The Green Energy Development Corporation of Odisha Limited (GEDCOL) has floated a tender 16.65 MW of grid-connected solar rooftop projects across 17 cities.

The cities include Hirakud, Rourkela, Baripada, Burla, Balasore, Sambalpur, Balangir, Bhadrak, Bhubaneshwar, Nabrangpur, Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda, Brahmapur, Chatrapur, Khurda, and Puri.

The projects will be developed on a build, own, operate (BOO) basis, and the scope of work will also include the operation and maintenance of the solar systems for 25 years.

The last date for the submission of bids is April 17, 2020, and a pre-bid meeting will take place on March 16, 2020. Interested bidders will have to put down ₹8.5 million (~$118,407) as bid security.

The successful bidder will develop, operate, and maintain the systems on the rooftops of their choice from the list of state government buildings identified by GEDCOL.

The net worth of an interested bidder should be at least ₹250 million (~$3.48 million) in the last financial year. In the case of a consortium, the financial criteria must be met collectively by all members of the consortium with a minimum of 50% net worth to be demonstrated by the lead member.

Regarding the technical criteria, the bidder should have some experience of developing and commissioning rooftop solar power projects of at least 5 MW capacity in the last three years.

In November last year, the Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) invited tenders for rooftop solar projects of various capacities across 313 fire stations in the state. The projects, with a cumulative capacity of about 1,728 kW, are expected to cost around ₹179.5 million (~$2.5 million).

Earlier, Aditya Aluminium, which is a unit of the Aditya Birla Group, set up a 24 MW solar power project at Lapanga in the state’s Sambalpur district. The project is a part of Odisha government’s ambition of installing renewable energy capacity of 2,750 MW, out of which 2,200 MW will be from solar energy. The project is spread across 144 acres of land, with an investment of ₹1.51 billion (~$21.2 million).

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Odisha is one of the least developed states in terms of solar power. The state has 386.5 MW of solar projects in operation, and 83 MW of solar projects are under development.

Image credit: Azure Power