New Delhi: Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) will on Friday call bids for setting up one giga watt (GW) of rooftop solar projects, the largest tender so far in this segment, aimed at achieving a 40 GW rooftop solar capacity by 2022, a statement from new and renewable energy ministry said on Friday.

The solar projects will be set up on the roofs of Central government buildings and will be connected to the grid to enable sale of surplus power. Capital subsidy will be available to the projects.

This comes in quick succession to SECI’s earlier tender of 500 MW capacity, which saw solar power tariff fall to a historic low of Rs3 per unit. The state-owned company has already commissioned over 54 MW capacity of rooftop solar projects.

Ministries of human resource development, finance, urban development and parliamentary affairs have committed to setting up plants in their buildings, said the statement.

Renewable energy companies investing in solar installations for government buildings will be eligible for soft loans from financial institutions and will have all their payment dues guaranteed.

Rooftop solar power generation is a key part of the total 175 GW of solar power capacity the government has targeted. The practice of renting rooftops to project developers for cheaper power supply is also gaining among residential complexes.

India has a total 8.7 GW of solar power generation capacity at the moment.

According to Mercom Capital Group, LLC, a clean energy consulting firm, the crash in module prices due to excess capacity in China is helping demand for solar power globally.

“Record installations in China followed by a slowdown resulted in an oversupply situation, which led to a module price crash. Low module prices are helping demand recovery going into 2017," a statement from Mercom Capital said, quoting Raj Prabhu, chief executive officer and co-founder.

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