Madhya Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation (MPIDC) has been declared the successful bidder to set up manufacturing zones for solar and other renewable energy equipment, including power transmission-related equipment.

In April this year, the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had invited expressions of interest from state governments and special purpose vehicles (SPV) in partnership with state governments to set up manufacturing zones for power and renewable energy equipment.

Eight states – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana – had submitted proposals.

The project management agency evaluated the proposals, and MPIDC was selected as the ‘successful proposer.’ The Madhya Pradesh government will be responsible for forming an SPV within a month of approval from the scheme steering committee.

The zones will include manufacturing units to produce power and renewable energy equipment with a financial outlay of ₹10 billion (~$126.75 million). The project’s duration is until FY 2025-26.

The proposed funding for the three manufacturing zones has been kept flexible to support a common infrastructure and testing facility with a ceiling of ₹4 billion (~$50.67 million) for one manufacturing zone.

The manufacturing zones will have the infrastructure for manufacturing solar components like modules, inverters, ingots, backsheets, module mounting structures, and wind components like blades, hubs, shafts, and nacelles. They will also produce components for biomass, small hydro, and green hydrogen projects. The manufacturing zones will also produce components for transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The financial assistance will be released in four installments; 30% of the assistance will be released after the project’s final approval by the steering committee. The next 30% will be released after the bidder uses 60% of the first installment. It will be followed by another 30% which will be released after 100% of the first installment and 60% of the second installment has been used by the bidder. The final 10% will be released after submitting the completion certificate.

In February this year, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) announced an updated list of successful bidders to set up manufacturing capacities for a minimum of 10 GW of vertically-integrated high-efficiency solar modules under the production-linked incentive) program.

IREDA had invited bids to set up 10 GW of high-efficiency solar module manufacturing capacities in May 2021. In November last year, IREDA had announced the list of successful bidders.

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