India has officially launched the tender for its Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme tranche II through the implementing agency Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), to award INR 195 billion ($2.4 billion) to companies setting up vertically integrated solar PV manufacturing facilities in the country.
According to the request for selection (RFS) round launched, the solar PV module manufacturer (SMM) will be required to set up GW scale manufacturing capacities for high efficiency solar PV modules, with preference given to integrated plants.
Of the INR 195 billion, INR 120 billion ($1.5 billion) is reserved for basket 1 to support 29 GW fully integrated polysilicon+wafer+cell+module (P+W+C+M) manufacturing plants, followed by INR 45 billion ($551 million) for basket 2, backing 18 GW of wafers to modules projects (W+C+M), and INR 30 billion ($367 million) for basket 3, also for 18 GW of plants for integration across cells and modules (C+M).
Minimum annual capacity required is 1 GW each for all individual stages (P+W+C+M) included in the proposal, while the maximum can go up to 10 GW for P+W+C+M and 6 GW each for W+C+M and C+M categories.
Timeline for the level of integration for basket 1 is within 3 years from the date of letter of award (LOA), within 2 years for basket 2 and within 1.5 years for basket 3.
SECI added, "However, the maximum capacity that will be awarded to a single bidder under the PLI scheme, i.e. the maximum capacity which will be eligible for a grant of PLI, will be 50% of the capacity to be set up by the Bidder. This awarded maximum bid capacity will include any capacity awarded as per LoA issued by M/s IREDA under Tranche-I of the PLI Scheme for High Efficiency Solar PV Modules."
Projects can either be greenfield (new facilities with new equipment, not attached to any existing units) or brownfield (expansion of existing facilities with addition of new production lines within existing physical infrastructure) for the entire capacity.
Launched on November 18, 2022, the tender will be open to interested companies till January 9, 2023. Further details are available on SECI's website.
Tranche I of the PLI worth INR 45 billion was awarded by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) to Shirdi Sai Electricals, Reliance New Energy Solar and Adani Infrastructure to establish a cumulative 8.737 GW integrated capacity. IREDA was then replaced by SECI as the implementing agency for tranche II (see India's Solar PLI Tranche II To Be Implemented By SECI).