CSP World

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), an Indian public company, plans to call for bids for four pilot Concentrated Solar Power projects, according to information published by The Hindu Business Line.

The investment required for the projects planned by government-run SECI will be Rs 2,555 crore (about $460 million). An international competitive bidding process could start within a year. Plants would receive a Feed-in-Tariff of Rs 5.83 per kWh ($0.10 per kWh) for a 25 years period, the paper says.

Projects will be located at Gujarat (35 MW), Rajasthan (40 MW), Tamil Nadu (25 MW) and Andhra Pradesh (20 MW), according to the newspaper. The projects would look to test and improve the CSP technology, Rajasthan project will use a hybrid cooling system, the one in Gujarat will increase operating temperatures, of over 500 degrees Celsius. The other two plants will focus on heat storage, the paper reported.

This new call for bids has not been published at Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's website yet, so there is no official information about the proposed bidding process.