The Central Electronics Limited (CEL) has floated a tender for the supply of 2 million multicrystalline passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar cells. The tender is open to domestic as well as international suppliers.

The last date for the submission of bids is July 9, 2020. There is no earnest money deposit (EMD) amount to be submitted by the bidders.

The thickness of these cells should be 200± 20 microns, and the dimensions should be 157×157 mm (±0.25mm) and must be five bus bars in length. The minimum prescribed efficiency of the cells is 19.6%.

As per the tender document, solar cell manufacturers and their authorized vendors are eligible to quote the rate, but traders or stockists are not allowed to participate in this tender. Only original manufacturers or their representatives are eligible to submit quotations. Bidders who are not in the approved vendor list of CEL would also be allowed to participate. These unapproved vendors should supply a sample lot of a minimum of 200 cells as per CEL’s specifications. However, the quotation of such bidders would be evaluated based on the eligibility criteria defined in the tenders.

The supplier must confirm that the modules manufactured from the cells conform to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards and are tested in an accredited laboratory.

An Indian agent can participate in the tender on behalf of the foreign principal/original equipment manufacturer (OEM), or foreign principal/OEM can bid, but both cannot bid simultaneously in the same tender.

The interested vendors should have a minimum of 50 MW/year in-house multicrystalline solar cell manufacturing capacity. CEL has stated that it can also split the quantity and award capacities to two or more vendors as per the production or project requirement.

CEL has been issuing tenders for the procurement of solar cells. Earlier CEL had invited bids to supply 300,000 domestically manufactured multicrystalline solar cells with a wattage of 4.52 Wp, and another tender was floated for 1,000,000 multicrystalline solar cells.

CEL is a government enterprise under the administrative control of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology, having solar cell and module manufacturing capacity of 10 MW and 38 MW, respectively. In February, the government of India had proposed the disinvestment of 100% shareholding in the company, but due to the lockdown following the COVID-19 crisis, the process is delayed.