 2021, and bids will be opened on the same day.

The cells must be free of cracks, holes, cuts, edge chipping, missing gridlines, patches, spots, marks, and mechanical damage. Also, the cells should have a homogeneous silver nitride coating.

The solar cell should be air-tight packed with polythene or polypropylene sachets of not more than 125 cells per sachet.

The offer should be quoted by an original mono PERC solar cells manufacturer. The offer can also be quoted by an authorized channel partner on behalf of the original equipment manufacturer.

The bidder should have an in-house minimum production capacity of 20 million mono PERC solar cells. The bidder should have supplied a minimum of 20 million mono PERC solar cells to a reputed module manufacturer in the last three years.

Also, the bidder should have a well-established in-house laboratory and testing facilities with the requisite workforce to carry out routine in-process and finished product testing.

During the last three financial years, the bidder’s minimum average annual turnover should be at least ₹150 million (~$1.99 million).

As per the tender document, the total quantity should be supplied within four weeks from the date of the manufacturing clearance.

BHEL has stated that 25% of the tendered quantity has been reserved for micro and small enterprise (MSE) suppliers. Out of the 25% tendered quantity reserved for MSE suppliers, 6.25% has been earmarked for procurement by MSEs owned by Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs, and 3% has been reserved for women-owned MSEs.

In August this year, BHEL invited bids for the supply of 1.513 million multicrystalline solar cells with a wattage output of 4.67 Wp.

Earlier, BHEL had invited bids to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with vendors for procuring multicrystalline and mono PERC cells for manufacturing solar modules to meet the annual capacity of 200 MW.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, BHEL has so far floated tenders for 43.87 million solar photovoltaic cells.