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Wind solar hybrid technology gains momentum in India
Wind solar hybrid technology gains momentum in India

July 2, 2021

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Wind-solar hybrid (WSH) projects have gained increasing attention as they allow optimising the use of land and grid resources.

 

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) first announced its national wind-solar hybrid policy in 2018, stipulating a minimum single-technology share of 25% for a project to be defined as a WSH. Under the policy, WSH projects are required to have a common grid interconnection point and can be submitted as greenfield, as well as brownfield projects subject to a minimum capacity utilisation factor (CUF). Many state governments followed suit by releasing their own WSH policies, offering additional waivers in the form of duty or charge exemptions.

 

In total, more than 15GW of capacity has already been issued for WSH projects, of which 6.26GW has been allocated and is expected to come online by 2023.The awarded capacity represents at least 4GW of wind as the bid winners are expected to have a larger wind component in order to meet the guaranteed CUF requirement.

 

The value proposition of wind-solar hybrids

 

For most states in India, solar and wind generation are complementary: solar generation is available only during the day and cannot support evening load peaks, whereas wind generation is flat during the day and picks up in the evening, providing peak support.

 

This also allows the technologies to use the same transmission infrastructure without the need for capacity upgrades, leading to further reduction in land requirements and fixed project costs. A combination of wind-solar thus provides a stable generation profile, which is more attractive to grid operations.

 

Another key benefit is in land utilisation: hybrid projects mean wind turbines can be installed in areas where solar farms have already acquired land or vice versa. On the technical front, the combined projects can give a higher capacity utilisation factor to the tune of 50% (scaled to transmission capacity) compared with standalone projects.

 

And combined with storage, WSH projects can be designed to simulate the generation profile of a peaking power plant — an advantage that is valuable for utilities. 

 

Following the 2018 policy announcement, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) released its first exclusive 1.2GW wind-solar hybrid tender in mid-2018 – initially for for 2.5GW but subsequently reduced to 1.2GW. The tender adopted the policy guidelines and stipulated a minimum CUF of 40%.

 

This was followed by three further 1.2GW WSH tenders, reducing the CUF requirement to 30% for latest tender released in April 2021. The first two tenders were met with a lukewarm response due to aggressive tariff caps, but the third (tranche 3) WSH tender was fully subscribed.

 

Raising the stakes

 

In addition to these pure WSH tenders, SECI introduced two innovative tender configurations. The first of these tenders, for 1.2GW, required the bidders to offer peak power supply for a defined evening peak load period using WSH and energy storage.

 

The second tender was for 400MW and required bidders to offer round-the-clock (RTC) power by blending WSH with energy storage and offering a guaranteed minimum annual CUF of 80% (and 70% on a monthly basis). Both these tenders received overwhelming response.

 

Apart from SECI, many other private utilities and state sector companies also came out with their own WSH tenders, ranging in capacity from 55MW to 700MW. 

 

 


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