Azure Power announced the commissioning of its largest (100 MW) solar plant under India's National Solar Mission (NSM) policy in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Azure Power had won this project under the NSM Phase-2 Batch I to supply power to Solar Energy Corporation of India, for 25 years.
With the commissioning of this project, Azure Power is now the single largest owner and operator of solar PV projects under the NSM with a cumulative operational capacity of 142MWs under this policy. The Government of India announced the JNNSM in 2010 and has allocated solar PV projects totaling 1250MW over three tranches of 150MW, 350MW and 750MWs since. Azure Power has successfully won in all the three tranches, where 5MW, 35MW and the maximum permissible capacity of 100MW has been won and commissioned respectively under each of the three tranches. With the completion of these projects Azure Power also becomes the largest investor of solar power in the state of Rajasthan.
In a continued demonstration of its strong engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) track record, the company commissioned the plant in less than 8 months.
On this occasion, Mr. Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said, "The success of the National Solar Mission largely depends on developers like Azure Power. I congratulate Azure Power on the commissioning of the 100MW solar power plant at Jodhpur."
The 100MW solar plant is also a significant milestone for the "Make in India" solar power initiative of the company. Equipment for 60MWs has been made in India. This is the first of its kind large capacity solar power project executed exclusively with Indian technology and manufacturing. Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power said, “This is the largest capacity project under the NSM Phase-2, where the power is being sold to Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) at INR 5.45 /kWh with Viability Gap Funding. This is almost a 70% reduction in price of solar power since our first project in 2009 and we are pleased to make this contribution towards attaining grid parity for solar power.”