India's solar tendering dives to 13.8 GW in Q1 - Mercom

• India saw a spike in solar tender announcements in the first quarter of 2023, while auction activity went down, according to data from Mercom India Research last week.

Solar tenders provided in the quarter by different agencies in the country completed 13.8 GW, up 43% quarter-over-quarter and also 172% year-over-year. Announcements were led by Rajasthan Urja Vikas Nigam (RUVNL), Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) as well as Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

The numbers consist of pure solar, solar-wind hybrid and round-the-clock tenders (RTC), including solar.

Mercom stated that the average quarterly capacity tendered over the last year is consistent with the fad in 2018 and 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were 820 MW of solar auctions in the quarter, down quarter-over-quarter.

Contrasted to a year back, the decrease was 69%. It was attributed to unpredictability around the suspension of the Accepted List of Models as well as Suppliers (ALMM) policy, which was aimed at spurring residential manufacturing.

The Indian government recently introduced strategies to release tenders for 50 GW of renewable resource capacity each year in the adhering to 5 financial years.