Coal India Tenders For Partners To Build A 4 GW PV Ingot-wafer-cell-module Manufacturing Plant

State-owned Coal India Limited has invited requests for qualification (RFQ) from prospective equity partners who wish to be shortlisted for setting up 4 GW solar PV ingot-wafer-cell-module manufacturing plant. The move is significant considering all the solar manufacturing in India is focused on cells and modules, besides mounting structures. The complete value chain, from ingots to wafers to cells and modules is simply not available, and many industry players have pointed out the risks from this. Reliance seems to be the only other firm that seems to be considering and capable of executing this at scale. Coal India, which has the cash flows, balance sheet size and ability to pull this off with the right partner, if it does it well, would be a very successful diversification from its coal mining business, where it is the world’s largest coal miner.

The giant PSU has a 3 GW target for solar power capacity development in the meantime for 2024.

Based on the responses received from this RFQ, CIL may run a subsequent selection process, shortlisted players will discuss proposed partnership with CIL followed by a Request for Proposal (RFP) process for final selection of the equity partner.

The selected equity partners will perform a variety of roles in collaboration with CIL, including providing equity investment in the proposed plant; selecting technology partner(s), engineering consultant(s), environmental consultant(s), etc.; securing project financing; monitoring and reviewing project development activities and ensuring project execution as per timelines; etc.

Some of the criteria to be fulfilled by successful candidates are as follows:

• The applicant must be in existence in solar business in India for a minimum period of the last five consecutive financial years just preceding the financial year in which the application has been submitted.
• The Applicant entity shall not be under corporate insolvency resolution process.
• The Applicant entity should not be currently debarred or blacklisted by GoI or CPSEs of GoI. It should not have employed any public servant dismissed or person convicted for an offence involving corruption or abetment of such offences.
• The net worth of the applicant must be minimum Rs. 2,000 Crores as of the latest audited balance sheet which must not be older than eighteen months immediately preceding the due date of submission of this RFQ.
• Revenue from operations of the applicant in any of last three financial years (FY 2019, 2020 and 2021) must be greater than Rs. 3,000 crores.
• The applicant entity or group must have both solar cell and module manufacturing plants, operational or under-development, in India with minimum production capacity of 100 MW/annum.
• The applicant entity or group must have solar projects in pipeline in EPC or developer mode.
• The applicant must have the intent to enter into polysilicon and ingot-wafer manufacturing business in India.

A summary of the proposed schedule for RFQ is shown below:

A complete set of RFQ Documents can be downloaded from CIL’s website (https://www.coalindia.in).