Marking its debut in the Indian solar sector after its investment announcement of $20 billion, Japan’s Soft Bank won its first solar power project in India. The Japanese firm won the 350 megawatt (Mw) project, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (NSM), through its joint venture (JV) company SBG Cleantech. SBG Cleantech bid the lowest tariff of Rs 4.63 per unit to win the entire tendered capacity of 350 Mw. This is the lowest bid this year for solar power. Last month, US firm Sun Edison had won a 500-Mw solar power park in Andhra Pradesh at the same tariff.

In June this year, SoftBank had tied up with Foxconn and Bharti Enterprises to invest in the Indian solar energy sector, committing $20 billion. This is its second bid participation after the AP solar park and the first win for any power project through its JV, SBG Cleantech, headquartered in New Delhi.

Of the 100 gigawatt (Gw) target set by the PM, the SoftBank venture will look at solar power generation of 20 Gw. The investment will be made through the next 10 years. Acceleration will depend on the support of the central and local governments, and NTPC. According to market experts, the recent bids show there are only 10-12 developers who have the appetite to continuously try and take up large projects at current tariff levels, which has gone below Rs 5 a unit.

The government and power distribution companies must be happy about the results and this might be good for continued policy support for new allocations across India. With such results, the states are likely to be much more willing to allocate land to solar parks and take the NSM route to attract solar investments.

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