SoftBank grabs a chunk in India's wind power pie

Softbank has bagged the largest chunk of a 1,200 MW wind power tender concluded Friday, which has marked the company’s foray into the wind sector at a time when constraints around availability of land and transmission infrastructure are pressing.

Adani and Ostro Energy, which was acquired by ReNew Power last year, have also bagged a significant capacity of the tender floated by the Solar energy corporation of India (SECI) in December last year.

The two companies, however, emerged as the lowest bidders for the tender quoting a price of Rs 2.82 per unit, for 250 MW and 300 MW respectively.

Softbank-led SB Energy, which bagged 325 MW of the 600 MW capacity it had bid for in the techno-commercial bid stage earlier this month (See ET February 6th edition), quoted a tariff of Rs. 2.83 per unit.

The tender in question was oversubscribed by around 1,200 MW in the techno-commercial stage.

The reserve price, which is essentially the maximum permissible tariff in a tender, was set at RS 2.85 per unit. Srijan Energy and Powerica also quoted Rs. 2.82 per for 150 MW and 50 MW capacity respectively.


Ecoren Energy India bagged 125 MW capacity quoting Rs 2.83 per unit.

Developers, however, have been careful of bidding too aggressively in the tender, as the winning tariffs are only marginally lower than the reserve price.

“The wind sector which is in deep trouble but the government is working to address our concerns. Wind turbine manufacturers and project developers alike have been conservative,” said an executive of an IPP, who did not wish to be quoted.

Gujarat, which has some of the best wind sites in the country, has seen the state government delay the allotment of land for previous centrally-auctioned wind projects.

“The developers have taken the land issues into account while quoting the tariff,” the executive quoted earlier said.

Softbank, which has so far been absent from India’s wind energy sector, and is present only in the solar business, is on an expansion drive, an industry expert said on the condition of anonymity.

Last year, the company also won 450 MW project capacity in the country’s first solar-wind hybrid tender, along with Adani Green Energy-arm Mahoba Solar, which won 390 MW capacity.