The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has issued a tender to develop a 25 MW  floating solar project at NTPC Simhadri, located in Andhra Pradesh.

The tender allows for the project’s solar cells and modules to be sourced from anywhere in the world.

The brief scope of work includes the supply of floaters, installation, anchoring, fixing of floaters, pathways corresponding to 35 MW (minimum) along with the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of the project based on open category PV modules and cells.

The last date for bid submission is January 22, 2018. The techno-commercial bid will open on January 23, 2018.

To be eligible to bid for the project, a bidder should have designed, supplied, installed and commissioned grid connected solar PV project of cumulative installed capacity of 20 MW or higher, out of which at least one project should be of 10 MW capacity or higher.

The average annual turnover of the bidder should not be less than ₹947 million (~$13.19 million) in the last three financial years.

In the past few weeks, the NTPC has issued a series of tenders for renewable capacity addition in its portfolio. Recently, the NTPC invited bids for the development of 70 MW of floating solar PV projects at the Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project at Kayamkulam, Kerala.

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. In November 2018, Shapoorji Pallonji won the bid to develop 50 MW of floating solar project in Uttar Pradesh by quoting ₹3.29 (~$0.046)/kWh. SECI had fixed ₹3.32 (~$0.047)/kWh as the upper tariff ceiling for this tender.

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: d3energy.com