The Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) has invited bids for a 10 MW solar power project.  The project will be located in the Junagarh block of Kalahandi district.

The energy generated by the project will be accounted for the consumption of Konark town. Odisha’s department of energy would provide the land for the project.

OREDA has set the ceiling tariff of ₹2.77 (~$0.037)/kWh for the tender. This project will be developed with a maximum permissible viability gap funding (VGF) of ₹10 million (~$136,404)/MW totaling ₹100 million (~$1.36 million) for 10 MW.

The last date to submit the bids online is November 10, 2020, and the pre-bid meeting will take place on October 20, 2020.

Interested bidders will have to submit an amount of ₹1 million (~$13,640)/MW as the bid security amount.

The project will reduce the carbon footprint to the extent of 20,000 tons per annum for 25 years.

The project will be developed under the high-visibility solar applications program of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under which the projects are to developed on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis.

As per the document, the developer will have to generate a minimum of 14.9 million units/year and a maximum power of 18.3 MU/year, calculated at a capacity utilization factor of nearly 19% that will be purchased by GRIDCO.

To participate in the competitive bidding process, the bidder should have experience of commissioning ground-mounted solar projects of a cumulative capacity of 10 MW in the last three years.

Regarding the financial criteria, the bidder should have an average annual turnover of ₹5 million (~$68,202)/MW from solar business in the last three years. The bidder’s net worth should not be less than ₹10.7 million (145,952)/MW in the previous financial year.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Tender Tracker, Odisha has so far issued tenders for 1.12 GW of ground-mounted large-scale solar projects.

The project will be developed under the high-visibility solar applications program of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under which the projects would be developed on a build-own-operate basis.

Earlier in May, the central government had launched a program for the solarization of the Konark Sun Temple and the surrounding Konark town. According to MNRE, under the program, the government plans to set up a 10 MW grid-connected solar project and various solar off-grid applications such as solar trees, solar drinking water kiosks, and off-grid solar power projects with battery storage.

In August this year, OREDA invited expressions of interest for solar trees, solar street lighting systems, solar drinking water kiosks, electric rickshaws, and their charging infrastructure for the Konark Notified Area Committee.

As per Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Odisha has so far installed approximately 93 MW of large-scale solar projects while ~53W of projects are currently in the pipeline.