The Indian government is reportedly planning to conduct an auction for about 4GW of wind power projects for the financial year 2017-18.
The Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI), the public sector unit could hold the auction, which is part of the government’s plan to install wind power capacity of 60GW by 2022 in the country.
The 4GW auctions could take place in various phases this year, with the first auction to be held in the next month, SECI managing director Ashvini Kumar told PTI.
Kumar was quoted by the news agency as saying: "We have planned to set up about 4 GW of wind power capacities through auction route. The auction would be done in batches. The first batch of such auction is being planned next month."
Kumar also said that from next year onwards, there will be auctions of 5-6GW of wind power capacity every year to meet the target of 60GW.
The government has finalized to conduct the auction through bidding process as an initial wind power auction that was held this February witnessed the tariffs reaching an all time low of INR3.46 ($0.05) per unit.
In February, India’s Minister for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal had hinted at launching such auctions due to a drop in tariffs.
Presently, the country has installed wind power of about 28.7GW. Globally, India ranks fourth after China, US and Germany in terms of wind power capacity.
India plans to have a total renewable energy capacity of 175GW, out of which 60GW would be wind by the year 2022.
Image: India to auction 4GW wind power this year. Photo: Courtesy of Jim Frech/FreeImages.com.