Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is set to develop a 75 MW grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the state of Gujarat.

The project will be developed at Gujarat Solar Park, located in Charanka village of Patan district.

BHEL will develop the project for Gujarat Industries Power Company Limited (GIPCL). In a Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filing, the company stated, “This will be the largest grid-connected solar PV project to be developed by BHEL.”

According to BHEL, with this order, the company’s solar portfolio has reached to 545 MW. The company is presently executing over 150 MW of ground-mounted and rooftop Solar PV projects across the country.

“The company has enhanced its state-of-the-art manufacturing lines of solar cells to 105 MW and solar modules to 226 MW per year,” BHEL’s statement added.

In September 2017, Mercom had reported that a tariff of ₹2.65 (~$0.0413)/kWh was quoted in the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) 500 MW solar auction with aggressive bidding by Gujarat government agencies. The GUVNL tender was oversubscribed by almost four times as firms responded with technical bids of over 2 GW.

The GUVNL tendered a total of 500 MW, with 425 MW open for all and 75 MW to be allotted for Central PSUs, State PSUs, and government-controlled organizations willing to execute power purchase agreements (PPAs) with GUVNL at the lowest tariff price.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, GIPCL had won bid to develop 75 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects in GUVNL’s 500 MW auction by quoting a tariff of ₹2.67 (~$0.04)/kWh.

The state of Gujarat has installed approximately 1.4 GW of solar as of January 2018, according to Mercom India Project tracker. Solar installations in 2017 totaled just 282 MW. Gujarat’s solar RPO is set at 4.25 percent for 2018-19.

Image credit: By Antalexion (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons