NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), the state-run power trader that will buy electricity from the plants, accepted 35 projects able to submit evidence that they had arranged funding, Bloomberg reports. The scheme aims to generate 20,000 MW of solar-generated energy capacity by 2022.
Deepak Gupta, Secretary of India's New and Renewable Energy Ministry, announced that all 7 solar thermal projects, which account for 470 MW of capacity or 75% of what was awarded in the December auction, made the cut.
Companies building the larger thermal projects include Reliance Power and Lanco Infratech. The latter is one of India's largest non-state power producers.
According to Bloomberg, Gupta refused to identify which two projects had been rejected, except to say that each held a license to build a 5 MW solar PV plant.
The projects face no further deadlines before commissioning, Gupta said. The 140 megawatts of photovoltaic projects that have been accepted must be completed by January. The solar thermal projects have until 2013.
