Big step for energy programme: Storage battery at 750-MW Andhra Pradesh solar plant likely.

India's solar energy programme is taking the next big step by including storage facility in a project being offered. Although the move is seen raising cost, it will set India's ambitious renewable energy programme on a firm footing.

For the first time, solar storage will be part of a tender that staterun Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will float in the next few days for 750 MW of installed capacity at Ananthapuramu Solar Park in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.

It is the first hybrid tender of the SECI in which every bidder will have to include a small storage system alongside its solar plant, adding up to a total of 100 MW installed storage capacity. 'This tender is probably the first of its kind in the world,' said Ashvini Kumar, managing director of SECI.


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