The West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA) has issued a tender for setting up 2 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar PV projects under residential, institutional and social sectors in the state.

Under the residential, institutional and social sectors, central financial assistance (CFA) of 30 percent of the project cost will be provided, based on the discovered rate or actual project cost (whichever is lesser).

The cost discovered for the rooftop solar projects with capacity ranging between 10-100 kW, is ₹48,998 (~$701.06)/kWp while for 5-10 kW, it is ₹40,820 (~$584.05)/kWp.

The minimum capacity of the rooftop power projects will be 5 kW. Out of cumulative capacity of 2 MW, 1.65 MW of rooftop projects will be sized between 10 kW and 100 kW. The remaining capacity of 350 kW will consist of projects between 5-10 kW.

The projects must be completed before June 25, 2019.

Any customer who is eligible for availing the CFA may go for the procurement of rooftop solar projects and submit the proposal through the empaneled vendors.

WBREDA will not award any work to any vendor but provide an allotment to execute work against the order directly receivable from the eligible and intending customers.

Recently, Mercom reported about WBREDA issuing a tender to install 11 MW of rooftop solar power systems. While 900 of these installations would come with 10 kW of capacity, 100 rooftop grid-connected solar power projects would have 20 kW of capacity and installed at various organizations in West Bengal.

Earlier, WBREDA tendered 2 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar projects to be developed on customers’ premises in residential, institutional, and social sectors. The grid-connected rooftop solar PV projects were divided into two categories; Type A would have system size range of 5 kW to 10 kW and benchmark cost of ₹60 (~$0.858)/W, Type B would have system size range of 10 kW to 100 kW and benchmark cost of ₹55 (~$0.78)/W.

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer