Indian solar energy story marked a new milestone after India topped the Asia Pacific Region (APAC) for solar photovoltaic (PV) tenders in December 2019.

According to analytics company GlobalData, with 49 percent tenders announced and a 75.4 percent share, India was No. 1 among all other countries in the region, followed by the Philippines (with six tenders and a 9.2 percent share) and Pakistan (with five tenders and a 7.7 percent share).

 the money on imports of PV cells & modules in the last five years was about three times the cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of India at US $4.83 billion that flowed into the entire renewable energy sector.

There’s no commercial production for upstream stages of solar PV manufacturing, such as wafers, ingots and polysilicon because of it being energy and capital intensive, hence the reliance on imports, The Indian Express reports.

SECI invites bids

Meanwhile, in January 2020, fresh bids were invited by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for putting up 1.2 GW of grid-connected solar power generation capacity under the eighth tranche of its inter-state transmission system program, pv magazine reported.

SECI will sign a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the successful bidders.