Solar industry players proposes capital cost norms & tariff structure for the coming year

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission invited various players from solar industry to participate in providing their remarks for the benchmark capital costs for solar power projects (both solar photovoltaic and solar thermal) for the year 2010-12. The discussion took place at CERC court room on 10th February 2010.

Earlier in the month of January, the commission proposes  that the Benchmark Capital Cost Norm for Solar PV power projects to be commissioned during FY 2010-11 shall be Rs.1520 Lakh per MW and for Solar thermal power projects to be commissioned during FY 2010-11 and FY 2011-12 shall be Rs.1420 Lakh per MW.

Views that came out were for the tariff validity, control period, module cost and exchange rate. Majority of the organization presenters proposed that tariff validity and control period should be increase to 2 to 3 year rather than keeping it for the same year. Land acquisition should also be around 3-5 lakhs per acre. Presenters proposed that the reasonable module price should be there to get reasonable profits. For the exchange rate, suggestions came out to consider it from the RBI policy.

Another things like 10-20% lower PLF (plant load factor), different tariff for different zones, equal tariff for solar photovoltaic and solar thermal, reluctance of banks in financing scenarios, were suggested and discussed.

Source: SolarIndiaOnline.Com