Sonali Solar Wins Bid on 5 MW Solar Project in Andhra Pradesh

Feb. 26, 2013 - PRLog -- Andhra Pradesh, India - After placing a bid for the government solar project, Sonali Solar has announced that it has won the contract to supply modules for a 5 MW solar installation being purchased by the Andhra Pradesh Government.
The local State Government opened up bidding to install 1,000 MW of solar power. With the last day to submit bids on February 15th, the government received more than 290 bids from 184 bidders. Each bidder was capped at 20 MW, allowed to be spread across several sites.
The majority of the bids have been proposed to be installed in Medak, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar, all nearby to Hyderabad. In addition, Sadashivpet, Alair and Zaheerabad have also been proposed to house some of the projects.
With local governments investing their interest in renewable energy, Sonali Solar plans to install 100 MW in government projects over the next two years. With their production capacity doubling over the next year, this allows Sonali to become a large part of the governments solar portfolio.
Andhra Pradesh plans to purchase the electricity from the solar power plants through power purchase agreements. APTransco, the states local transmission utility, has established a list of which substations are appropriately suitable to transmit solar power, and how much each can handle.
Andhra Pradesh joins states Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan as places with prominent solar initiatives. With 200 MW in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are both looking to install 1,000 MW each. While Andhra Pradesh received bids for 1,350 MW of solar power, Tamil Nadu only received bids for 490 MW.
According to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, in a state with a rising power deficit, it will be crucial to complete a range of renewable energy project. The government plans to focus on early project completion, and quickly working out any roadblocks towards finishing the projects. Sonali Solar’s President and CEO, Pankaj Desai, says that “with a strong push towards green energy, the government will need to facilitate project approvals, and remove all red-tape, to ensure that projects are able to progress at a reasonable pace.”