The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), through its implementing agency, is set to issue the first bid for leasing out offshore wind energy blocks of 4 GW capacity off the coast of Tamil Nadu in the next three-four months.
In the meeting on transmission planning for offshore wind energy projects in India, transmission and evacuation infrastructure required for offshore wind projects of total capacity 10 GW off the coasts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, was discussed. Further, a trajectory has been decided to bid out offshore wind energy blocks. Accoridng to this, a project capacity of 4 GW per year will be bid out for a period of three years starting with 2022-23 for development off the coast of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat for sale of power through open access, captive, bilateral third party sale or merchant sale. Subsequently a project capacity of 5 GW will be bid out every year for a period of five years, up till 2029-30. The project capacity of 8 GW bid out in the first two years beginning 2022-23 will also be able to avail of the benefits of green attributes like carbon credits. The bidding for the first 12 GW will be conducted on a single stage two envelope model wherein the bidders will be evaluated based on their techno-commercial capabilities and only the technically qualified bidders will proceed to financial evaluation. The financial evaluation will be based on quoted lease fee per square kilometre of sea bed area.