The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has invited bids for a 15 MW of grid-connected floating solar project at its Koldam hydroelectric power project (HEPP), located in the state of Himachal Pradesh.

Solar PV cells and modules for this project can be sourced from anywhere in the world. The brief scope of work includes the supply, design, engineering, manufacturing, packing and forwarding, transportation, unloading storage, installation, and commissioning of the project. The successful bidder will also have to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) for the first three years.

The last date for bid submission is February 25, 2019. The techno-commercial bidding will open on February 26, 2019.

To be eligible to bid for the project, a bidder should have designed, supplied, installed and commissioned grid-connected solar projects of cumulative installed capacity of 12 MW or higher, out of which at least one project should be of at least 10 MW capacity.

In order to participate in this tender, the average annual turnover of the bidder should not be less than ₹563 million (~$7.91 million) in the last three financial years.

In the last couple of months, NTPC has issued a bouquet of floating solar tenders one after another for its various sites across the country.

Recently, it issued a tender for 20 MW of grid-connected floating solar project at its Anta gas power station in Rajasthan.

In December 2018, the NTPC had issued three tenders for floating solar project- 100 MW at NTPC Ramagundam, located in Telangana; 25 MW   at NTPC Simhadri, located in Andhra Pradesh; and 20 MW at the reservoir of NTPC Auraiya gas power plant.

Floating solar projects have become an attractive option for agencies in regions where land accessibility for large-scale solar projects poses a threat to the expansion of solar.

According to a market report “Where Sun Meets Water” produced by the World Bank Group and  the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), the global potential of floating solar is estimated to be around 400 GW. As per the report, floating solar capacity has grown from 10 MW in 2014 to 1.1 GW in 2018.

Image credit: Sungrow