Is India’s cheap renewable energy dream turning into a nightmare?
Acme Solar, the brightest emerging star in the country’s solar map, has cancelled its contract with state-owned Solar Energy Corp of India (SECI) to supply power at the lowest tariff of Rs 2.44 invoking the force majeure clause on account of project delays and uncertainty over the current pandemic as imports from China, the key global input supplier, has come to a halt.
The cancellation of the deal has come to light with Acme filling a petition with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission to prevent encasing of Bank Guarantee by SECI due to cancellation of the contract. The development comes at a time when IEEFA recently commented in a report, citing Acme’s low tariff, that cost of solar power in India has now turned nearly 50 percent cheaper than electricity generated by imported coal-fired plants, as reported in our April issue.
The winning bid of 2.44 rupees to set up a 200 megawatts (MW) capacity in Rajasthan in 2017 is the lowest solar tariff discovered in a reverse auction in India which dragged down solar energy prices in India making it a major competitor to the costly and sometimes polluting thermal electricity.
Reason for cancellation
This story is from the May 2020 edition of Coal Insights.
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This story is from the May 2020 edition of Coal Insights.
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