India Opens Tender for 500 MW Offshore Wind Project Off Gujarat

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a company of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), has launched a tender for the development of a 500 MW offshore wind project off the coast of Gujarat.

According to the tender documents, bids must be submitted by 12 December, and pre-bid meetings are scheduled for 22 October.

The project has a completion deadline of 48 months. Bidders must submit an earnest money deposit of ?3,700,000 (about EUR 39,675) per MW, according to the document.

SECI is seeking proposals to establish a 500 MW offshore wind project, with a build-own-operate arrangement. The successful bidder will enter into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with SECI for a period of 25 years. Renewable energy procured by SECI will be sold to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited.

The 500 MW offshore wind project is planned to be built in an area of 202 square kilometres in the Gulf of Khambhat off the coast of Gujarat. The wind farm should be designed for interconnection with the Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS).

Source: Solar Energy Corporation of India

The Gujarat project qualifies for Viable Gap Funding (VGF), which provides payments to the developer upon reaching specified project milestones.

In June, India approved the VGF scheme for offshore wind projects totalling USD 892 million.

At the beginning of this year, the country launched a tender for four blocks of 1 GW each on an open-access basis for the development of offshore wind projects off the coast of Tamil Nadu.

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In August 2023, MNRE released a new strategy that details the areas to be awarded and also proposes auction models to allocate sites for the development and construction of offshore wind projects.

The zones and sites identified by MNRE and the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) are estimated to have the potential to house a total of around 14 GW of installed offshore wind capacity, with a further 22 GW estimated to be available to be tapped into through unsolicited lease requests.