Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has invited bids for the supply of 1.513 million multicrystalline solar cells with a wattage output of 4.67 Wp.

The cells should be five busbars in length and 157 ± 0.5 x 157 ± 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 August 31, 2021.

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 vendor should have the capacity to supply 78 MW/annum solar cells under the domestic content requirement category.

The bidder should have supplied at least 2.5 million solar cells to solar module manufacturers in the last three years. The vendor should have an established quality assurance system and a valid ISO 9001: 2008/2015 certification.

The bidder’s average annual turnover in the last three financial years should be not less than ₹30 million (~$403,497).

The solar cells should be supplied within two weeks from the issuance of the purchase order.

Purchase from special economic zones (SEZs) in India will be considered indigenous for purchase preference to the ‘Make in India’ policy.

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.

MSE vendors quoting within the price band of lowest (L1) + 15% will be allowed to supply 25% of the requirement subject to the acceptance of the L1 bid price.

Recently, BHEL invited bids to enter into a memorandum of understanding with vendors to procure multicrystalline and monocrystalline passivated emitter and rear cells (PERC) cells for manufacturing solar modules to meet the annual capacity of 200 MW.

Earlier, BHEL had invited bids to supply 18,000 monocrystalline passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) cells, five busbars of 5.62 W output, and 18,000 multicrystalline solar cells, 5BB of 4.72 W output.

Subscribe to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker to stay on top of tender activity in real-time.