India will tender 77 GW of solar energy by March 2020

The India government plans to achieve 100 GW of solar capacity by the end of March 2022. But as progress has been slow, the India government has begun speeding forward the process to ensure that it will be achieved in the next few years.

India new energy and renewable energy minister RK Singh recently announced that the government will open tender for 77 GW of solar capacity by the end of March 2022.

Specifically, the government of India has already announced that they tendered 3.6 GW for the fiscal year 2017-18. In the next four months, the government of India will tender 3 GW, 3 GW, 5 GW and 6 GW of solar power, the total number is 17 GW.

In the 2018-19 fiscal year and fiscal year 2019-20, the government of India will seperate bids for 30 GW respectively. Until March 31, 2020, the government of India will bid for 77 GW of solar power. The winning developers will launch all projects before the end of March 2022.

On the basis of the established solar park plan, the ground installation project may move forward. Singh also said that research has been completed to build large-scale floating solar projects in Bhakra Nangal dam. The state hydropower company of India also announced that they plan to build a 600-MW floating solar power project on the 1960-MW koyana hydropower project. Several similar projects are likely to occur in the near future.

If the India government insists on the bidding plan, and it could be able to sell 77 thhousand MW by March 2020. India may exceed the target of 100 thousand MW. As of October 31, 2017, India's solar power capacity is 15.6 thousand MW.

On the other hand, the development of rooftop solar energy has made little progress. According to the plan, India will achieve 40 GW of rooftop solar power installed capacity by the end of March 2022, this is a part of the 100GW target. As of September 30th, India rooftop solar installation capacity was only 790 megawatts, accounting for 5.3% of the national solar installed capacity.