Thursday, October 10, 2013: Reportedly, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has released the second draft of guidelines for phase 2 of the nation’s National Solar Mission (NSM). As part of the guidelines, the body has set tentative dates for a request for selection (RfS) for 750 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to participate in the program, reported SolarServer.
Those who are interested can comment on the new draft guidelines by 10 October. The report suggests that the new phase will make use of the viability gap funding (VGF) mechanism, where developers will bid for the amount of VGF to receive, in addition to the sale of electricity at a standard tariff of Rs 4.95 to 5.45 (USD 0.080-0.088) per kWh.
MNRE has said that they will make the RfS documents available from 15 October to 21 November. The last date of submission will be 29 November, however, these are tentative dates.
RESolve Energy Consultants (Chennai, India) notes that while most aspects of the new draft guidelines for the second phase remain the same as the earlier draft, including the tariff and an upper limit for the VGF, that timelines for disbursal have changed, reports SolarServer.
As part of the new guidelines, the body will be disbursing 50 per cent of the VGF upon successful commissioning and the remaining will be issued progressively over a period of five years, which is dependent on the plant meeting generation requirements.
You can find the complete analysis and link to the new draft guidelines
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