The Central Electronics Limited (CEL), a public sector enterprise of the government of India, has issued a tender to procure 100,000 chip solar cells of 2.97-Watt capacity from domestic manufacturers. The last date for the submission of bids has been set for August 21, 2019.

The CEL has specified that the solar cells need to be multi-crystalline chipped solar cells (Non-PERC). It has specified that this is a limited tender only for Indian manufacturers of solar cells namely BHEL, Jupiter Solar Power, Adani Group, Renewsys India Pvt. Ltd. and in case a new vendor wishes to participate, they can enroll themselves by submitting their credentials and relevant documents through the vendor registration process.

This is the second tender for the procurement of chip solar cells in 2019. In May 2019, Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) had issued a notice inviting tenders for the supply of chip solar cells of 2.87 Watt capacity from domestic manufacturers.

In an in-depth report, Mercom had tried to analyze if the Indian solar market is ready to transition to mono PERC cell technology. The consensus in the solar industry is that it is gradually shifting towards monocrystalline cell technology from the more common multi-crystalline (also called multi-crystalline) cells and modules.

Earlier, the CEL invited expression of interest (EoI) from interested parties to set up a manufacturing facility in the country for the production of crystalline silicon solar PV modules (Conventional/Flexible) and solar cells under the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Recently, CEL invited an Expression of Interest (EoI) for empanelment of manufacturers of solar water pumps in tenders under the KUSUM program (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan).

The company has been issuing tenders for solar project development, and this includes a tender for 50 MW of grid-tied solar PV projects ranging from 500 kW to 10 MW at various locations in the state of Maharashtra. Another tender was for 11 MW of grid-connected solar projects to be developed at various locations across Maharashtra.

Earlier this year, the CEL had also invited bids for the implementation of 11.12 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar PV projects at 35 sites of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) labs across India.

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