New Auction Now Lights Its Way to Modi’s Green Target, Dims Coal

Record low Indian solar tariffs that tendered at groundbreaking auction may now catalyze the green investments and even help tip the balance of the new power to renewable and away from the fossil fuels.

The solar power in the nation actually fell to a record 3.30 rupees that is approximately 5 Cents (U.S) per kilowatt hour on the 10th of Feb after the World Bank supported auction assisted the central MP (Madhya Pradesh) state tender close to 750 MW of power. This auction format that had payment guarantees and that was operated by the state as well as the central governments can pretty much become a template that fuels growth in the other regions, thereby bringing energy security to the world’s 2nd most populated nation.

Basant Jain, the Director at Mahindra Renewables Pvt Ltd stated that the outcome of the tender has actually displayed that the holy grail of the grid parity has finally been discovered. Mahindra Renewable Pvt Ltd won the right for building the 250 MW of capacity in the previous week’s auction. If these auctions can actually be replicated, it will be unleashing an exponential growth in the country and also make it one of the cheapest sources of energy that is available.

India is now among the increasingly growing list of the nations that stretch from Asia to Europe that has actually used the auctions for making clean energy really affordable. The result will help the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government meet the pledges for installing the 175 GW of renewable capacity by the end of 2024 and even spur the discussion on whether the solar actually replace coal as the country’s major source of energy.

The winning bid will bring the prices of the solar power in pretty much the same range as the coal power, stated Ajay Mathur, who is one of the members of Narendra Modi’s council on climate change. As per the report on Feb 13 issued by India’s Energy & Resource Institute, solar may pass the coal and even account for all the new capacity on grid in the next 10-12 years.

Under those scenarios that are projecting high levels of green power growth and also assuming that the energy storage technology can even become a viable option beyond the year 2027, the price of electricity from the renewable energy storage actually achieves parity with the real price of the electricity that is generated from the domestic coal sources at the prices that are less than INR 5 per kilowatt-hour. India is for sure moving to that next level in terms of development.