India PV News Snippets

RIL wants up to 3.5 GW solar for green hydrogen: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) estimates about 3 GW to 3.5 GW of solar energy to produce 400,000 tons of green hydrogen at its electrolyzer gigafactory planned to come up in Gujarat (see Indian Billionaire Wants 4 New Energy Gigafactories). The company’s President, Refining and Petchem R&D, Madhukar Garg announced this at the 4^th assembly of the International Solar Alliance. He also shared of the 4 gigafactories RIL plans to establish, the solar module fab will initially have 20 GW of integrated silicon to module capacity on annual basis.

500 MW/1,000 MWh standalone BESS: The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is seeking feedback to draft request for selection (RFS) documents for a 500 MW/1,000 MWh standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) tender it wants to launch. This capacity will need to be set up in India under global competitive bidding and is open to global corporations. SECI wants to have this capacity set up as interstate transmission system (ISTS) pilot projects. Last date to submit feedback is October 27, 2021 with a pre-bid meeting scheduled for October 28, 2021. Basis stakeholder comments, the agency will come out with final tender document at a later date. Stating the reason for launching this exercise, SECI said, “SECI has received interest from prospective Buying Entities across the country, to utilize energy storage systems, on a ‘On-Demand’ basis, suited to their requirements during the peak and off-peak hours.”

L&T aims for carbon neutrality by 2040: Indian multinational EPC and infrastructure company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has declared its goal to become a carbon neutral entity by 2040, and pointed out it is ahead of the 2050 target set by the Paris Agreement. It will also aim for water neutrality by 2035. Currently, it said more than 10% of its total electricity consumed comes from renewable sources of energy.

SECI’s 2.5 GW RTC power auction: SECI has selected 5 companies for its 2.5 GW auction under which it is seeking round-the-clock (RTC) power from grid-connected renewable energy projects to be bundled with coal power. Hindustan Thermal Projects quoted INR 3.01 ($0.040) per kWh for 250 MW, Greenko Energies secured 1.001 GW for INR 3.18 ($0.042) per kWh, ReNew Sameer Urja won 600 MW for INR 3.19 ($0.042) per kWh, and Power Mech Projects won 550 MW for INR 3.30 ($0.044) per kWh. JSW Neo won 99 MW for INR 3.45 ($0.046) per kWh, according to Mercom India Research. Selected companies will have to match the L1 tariff for the letter of award (LOA) to be issued. Originally launched as a 5 GW renewables tender in March 2020, Mercom said its capacity was lowered to 2.5 GW by SECI in August 2020 (see SECI Launches 5 GW RE Tender For RTC Power Supply).