In a letter to member countries, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) has invited government owned/public sector companies which have an operating solar capacity greater than 250 MW to submit proposals for consulting and developing solar projects in the utility-scale and rooftop solar domains.

The invitation comes as the National Thermal Power Corporation NTPC proposed that the ISA should endorse it as a consultant and project developer. On 24 April 2019, the ISA received a proposal from the NTPC for endorsing it to its member countries for the development of solar projects under the ISA’s “Swiss Challenge” program. Broadly, the services that the NTPC proposed were; reaching out to energy ministers, preparing power purchase agreements, detailed project reports, and providing project management consultancy services for projects with capacity more than 100 kW.

The NTPC has also added the schedule of costs in the proposal, which it would charge ISA members; these ranged from 5% to 10% of project costs depending on the size of the project. The NTPC also suggested that it can offer services to ISA and its members as a project developer on a build, own, and operate basis (BOO) or a build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT) basis.

In the letter by the ISA, it suggested that it would invite organizations from member countries to offer a better proposal than the one submitted by the NTPC. The ISA also mentions that June 22, 2019, would be the last day for receiving the proposals.

The ISA aims to deploy 1,000 GW of solar energy generation capacity globally.

Recently, the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture between the public-sector units of the Ministry of Power and the Government of India, issued a tender to procure 272,579 solar water pumping systems for member countries of ISA. The bid submission deadline is July 1, 2019.

In April 2019, the Home Ministry, Government of India, released a letter stating that investments from the International Solar Association will no longer be treated as a foreign source of funding. In simple words, it means the funds that flow to NGOs, and other entities originating from the ISA will not be governed by the FCRA. This step is likely to create a positive impact on Indian solar project developers who have been struggling to find viable funding options for projects.