Gujarat Plans To Add 40MW By Solarising Govt Buildings

Gujarat Plans To Add 40MW By Solarising Govt Buildings

The Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) has now planned to add 40 MW of new solar capacities by solarising its government buildings. In its one of the recent tenders, GEDA sought bidders who can form a Joint Venture with the government to install rooftop solar on government buildings.

As per the mandate, the state nodal agency has mandated the use of polycrystalline/mono-PERC modules with capacities not below than 335 Wp.  The GEDA tender mandated the bidders to ensure a Capacity Utilization Factor (CUF) of 17% and also asked the prospective companies to take care of the cleaning of the modules for 25 years. The government has decided to give an upfront capital support of Rs 2 crore per MW to the solar company to reduce the competitive tariff through the tendering process.

“Project developer shall form an SPV company with Government Department who owns the government buildings in ratio of 70% debt & 30% equity wherein 26% equity shall be hold by government consumer (Government Department who owns the government buildings) and 74% equity shall be hold by Project Developer.,” the tender from the Gujarat’s renewable agency said.

“The project developer/ SPV shall be responsible to complete all project activity such as technical feasibility, registration of project, TFR generation and payment to DISCOM (estimate generation and payment to DISCOM), Single Line Diagram (SLD) drawing, submission and approval to CEI, and application submission and approval of CEI for charging of system, and commissioning of the system, meaning commencement of injection of power to the grid within the period of 150 days,” it said.

Mandated CUF

“It shall be sole responsibility of the bidder/ project developer to clean the modules throughout the 25 year of project life and design the plant such that it can be ensured the CUF more than 17% (i.e. 4.02 Kwh per KW per Day) at any time during 25 years of project tenure to be measured at inverter side with respect to DC Capacity installed, until the end of 25 year, inclusive of degradation, if any, of the module and /or inverter. The bidder/ project developer shall ensure shadow free installation and easy access to the system monitoring, repairs/replacement of system component etc.,” the Gujarat rooftop solar tender said.

The latest tender, however, is in contrast to several other conventional tenders across India, when the demand is often for more higher efficient mono-PERC solar modules with higher Wp. The tender also said that the module should be complied with the latest ALMM order. The latest ALMM, however mandates the use of solar modules which have a minimum efficiency of 19.5 percent for rooftop solar projects. The state agency, meanwhile, issued around eight tenders, postponing the last date of the tenders. Gujarat rooftop solar story, however is inspiring for the country. Gujarat, is however, India’s leading state when it comes to the adoption of rooftop solar, which is apparently fueled by the pro-solar policies of the state and cooperation of the discoms in the region.