February 9, 2015: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has issued 3 three to set up a complete solar unit for 750MW. The solar facility will be developed in 3 batches of 250MW each. Every batch of 250MW will be, in turn, converted in to projects of 50MW capacity each.
The centre’s plan to sharply expand large scale solar power capacity via state-owned entities has finally started to take a complete form.
As per the essentials of the tenders, the companies which are selected to develop projects after the finalisation of bidding process are mandated to use PV modules that are manufactured in India. The requirement is akin to the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) which was seen at the auctions held by the central government under the National Solar Mission.
According to DCR, project developers are mandated to procure modules that are entirely manufactured in India. Solar PV wafers and starting substrates can be imported but all the modules, crystalline or thin-film have to be assembled in India only.