Indian Solar Auction Sees Foreign Developers Mostly Shut Out
- Five Indian firms dominate 500 megawatts of solar auctions
- Karnataka auction lowest bid was 4.78 rupees a kilowatt-hour
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India’s latest offering of solar capacity saw just one foreign bidder among the winners, a reversal of previous auctions when outsiders dominated, winning the right to supply clean power at record-low rates deemed by domestic developers as unrealistic.
Of the local players, RattanIndia Power Ltd., Adani Enterprises Ltd., Tata Power Co., Acme Group and ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. won 400 megawatts of the 500 megawatts of capacity auctioned off Tuesday in the south Indian state of Karnataka, Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary at the ministry of new and renewable energy, said in a phone interview. Fortum OYJ of Finland was the sole foreign winner, securing 100 megawatts of capacity.