The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has released a country-wide list of lowest prices from the 500 MW rooftop capacity auction. The list reveals some of the lowest tariffs ever quoted for rooftop projects including subsidies.

SECI sources told Mercom that tariffs quoted in the ‘special category states and islands’ were much lower than those quoted in ‘general category states’ due to a huge gap of 30 to 70 percent for the subsidies provided. Due to SECI breaking down the auction into different categories, the number of bidders participating in the auction has increased and this coupled with the reverse competitive bidding process, lead to the some of the lowest quoted bids in this rooftop auction.

According to a government policy document, based on the lowest project cost quoted for each state by the bidders, SECI will provide the general category states a subsidy of 30 percent of the quoted project cost or Rs.22.5 (~$0.3377)/W, whichever is lower. Special category states and islands will receive a subsidy of 70 percent of the quoted project cost or Rs.52.5 (~$0.7881)/W. Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, North-Eastern states, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Daman & Diu, Puducherry, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Chandigarh fall under this special category – states and islands.

SECI also added that after the initial tender launch, an amendment to the capacities allocated under various categories had been made, with the total capacity of 500 MW divided into Part A-200 MW (Capex), Part B-200 MW (Resco) and Part C-100 MW (Capex).

The Indian government has set an installation of 100 GW of solar by 2022 with rooftop making up 40 GW.

Image Credit: SECI