The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is looking to auction close to 3 GW of wind power projects by the end of this fiscal. The ministry is also in the final stages of drafting separate bidding guidelines for auctioning wind power projects.
MNRE officials said the guidelines would be a broad document addressing key concerns and be the touchstone for bidding across states. “States would be free to modify as per their need and conditions, such as land availability and evacuation infrastructure etc.,” said a senior MNRE official.
B P Yadav, Joint Secretary, MNRE confirmed saying the bidding guidelines would ready soon. “The award of projects from next year would be as per demand basis, which we are hopeful would be healthy. During this fiscal, we should be able to award 3 GW,” he said.
MNRE also is ready to host around 40 countries on 7-9 December 2017 for the Global Renewable Energy (RE) Investors Meet and Expo (RE-INVEST 2017). R K Singh, the Minister of State for Power and MNRE said asked the investors to invest in renewables citing that the equipment prices will come down further.
“Our per capita consumption of energy is about one 6th of Europe and one 12th of USA. Energy consumption is not going to double or triple but it will be over four times. That is how the rate of growth of energy consumption will be in India,” Singh said.
This is the second RE-Invest after its inaugural version in 2015. RE-Invest was India’s first of the kind investment congregation for renewable energy industry held in February 2015.
Against the NDA government's target of 1.75 lakh MW of clean energy by 2022, the participants - state & private alike had committed 2.75 lakh MW of renewable capacity during the same time. Close to 319 private companies – domestic and foreign participated in the event along with odd 15 PSUs which committed 15,000 MW. State-owned thermal giant NTPC led the pack with 10,000 MW alone.
Talking about the progress of the commitments, MNRE Secretary Anand Kumar said, “Out of the commitments of about Rs 4 lakh crore funding from the financal institution, including public and private sector banks, during RE-Invest 2015, around Rs 1.37 lakh crore has been disbursed.”
On the sidelines of the RE- INVEST 2017, the founding ceremony of the International Solar Alliance and Solar Summit has been scheduled for December 8-9, 2017. The Prime Minister of India, President of France, and the Secretary-General of United Nations are learnt to be attending the ISA Founding Ceremony.