MNRE Official Indicates India’s First Offshore Wind Tender By June End

A top official of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has announced that India may float its first offshore wind energy tender in the coming four to six weeks. The information has been shared by MNRE Joint Secretary Dinesh Jagdale during a side event of the Energy Transitions Working Group of the G20 Presidency of India in Mumbai. The announcement comes even as his ministry has set a trajectory of 8 GW of onshore wind energy auctions each year.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), together with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) hosted the official side event, ‘Low-cost Finance for New & Emerging Energy Technologies.’

At the discussions, MNRE Secretary Bhupinder Singh Bhalla said that the first phase of offshore wind projects will come up along the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The combined potential is of 70 GW. Industry experts have maintained that it will be 2030 before India witnesses a significant presence of Offshore Wind energy in its energy mix. A tender by June or even July would probably lead to the first installtions by 2026 or even 2027, if all goes well.

Last year, MNRE Minister RK Singh said that bids for 2,000 MW offshore wind energy projects in India could be invited soon as he requested global investors to participate and invest in the offshore wind projects. He said that bids for 1,000 MW in Gujarat and 1,000 MW in Tamil Nadu were being considered.

Indian Government wants to install 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030 and this will include about 140 GW from wind power.

The central government or MNRE is mulling seabed lease tenders that would culminate into 37 GW capacity by the end of this decade. The state governments of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are keen on purchasing offshore wind power. They have shown interest in purchasing the green power at a competitive tariff rate of Rs 4 for every unit for the initial wind projects. Readers will recall that onshore wind energy in India ran into a tariff challenge when discoms refused to purchase power above Rs 3 levels leading to unreasonable bids by many players that could not be fulfilled. Now, the reverse auction mandate has been relaxed for wind energy tenders to avoid such a situation.

The Side Event

The report “Low-Cost Finance for Energy Transition” prepared by IRENA in collaboration with the MNRE under G20’s India Presidency, was also unveiled at the G20 ETWG side event. The report provides a comprehensive toolbox to increase the availability of low-cost capital in G20 countries and beyond.

“The global energy transition requires a rapid scale-up of renewable energy deployment globally, making access to low-cost finance urgently vital,” said IRENA Deputy Director-General Gauri Singh.