India to auction 5GW offshore wind projects in 2018

Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh today said the government plans to auction 5 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind power capacities next year.  The proposed bidding would be the first in the offshore wind power category. He also exuded confidence that the country will surpass its target of having 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022, taking it to 200 GW. "We would not only achieve the target of having 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022 but would surpass that and have at least 200 GW by then," Singh said addressing National Energy Conservation Day function here. On wind energy, he said 9 GW will be auctioned in this fiscal, which also includes already auctioned capacities. The next two fiscals will see bidding of 10 GW each. The government is also looking to auction 5 GW of offshore wind projects next year. "Our target is that we would auction at least 5 GW of offshore wind capacities next year. Survey is in progress at a location. We would start survey at two more locations and have placed order to buy equipment for that," he said. The government has already auctioned 2 GW wind capacity so far in the first and second round this year. For the third round, it has floated tender for another 2 GW last week.  Earlier this week, the government brought out norms for wind power auction. At present, wind power installed capacity is 32 GW. About solar capacities' auction he said:"In solar energy, we would auction 20 GW projects, including those already auctioned this year. Next year (2018-19), we will auction 30 GW and another 30 GW in subsequent year. This is a conservative estimate excluding floating solar capacities which would also be on the block."  The minister said India's installed power generation capacity would be 1,000 GW eventually. At present, India's total installed power generation capacity is 330 GW which includes 60 GW from renewable.  On energy conservation, he said in the Cycle-I of PAT (perform achieve trade), India avoided 6 GW capacity due to energy efficiency.  The PAT is a market-based trading scheme under National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) in National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The scheme enables industries to save energy and trade credits with those who are less energy efficient.